It started with a research-based insight: more people call out “sick” the day after the Super Bowl than any other.

It took off when Mucinex gave America’s biggest fake “sick day” phenomenon a proper name: Super Sick Monday.

As important as the name was, our approach as a cold and flu medicine brand was even more so. We knew the unexpected twist of giving permission to fake sick would be provocative. So rather than scold Americans for taking off, we did the opposite. We said, “Enjoy your sick day, America. But when you’re really sick, take Mucinex.”

Using everything from a research study to PR to Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw to a commercial that aired after the final whistle of the game, Mucinex gave a wink to millions, launched a new term into the American lexicon, and found a voice in the biggest media conversation of the year.

To generate awareness, we released coordinated content across digital and traditional media. On TV, we purchased the ideal prime placement: the first ad after the game ends. On radio, we partnered with a national morning show that integrated #SuperSickMonday into programming and ran spot radio. On YouTube, we teased the idea with pre-roll bought against our audience’s interests and game-related keywords.

Twitter was our preferred engagement channel. To increase reach/impressions and engagement, we bought media against two audiences, “sports fans” and “sickness,” and delivered custom creative based on their profiles. Bidding on awareness and capitalizing on real-time conversation targeting, we ensured relevant content was consistently seen by those tweeting about the game. Additional influencer content helped extend and amplify the conversation on Monday. Throughout, we continually optimized towards the best-performing content and used data learnings to pivot in real-time and respond with custom messaging to further engagement.

Reach:

o 61M+ Twitter Impressions

o 65M YouTube impressions

o 939M+ paid and earned PR impressions

o 54M paid impressions for Super Bowl postgame spot

o Total impressions: Over 1 billion

Engagement

o 50K+ Twitter Engagements

o Per Twitter, #SuperSickMonday was not used prior to this year, where we saw 60M+ impressions on the hashtag

o Within Super Bowl campaigns, Mucinex's Twitter poll performed 30% better than average engagement rates

Double-digit growth on favorability metrics/equity attributes:

· brand love (+13.1%)

· brand for me (+13.7%)

· purchase intent (+13.4%)

Exceptionally high engagement among men, an audience harder for us to reach. We saw dramatic increases in:

· brand favorability (+22.3%)

· brand love (+20.9%)

· brand for me (+26.6%)

· purchase intent (+22.7%)

And Mucinex owned the day:

· Mr. Mucus’ rate of recognition hit 90% (+11.2%)

· top-of-mind awareness almost doubled (+4.1 %)