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Staring at a little screen while watching a big screen is pretty much the norm these days.
And ahead of this year’s Super Bowl, platforms like TikTok and Twitter seemed to be vying for viewers’ little-screen attention. TikTok offered ad credits to advertisers who spent money on Super Bowl campaigns; according to the Wall Street Journal, brands that spent at least $200,000 could receive ad credits worth 5% of their total spending, up to $15,000.
Kristyn Cook, CMO of State Farm, confirmed to us that State Farm was one of the brands that took advantage of TikTok’s incentives this year, though she would not disclose the company’s spend on the platform. Rather than pay roughly $7 million for a 30-second TV ad, she said the brand was able to spend less on a TikTok-only campaign.
“Financially, obviously, we found some efficiency,” she said. “But beyond that it was really approached in terms of…the big game came to us [at State Farm Stadium] and so let’s be creative in how we amplify it.”
No TV? No problem
Cook said State Farm saw this year as a “great way to continue to build up on [its] success from last year,” in which the company also opted to do a TikTok-only campaign for the Super Bowl involving Jake from State Farm and a TikTok challenge.
She said the company decided to take more of an “influencer-y strategy” this year and do more activations leading up to the Super Bowl in the hopes of reaching a younger audience and taking advantage of the company’s naming rights to State Farm Stadium.
The main video from the campaign was posted by and features TikTok’s most-followed creator, Khaby Lame, alongside Jake from State Farm. In total, State Farm worked with 13 TikTok creators, who Cook said posted leading up to and during the game about things like a challenge to guess how many times State Farm Stadium would be mentioned on air.
Among the influencers it worked with, State Farm confirmed it had a combined reach of over 245 million, more than 11 million organic views, and more than 568,000 organic likes. Lame’s video alone has more than 221 million views, while @JakeFromStateFarm’s has more than 17 million.
“It far exceeded expectations for us,” Cook said.
As for whether the 2024 Super Bowl will be TikTok-only? Cook didn’t rule out a future TV spot, noting that State Farm takes lessons learned each year and will “continue to look at all those different ways [of reaching people] and make decisions as we go.”