Spontaneity often creates life’s most memorable moments. And some of life’s biggest messes. That unpredictable combination created a perfect opportunity for Clorox.

Clorox has been making quality cleaning products for 100 years. But today’s parents have a dual income, on-the-go lifestyle. To them, Clorox means grandmothers and bleach. Cleaning simply isn’t how modern parents choose to spend their time.

Yet these same parents love to go on social media to share and laugh about the messes their little loved ones create, from epic diaper meltdowns to exploding science projects. And that was the inspiration for the first annual Clorox Ick Awards, a real-time consumer co-creation event on social media. Conducted on Twitter, the full-scale awards “show” engaged parents by bringing them together with professional comedians to celebrate true stories about life’s ickiest moments.

In keeping with our unpredictable theme, the Ick Awards were almost entirely improvised. We recruited Saturday Night Live alum and mum Rachel Dratch as host, and a talented crew of Second City performers. The one time event unfolded with live seat-of-the-pants hilarity as our Twitter audience called the performers' shots in real-time, creating 35 Ick Awards videos inspired by their real-life cleaning disasters. And it all happened within four hours.

The level of audience engagement was unprecedented. The event attracted thousands of moms and dads, and especially clicked with the socially influential parents who drive online conversation, including @HowtoBeaDad. The four hour event delivered 163 million Twitter impressions, and the Ick Awards continue to have the last laugh, delivering a mess of engaging content to Clorox branded hubs.

Plan for everything. Especially the unexpected.

We had a lot in place before our April 9 awards show. A perfect host in popular Saturday Night Live alum/mother Rachel Dratch. Social media biggies @HowToBeADad as Twitter hosts. Talented performers from Chicago’s Second City troupe to do “red carpet” interviews, musical numbers, icky re-enactments and over-the-top awards acceptance speeches. Rachel did traditional media interviews, social media influencers hyped the awards online, and the Sway Group blogger network encouraged participation. We created Golden #Ickies statues (representing five core Clorox products) to award the “winners.”

The best part: We didn’t know what would happen once it started. The Ick Awards were improvised live. Not only by Rachel Dratch and Second City, but by our real-time audience of parents, who tweeted their messes as nominees for categories like #MysteriousMess and #EpicMess, then voted for their favorite nominee videos. In just four hours, we created an unprecedented level of target audience engagement.

The “Ick Factor” pays off.

The first Clorox Ick Awards proved a huge success in building brand awareness and affinity for Clorox among socially influential parents, and producing top-tier media placements, breakthrough Twitter impression numbers for Clorox on cleaning, and hilarious branded content with still-growing viewership.

• 163+ million Twitter impressions

• 16,800+ tweets by more than 1,500 unique Twitter handles including 1,700+ retweets promoting favorite videos during the event

• 12,000 clicks on links to Ick Awards videos shared on Twitter by Clorox

• #Ickies jumped to a Twitter trending topic, along with category hashtags #MysteriousMess, #SuperParentMess, #EpicMess and #BestDateMess

• Ninety placements in traditional and online consumer lifestyle and entertainment media around the Twitter event, generating 2 million+ media impressions (OK! Online, ET Online, Star Magazine Online, WGN Morning Show, HuffPost TV, Mobile Marketer, GMA Smartbrief, MediaPost)