We created a real, epic Super Bowl ad, but only showed it to one single person.

Instead of yet another ad seeking the approval of millions, our Super Bowl commercial would be tailored to earn the love of only one – a real teenage Skittles fan from Canoga Park, CA named Marcos Menendez.

The idea came to life in three phases, each timed and engineered to steal the attention of existing Super Bowl conversations.

As other brands were unveiling their own traditional Super Bowl TV ads, we released an announcement film on social channels, sharing our ridiculous idea and introducing Marcos to the world.

As press built around the most Exclusive Super Bowl Ad ever, we released 4 baffling teaser ads featuring David Schwimmer, encouraging people to guess which was an actual scene from the Super Bowl Ad they would never get to see.

Finally, on Super Bowl Sunday, as ad conversation peaked, we live-streamed Marcos watching the ad on Facebook Live. They watched in real time as Marcos saw the surprise lengths we went to to customize the ad for him - a doppelganger lead actor, his Mom and best friend in the ad, even secretly filming a scene inside his house.

The campaign had clear business impact for the brand, driving a 7% lift in Skittles Originals sales over the course of its 5-week run (in a category that was declining 4%).

It shattered our total impression goal (687 MM), delivering a full 1.5 billion earned impressions, and exceeding our specific earned reach goal by over 354%.

In fact, when compared to 2017 (when Skittles had an actual Super Bowl ad buy to drive the conversation…) our 2018 campaign exceeded earned media impressions in the lead-up to Game Day by over 10%.

Just as satisfying, in Business Insider/Amobee’s tracking of “the top 10 buzziest commercials of Super Bowl 2018,” our Skittles work drove the 6th- most digital content engagement of any brand– beating out several actual in-game Super Bowl advertisers outspending us by large amounts.