For 53 years, watching Super Bowl commercials had been a passive experience. Until P&G sought to change that by creating the world’s first interactive Super Bowl commercial. Our objective was to get people actively engaged in creating their own versions of a Super Bowl commercial before and during the game. We used the data generated by each interaction users made in the 6-minute film using eko Technology, then edited it down to a :60 second broadcast ready Super Bowl commercial in real-time before the spot aired in the 4th quarter of the game. During the game, we monitored consumers selections using our custom-made dashboard and at 9:14pm voting locked. Just 16 minutes later, the most popular :60 spot went to air, bypassing all traditional media trafficking.

Imagine you’re the #1 advertiser in the world. You’ve bought the #1 most expensive :60 in the world. But even then…deep into the 3rd quarter of the game, you still have no idea what that commercial is going to be. Introducing “When We Come Together”, the world’s first interactive Super Bowl commercial.

Using eko Technology the film took viewers on a choose your own adventure journey where their choices could create over 60 unique storylines during a six-minute interactive film asking users to help clean-up a disastrous Super Bowl party spill. For 72 hours every choice made was calculated in real-time to dynamically cut down each scene of the film down into the most popular :60 version. At 9:14pm voting locked and just 16 minutes later, the most popular :60 spot went to air, bypassing all traditional media trafficking and launched via eko servers.

To capture consumers choices, we developed an interactive website where users could play and create their own versions of the spot and then easily share their version with others through social media. Using social, PR, and influencer content we created a call-to-action to the 140+ million people who watch the Super Bowl to “create the ad they want to see”. In 72 hours, thousands of people flocked to whenwecometogether.com to create their own version. Leading up to the Super Bowl over 281,456 versions were made with over 500,000+ minutes spent creating. The choices consumers made were monitored in real-time using a custom-made dashboard. Engagement time clocked in at over 2 minutes and an 82% completion rate. All of this in a world where people are typically chomping at the bit to “Skip Ad”.

The six-minute interactive film was shot January 8, 9, &10 of 2020. Over the next 2 ½ weeks over 120 nodes were cut down to create a choose your own adventure journey. Each node had to be mapped to a journey tree that would be able to dynamically and seamlessly cut from one scene to the next depending on what the viewers choices were. WhenWeComeTogether.com launched on 01.31.20, with 72 hours to compile consumers choices leading up to the Super Bowl.

Within 72 hours, 281,456 versions were created, 82% of people completed the full film, and engagement time clocked in at over 2 minutes.

Voting remained open all the way into the 3rd quarter of the game, locking at 9:14pm. Just 16 minutes later, the most popular :60 spot went to air live in the 4th quarter of the game at 9:30pm EST.

When the platform launched, consumers were immediately engaged. The interactive film averaged 1 choice every 2 seconds. The average consumer spent over two minutes interacting with the film and spent more than 500,000+ minutes creating.

Instead of passively watching, consumers were actively engaging with the spot to create the Super Bowl ad they wanted to see. Consumer interest in the brands featured in the ad skyrocketed on average by over 2400% and positive sentiment reached an all-time high at over 85%. Bounty trended #1 on Google and had a 43x increase in search. Charmin had a 23x increase in search.

All in all, 281,456 versions of the story were created, 82% of people completed the full film, and engagement time clocked in at over 2 minutes. Showing that America’s votes and innovative technology came through to create a Super Bowl commercial unlike any before garnering 4.82 billion impressions.