NFL: AMERICAN FAMILY

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Consumer Engagement

Advertiser: NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Product/Service: AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Agency: GREY NEW YORK

Date of First Appearance: Feb 6 2011

Entrant Company: GREY NEW YORK, USA

Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren (Grey New York)

Creative Director: Eric Segal (Grey New York)

Creative Director: Lars Jorgensen (Grey New York)

Associate Creative Director: Martin Peters (Grey New York)

Director Of Broadcast: Bennett McCarroll (Grey New York)

Agency Producer: Alison Horn (Grey New York)

Account Senior Vice President: Chris Wollen (Grey New York)

Project Manager: Joanne Peters (Grey New York)

Editor: Ryan McKenna (The Mill)

Visual FX Supervisor: Ben Smith (The Mill)

Assistant Editor: Jonathan Rippon (The Mill)

Executive Producer: Adam Isidore (The Mill)

Senior Producer: Carl Walters (The Mill)

Sound Mixer: Philip Loeb (Sound Lounge)

Media placement: TV - 1 Spot - FOX - 6 February 2011



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Nothing brings America together like the Super Bowl. This year’s game was the most-watched television event in US history with a total audience of 168 million, and the single largest family gathering in the country outside of the holidays. This year the National Football League (NFL) wanted to give its fans more than just a Super Bowl commercial. They wanted to give them something to discuss, dissect, and debate for weeks to come.



Creative Execution

We married traditional film with gaming and social media to create one commercial that would become an ongoing shared cultural experience. We took 48 of America’s most famous television characters from 20 different classic shows and turned them into football fans too. Over 4,000 animation hours were spent making 180 alterations to the original TV footage to make it appear as if the characters were all coming together for this year's big game. And then we asked the fans to find them all.



We challenged them on the NFL's website, Twitter and Facebook page, knowing their obsession for their football teams and love for their television would fuel the conversation. We gave them the unaffected original footage, daring them to find the changes and created a photohunt style game for them to keep score.



Results and Effectiveness

The :60 commercial was hailed as one of the best by the advertising community and almost every major news outlet. Millions instantly flooded the Internet after the spot aired, posing questions and comments about what they just saw. They watched the film another 2.5 million times online, created scene-by-scene breakdowns, homemade film versions, interactive games and new images of scenes they thought were missing. Even the football players themselves joined the conversation. In the end, a commercial that aired just once generated over 200 millions media impressions, and gave fans weeks, rather than seconds, of engagement with the NFL brand.