The idea began with two hypothetical questions: First, what if broadcaster and NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw appeared on camera during the Super Bowl with an embarrassing stain on his shirt? Second, what would the reaction be if, moments later, a television commercial revealed that Tide had orchestrated the entire stunt?

To make sure the reaction to #BradshawStain was as big as possible, we carefully curated a roster of influencers to amplify the moment. The group included comedic content creators (Rob Riggle, Grumpy Cat), lifestyle influencers (Adrienne Bailon, Buzz Aldrin) and sports media and athletes (NFL, Bleacher Report, Joel Embiid).

The moment Bradshaw appeared on air with the stain, our influencers immediately began posting their pre-created, unbranded memes and reactions, ensuring #BradshawStain became an authentic Super Bowl moment. When the curtain was lifted on Tide’s involvement, our influencers released branded content to ensure brand sentiment remained positive.

When Bradshaw appeared on-air with the stain, the race to amplify the conversation officially started.

The NFL and Bleacher Report Twitter profiles immediately posted to reach sports fans, and were followed soon after by Rob Riggle, Buzz Aldrin, Only in Boston (Patriots Influencer), and Grumpy Cat. This diversity of influencers put stain-related content on the timelines of millions just seconds after it first appeared and intensified the organic reaction that led #BradshawStain to trend nationally. The team monitored the conversation to flag potential responses from both @Tide and the parody account @BradshawStain, which immediately started responding with original content.

The commercial aired just 12 minutes after the stain’s initial appearance and cued our second influencer wave, including posts from Adrienne Bailon (Instagram), Joel Embiid (Twitter), Matt Kenseth (Facebook), and Tyrann Mathieu (Instagram). Throughout the rest of the game, both influencer content and consumer reaction to #BradshawStain continued to pour in.

On the field, there’s only one score that matters. For brands, Super Bowl success is judged in a variety of ways. Any scoreboard though, will tell you that the first-of-its-kind moment created by Tide deserves its own celebration.

Target Audience Outcome: The influencer content that sustained the conversation after the commercial aired accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total conversation. Overall, 70.1 million people were reached organically - 28.9 million before the commercial and 41.2 million after, including the audiences on Facebook/Instagram. The total television audience was 111.3 million. Seventy-one percent of the relevant comments on influencer posts were positive and more than 15 percent called out the ad connection. The fan responses included, “That was pretty brilliant”, “That was genius!” “Best ad of the night so far!” and “Oh they just said bbq sauce! Thank god for @tide.” USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked the spot No. 5 out of 66 Super Bowl ads.

Business Outcome: The broader Super Bowl program helped launch Tide’s newest PODS innovation. Following the game, Tide PODS had the biggest week of PODS sales ever, with a record high 12 Share. Post Super Bowl, Tide PODS grew 22 percent in sales, and Tide PODS + Downy was the fastest PODS extension launch ever. We also saw a marked increase in searches and Super Bowl ad mentions for “Tide PODS” and “Tide Detergent,” according to BrandWatch and Google Trends. Not only was the launch a success – Tide reached its record high household penetration.