After a six-week-long social media campaign, Carnival Corp. aired a Super Bowl TV commercial that no one had seen before, despite asking consumers to vote on their favorite ad from four possibilities.
The 60-second "Come Back to the Sea" spot combined stunning images of the ocean and a voice-over by John F. Kennedy talking about our emotional connection to the sea in a speech opening the 1962 America's Cup.
But it didn't appear as one of four choices consumers voted on.
"I loved the commercial, but I don't remember it being one of the options we could vote for? Did I miss something?" one perplexed commenter wrote on a Cruise Critic message board.
What gives? Was this some sort of conspiracy? We asked Carnival to explain.
Of the four finalists in the running for the Super Bowl, one was labeled "Mystery Spot." It showed a soothing scene of the sea with these words superimposed:
"Want to know more about the mystery spot? Well, we're not going to tell you. Because then it wouldn't be a mystery spot. The mystery. Solved soon."
"The Mystery Spot was the 'Come Back to the Sea' spot," explained Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corp.'s chief communications officer. "It received such a positive response on our website, possibly because of the beauty of the ocean and people love a great mystery! We also knew that when we added in the president's inspiring speech, it would resonate even more - and that's exactly what we're finding."
Frizzell said the spot was not selected based only on the most votes, but it did help make the final decision.
"In total, we had more than 100,000 votes cast for the four spots - all with strong vote counts," he said in an email. "We're not revealing the vote count of each spot at this point, but may elect to do so in the coming weeks as we announce the winner of the contest for a cruise each year for life."
Carnival's strategy allowed it to accomplish two things important in the world of high-stakes advertising today - get people to view and share the commercials through social media but still surprise them during the big game.
As Nathalie Tadena wrote in her CMO Today blog on WSJ.com, many advertisers release their commercials early so they're included in preview articles and shared by consumers, who often watch the Super Bowl precisely to see the ads. But that can also dilute the impact of the message.
"We want the full impact of the spot to hit during the game," Ken Jones, Carnival's vice president of corporate marketing, told Tadena.
So Carnival's tactic is the best of both worlds - it gets to surprise people with a high-profile TV commercial while generating consumer awareness in advance through the digital content, the contest seeking votes for the best commercial, and the sweepstakes to award a free cruise every year for life to someone who voted.
Carnival's commercials were viewed nearly 4 million views on YouTube and generated almost 5 billion impressions "even before we ran the commercial," Frizzell said.
Mission accomplished.
What's also interesting, though, is that last week Forbes.com asked an advertising expert to weigh in on which pre-released commercials were most likely to go viral. His No. 1 choice? The Carnival Corp. spot called "The Get Away" about a woman fleeing a hectic life to seek serenity on a cruise ship.
That spot didn't air during the Super Bowl, but it's still on Carnival Corp.'s website - and still available for sharing.
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