DICK’S Sporting Goods Super Bowl #8bitreplay.
About a week before the Super Bowl, DICK'S Sporting Goods came to us and asked us if we could put together an engaging Super Bowl social campaign in very little time and for very little money. We agreed, and after a little bit of ideating, decided that we'd like to try to, in some fun or memorable way, re-create the best plays and moments from the game in real time, thus keeping our followers engaged with us throughout the entire game. Taking our demo (and our personal preferences as well as zero budget) into account, we decided to re-create them in classic old school video game style (think Tecmo Bowl).
We created the players, field, end zones - really everything - from scratch, pre-designed roughly 75 possible scoring templates to hasten the process on game night, and fostered a bunch of account team concern. Ultimately, with a bunch of hustling during game time, ended up pulling this pretty ambitious endeavor off, to the delight of both our DICK'S clients and fans alike. Check it out for yourself.
*The NFL has not given permission to use its footage. The above is not a client-created video but rather a personal case study.
So in the Friday and Saturday leading up to the game, we wanted to post cryptic messages on DICK'S social accounts letting folks know something (clearly 8-bit/video game-style) was happening without completely showing our hand but still drumming up interest.
Initial pre-game teaser post
Second pre-game teaser post
Then, once the telecast began in earnest, we thought the most realistic place to kick off our 8-bit replays would be with, of course, the coin toss.
Coin Toss
As the action began, we reacted to each of the big plays we witnessed during the game and re-created them in as close to real time as possible (we got it down to about 7 minutes - from beginning of creation to post - by the second half, which we found fairly impressive).
1st TD of the game
Here's what the real-time posts looked like.
And here are some of the major highlights from the game we re-created - from the game-winning interception to the Katy Perry Halftime Show to the Lombardi Trophy Presentation. All in all, we created about 20 posts all together for this fun and crazy endeavor.
Gronk TD spike
Katy Perry Halftime Show
Huge (game-changing?) NE sack of Wilson
Insane Kearse catch
Butler game-winning INT in end zone
NE Lombardi Trophy Presentation
Last but not least, DICK'S signed off for the evening in old school 8-bit video game style.
Game Over
credits
Sr Copywriter: Mike Zuckerman
Sr Art Director / Illustrator: Adam Lock
Visual Designer / Animator: David Mitchell
CD: John Long
Agency: Huge
Client: DICK'S Sporting Goods