• February 7, 2012

Response to Coke's livestream running commentary by two animated polar bears during the Super Bowl -- one rooting for the Giants, the other the Patriots -- significantly exceeded expectations, reported Advertising Age.

Prior to the game, 32,000 people RSVP'd on Facebook to view the livestream (15 times the goal), leading Coke to plan for 300,000 concurrent viewers during the game. However, that number was exceeded during the pre-game show. By the game's third quarter, 600,000+ users were watching, and Coke had upped the number of servers being used by 24--then switched to Major League Baseball's servers to accomodate up to 1.1 million users.

Facebook and Twitter -- including Coke's Twitter handle, which was manned by the "bears" during the game -- drove the livestream viewing. Coke's U.S. Twitter followers jumped 12.5% even before the game started, Pio Schunker, SVP-integrated marketing for Coca-Cola, told Ad Age. 

PS: The polar bears left the room during Pepsi's ad featuring Elton John and "The X Factor" winner Melanie Amaro.