Big Game Blunder
Monster.com
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer BBDO Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer BBDO New York Greg Hahn Senior Creative Director Scott Rodgers Associate Creative Directors Allison Baker Rob Kleckner Art Director Allison Baker Copywriter Rob Kleckner
Production Team
Account Team Mark Mulhern Alex Woods Mitchell Wilson Digital Strategist Cody Levine
Date
February 2015
Background
Leading up to the Super Bowl, there was an opportunity to get the millions of people tapped into the game talking about Monster, while telling an authentic brand story.
Idea
In one of the closest Superbowl games in history, the New England Patriots won the 2015 Super Bowl in a nail-biting finish. People were deeply shocked that New England had won. Immediately after the game finished, Monster posted a congratulatory Tweet - to the wrong team.
However, Twitter users were looking at a cropped image. When they clicked on the image, it opened out to reveal the punch- line at the bottom: No matter why you're looking for a new job, we can help you.
Monster used the joke to show that they were able to place even Social Media Managers, a job which didn't exist a couple of years ago.
Results
Over 550,000 Twitter impressions. 1,500% increase in mentions day over day
$0 MEDIA SPEND.
Our Thoughts
Ever since Nike first ambushed the Olympics, major sporting events have been fair game for brands trying to steal audiences away from the major sponsors. This looks like a ridiculously simple way for Monster to have registered as much attention as they did.
The Super Bowl is a media splurge with a bit of football attached and what this does is puncture much of the hype. Full marks to BBDO and Monster for being cheeky, cheery and cheap.
A TV commercial in the game now costs $4.5m. That’s a lot of moolah just to be ignored (only 20% of game watchers remembered the Mercedes ad) or to be confused with someone else (25% confidently ascribed a Carnival Cruises ad to Royal Caribbean).
Rather than spend months in preparation, hours of script discussion and hundreds of thousands on production, all you need to do today to be relevant and memorable is ping out a message in 140 characters or fewer. Welcome to the modern world of advertising.