• by admin , December 9, 2011

Spark Communications designed the first-ever opportunity for a branded character in Super Bowl programming by turning the famous hosts of FOX’s NFL Today Show into E*TRADE babies. The E*TRADE babies made a “surprise” appearance on the 2011 Super Bowl pre-game show with famous sportscasters Kurt Manafee, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long. The sportscasters even helped to craft what each of their E*TRADE Babies would say on-air. Typically a brand must be an official NFL sponsor to pull something like this off, but as part of the media negotiation, the creative content was developed specifically to support the idea.
E*TRADE’s Baby Banter resulted in a 20% increase in online account applications in the week following the Super Bowl versus weeks prior; A community of fans formed, with Facebook fans increasing to 26,000 post 2011Super Bowl; Twitter followers grew by 224% year-over-year; 1,500+ earned media placements including broadcast, print and online.