The Work of Dunking in the Dark:
Leo Morejon led Oreo social media marketing internationally for three years while at the Award-Winning Digital Marketing Agency 360i.
Focusing on team leadership, community management, copywriting and strategy, Leo pioneered rapid-response, real-time social media marketing.
His and his team’s innovative work led to the now-famous Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet.
What is the Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet?
On February 3, 2013, during Super Bowl XLVII, the Oreo social media marketing team made advertising history with the “Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet.”
This distinction was made possible after years of experience, including history-making events such as the first award for the Guinness World Record in social media. (On February 15, 2011, the Oreo social media marketing team won the first record for “Most Likes on Facebook with a 24 Hour Period;” a few hours later the award was granted to rapper Lil Wayne).
The Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet occurred shortly after the lights at the stadium suddenly and unexpectedly went out.
While the stadium was covered in darkness and confusion, Leo and his team (among others) saw an opportunity to make cultural commentary and to jump into the national conversation with relevance and speed.
Thanks to years of previous experience, including coaching his clients at Oreo on social media, selecting the right teams, and understanding almost everything there is to know about Oreo cookies, Leo and his team were able to react with the necessary speed and skill to create this legendary tweet.
Almost immediately after the lights went out, the team connected eyes, and, almost like magic, with few words communicated among them, the team knew exactly what to do and quickly went into content creation mode.
Team members, including Sebastian Saldarriaga and Lexie Perez, were at the keys, Kevin Vuong was watching screen displaying of real-time metrics (such as mentions provided by Expion (social media marketing tool, now Meltwater), and the creative team developed the image.
Then, within minutes, the Oreo social media team posted the following Tweet. Shortly after, the internet and the world took notice.
What were the results of the Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet?
- Numerous awards (Cannes Lions, CLIO Awards, etc.)
- In one hour: 10,000+ Retweets, 18,000+ Likes, 5,000+ Shares
- Myriad of headlines in Over 100 countries
- Countless annoyed marketers, that now always hear it referenced and are asked, “What’s our Oreo Blackout Moment,” “Can we do what Oreo did during the Super Bowl?”
What are myths around the Oreo Super Bowl Tweet?
1. There was paid media: There was zero paid media for the Tweet.
2. Oreo was the first to Tweet about the blackout: Other brands beat Oreo to the punch, including Calvin Klein, and many other brands, like Tide, also jumped at the opportunity.
3. The Oreo social team was in the room expecting moments like this: The team’s original reason for being together that night was to support an activation, run by another agency, where fans could send in their photos and a staff of sculptors would sculpt the image using Oreo cream. The image would then be shared on Instagram.
4. One person can take credit: Heck no, besides all the people in the room, countless people worked on developing the Oreo team’s real-time marketing muscle, and countless people throughout 100+ years worked to develop the brand’s global awareness.There were lots of people in the room: There were about 10 people in the room.
How can my brand reproduce the Oreo Super Bowl Tweet?
It can’t. To name a few factors, Oreo is a 100+ years old brand and social media was in a different place back then.
However, there is a lot to benefit from real-time social media and understanding more about what made the Oreo Super Bowl Blackout Tweet possible, and for that reach out to Leo for support.
