COCA-COLA | Polar Bowl | 2012
The Night 700,000 People Watched a Polar Bear Instead of the Game / Coca-Cola "Polar Bowl"
On Super Bowl night, more than 700,000 people watched polar bears instead of the actual game. Isn't that wild?
The problem
Back then, more than six in ten Super Bowl viewers were watching the game while also looking at their phones or tablets. Just running a TV commercial wasn't enough to reach them. The real challenge was how to pull people in through the screens already in their hands.
The insight
The polar bear has been Coca-Cola's icon of refreshment since 1922. The idea was to put that polar bear right in the stands, watching the game from the same seat as the human viewers.
The idea
Framestore and Blitz Games Studios built animated polar bears watching the game and drinking Coke using a game engine, keeping them moving in real time throughout the entire broadcast. They reacted to plays, the halftime show, and even other companies' commercials—dozing off whenever a rival's ad came on (the best part). Fans could watch along at CokePolarBowl.com, and Coca-Cola even took over the @CocaCola account to tweet back and forth with fans.
What happened
More than 700,000 people tuned in. At its peak, the campaign generated 5,000 tweets per minute, with 65,000 mentions recorded during the game. It won a Silver at Cannes, and the following year Coca-Cola was named "Creative Marketer of the Year."
Afterthought
It wasn't recorded. It wasn't scripted. That rawness—reacting to something happening right now—is what pulls people in. On the night 700,000 people watched a polar bear, Coca-Cola already understood, back in 2012, that advertising could become the center of the conversation.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2012
