How brands seized on the Super Bowl #blackout

Sunday night’s Super Bowl proved that quick-witted and resourceful professionals can claim a huge victory by seeing an opening and seizing an opportunity. Oh, and there was a football game, too.

Throughout the night and into Monday morning, Twitter was abuzz with as much chatter about Tide and Oreo as about the victorious Baltimore Ravens. Why? Because those brands were among the clever few who took immediate advantage of a 34-minute power outage at the Superdome and garnered a huge online response.

Brand winners

On its official blog, Twitter estimated users sent a total of 24.1 million tweets during the big game, and more came during the power outage—231,500 every minute—than during any other portion except the halftime show. And why wouldn’t people turn to social media during a big lull?

That’s what the folks who run these brands’ Twitter accounts must have been thinking:

Tide posted an image promising, “We can’t get your blackout, but we can get your stains out.” It racked up more than 1,300 retweets.