It’s not a surprise that the social media teams of major brands were on high alert during Sunday’s Super Bowl. With investments in 30 second advertising spots running in the neighbourhood of $4 million during the broadcast, it was paramount that reaction to ads be tracked (and possibly responded to) in real-time.

When a blackout affected half the stadium in the third quarter, delaying the game was delayed for 34 minutes, a few savvy social media teams jumped into the fray with some witty, well-timed tweets.

Audi poked fun at fellow German automaker Mercedes-Benz, title sponsor of the New Orleans Superdome, posting, “Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now…”. Over 9,000 retweets followed.

Tide responded with, “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower”, linking to an image associated with their Stain Saver campaign.

Probably the best response came from Oreo, “Power out?” Oreo posted to Twitter. “No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.”, with a link to an image of an Oreo lit up in a spotlight. The tweet went on to be retweeted 10,000 times within the next hour.

While the three brands mentioned here all invested heavily in their traditional spots, these off-handed remarks captured significant attention with those of us engaged with Twitter as a second screen experience.

[via Advertising Age]