Reddit - Superb Owl (Case Study) | Campaign 1. BACKGROUND In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, a small group on Reddit, called r/WallStreetBets, took the financial world by storm, challenging the system by driving up the prices on seemingly underwhelming stocks. A media frenzy quickly ensued across the nation, including Washington, DC, sparking debate as to whether or not this was any different from what goes on at hedge funds. With a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity standing before us, Reddit had to do something to capitalize on the moment and champion the power of small groups of Reddit users to achieve incredible things. So, what better way than to hack the Super Bowl? But the Reddit community is notoriously tough and very anti-advertising, so we had to do it in a way that remained true to the brand. Oh, and we only had a week to make the commercial, from presentation to production to air. 2. DESCRIBE THE CREATIVE IDEA The idea was simple: Let’s disrupt the ad world, just like our Reddit users disrupted the financial world, by airing a 5-second, low budget commercial on the Super Bowl, proving that small groups (and small brands) can achieve some pretty massive things. 3. DESCRIBE THE PR STRATEGY Gone are the days when Super Bowl commercials would amaze us on game night, because nowadays everything is so hyped and pre-released ahead of time that it takes away any element of surprise. So, to play to the moment the Reddit brand was having, and mirror what our users had just done to disrupt the financial world the week before, with GameStop, we wanted to shock the world and make it seem like Reddit just hacked the Super Bowl too - disrupting the ad world. As the ad said, our bet paid off, because people really thought we hacked CBS, something that wouldn’t have been possible had we teased it. The press also ate it up, because it was a refreshing change of pace, to not already know everything that was going to happen before it happened, which is perhaps why we wound up with 6.5 Billion impressions. 4. DESCRIBE THE PR EXECUTION The Super Bowl is a highly crowded media landscape, making it almost impossible to stand out. With spots released weeks prior to the game, we held our cards close until the big day, airing a complete zag: a long-copy, 5-second spot with no celebrities and no special effects. In fact, it was just a jpeg. The ad came together in just four days with a lean team to keep the secret under wraps. After airing, we immediately began our media outreach with the aim of amplifying and confirming that what people thought they saw, was actually real. The disruptive hacking intro, tone and length of copy, all spoke to the Reddit community’s mindset, championing the power of small groups of passionate people to achieve amazing things, like disrupting the Super Bowl and making waves around the world, ultimately solidifying Reddit as a platform to not only watch, but join. 5. LIST THE RESULTS The spot was covered by over 300 publications and became the most watched (and re-watched) spot of the game, hauling in a staggering 6.5 billion impressions - To put that in context, that’s almost double the impressions earned by the most expensive Super Bowl ad of all time, “It’s a Tide Ad,” which ran multiple 30-second commercials throughout the entire game. Top tier publications, including The New York Times and Fast Company exalted it as the best commercial of the night, while others claimed it to be the best of all time. Reddit’s site traffic spiked by over 25% ultimately crashing the site. It was the most searched ad of Super Bowl Sunday. And we hit a record high positive social sentiment of 98%. 6. PLEASE PROVIDE BUDGET DETAILS The term “budget” should be kept in context as the Super Bowl is the most expensive media event on earth, where 30 seconds goes for $5.6 million, just for the media. But when you consider the typical production values of Super Bowl commercials, with celebrities, licensed music and epic special effects, most Super Bowl commercials cost upwards of $10 million. Compare that now to the scant one million dollar price tag on Reddit’s 5-second Super Bowl commercial, which was just for the media alone- not a single penny was spent on production. And as for “breakthrough,” Superb Owl hauled in a staggering 6.5 billion impressions, which is close to double that of the most expensive Super Bowl commercial of all time, “It’s a Tide Ad,” coming in at $17.5 million for the production alone, with several 30 second spots airing in every quarter throughout the game. Credits: - Client: Reddit - Agency: R/GA San Francisco - Awards: Grand Prix/ Titanium at the Cannes Lions 2020 - 2021 Follow me on: https://linktr.ee/hoangcao #Advertising #Marketing #CannesLions #Ads #Campaign #Creative