According to the latest data from Networked Insights, Esurance has won what might be dubbed the “Conversation Bowl” with 539,610 (and climbing) conversations on Twitter — far higher than number two T-Mobile’s 309,780 conversations — with an ad that ran after the Super Bowl ended. Esurance itself now says its campaign has earned more than one billion impressions and two million tweets (see the latest stats at the end).
The company executed a timed-to-a-tee teaser campaign to drum up awareness that it would be announcing something big in an ad right after the Super Bowl. And, yes, it then delivered on that promise, stirring up the hashtag frenzy it was hoping — no planning — for.
By being the first ad to air after the Super Bowl ended, Esurance saved about 30 percent on a game-time ad slot. In the ad, everyone’s favorite funny-sweet guy, John Krasinski, announces that Esurance will pass on that savings — 1.5 million big ones — to one person who tweets using the campaign hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
[Ed. note: The video, which was previously embedded here from this URL (http://youtu.be/WgOkWDum1-s) is now set to private on YouTube.]
In the week leading up to the game, Esurance built awareness and anticipation across social media. Danny Miller, Senior Manager, PR and Communications at Esurance, says they seeded conversations on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+. The teasers had already been viewed over a million times before the game began, so many consumers knew to keep watching for their ad after the game.
On Sunday morning, John Krasinksi teased the sweepstakes again in a tweet, which Esurance then promoted.
Super Bowl Sunday!! Have a blast! And 1st commercial AFTER the game I MAY be giving something pretty cool away! Brush up your # skills! — John Krasinski (@johnkrasinski) February 2, 2014
A half-hour to kick-off, AdWeek and BuzzFeed broke the news of the sweepstakes. Their tweets captured some attention, but it was Esurance’s Promoted Tweet retweeting BuzzFeed at 6:14 PM Eastern that got the ball rolling.
We said it would be big! #EsuranceSave30 MT @BuzzFeedNews: Esurance Will Give Away $1.5 Million On Twitter http://t.co/hGN02BdgLU — Esurance (@esurance) February 2, 2014
Tweets spiked as soon as the ad aired and continue to stream in. Also wise: entries are unlimited. Miller expects (and is getting) millions of tweets. [See Update below.]
Twitter Exclusive
While the company teased the announcement on other social networks, in a sign of how far the social network has come in dominating second-screen culture and its work with brands to leverage the platform, Miller said the sweepstakes is exclusive to Twitter.
“Using Twitter is a reflection of the company being the most modern and innovative insurance company in the industry. Everything that Esurance does in insurance is smart and agile, and we’re doing it again with this sweepstakes. We are using this effort to build mindshare for Esurance as a faster, smarter, and more efficient insurance provider.”
The company is continuing to use Promoted Tweets to drive awareness for the campaign.
Danny Miller, Senior Manager, PR and Communications at Esurance
I asked Miller how what resources they have on deck to manage the buzz and the sweepstakes. “We’ve got a full team of people in place to manage the sweeps, which we expect to attract millions of entries and widespread buzz across social media and the blogosphere,” he wrote in an email. “We’re also using Mass Relevance and Sysomos, and HootSuite to help us manage the campaign, monitor the ongoing chatter and respond to consumers.”
By giving away $1.5 million, we hope to show the world that Esurance was, indeed, “built to save.” The company has certainly displayed branding savvy throughout the campaign execution. Not least of which, unlike nearly every Super Bowl advertiser last night, Esurance built the brand name into its hashtag.
Voting ends at 4 AM Eastern on Tuesday, and the winner will be announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday.
Update: The company’s gamble to air after the Super Bowl looks to be paying off in spades. Miller has just sent Marketing Land the latest campaign stats. As of about 11:00 AM Monday the sweepstakes has garnered 1 billion impressions and 2 million entries. Miller says, within 1 minute after the spot aired we received more than 200,000 entries.
#EsuranceSave30 is the top trend on Twitter and has been since the spot ran, which might be the longest time a non-promoted tweet has been in the #1 position for this long.
Esurance Twitter follower count has grown by 1100%, from 8,900 to 109,000 since the campaign began.
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