Ahead of Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix, P&G set out to create branded sports content that highlighted its brands - Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Old Spice and Tide - in a unified campaign while also highlighting their brands’ authentic designation as the "Official Locker Room Products of the NFL." Some of the key objectives of the program were to build comprehensive programming for brand amplification through the creation of a unified campaign for four distinct brands, secure a distribution/retail partner, and drive consumer engagement by strategically targeting P&G’s key demographic of millennial males. With P&G Battle of the Paddles, P&G brands were provided an opportunity to communicate their individual messaging, and through a joint distribution/retail partnership with Twitch and Amazon, the event was broadcast via a livestream that featured a shopping integration with which fans were able to engage. P&G Battle of the Paddles ultimately provided a showcase for the brands and an appealing hook for media that resonated with NFL fans and drove sales of P&G products, all packaged within an engaging concept on a national stage.
The campaign's strategy focused on authenticity, which led to the discovery of a trend of friendly yet competitive games of table tennis between NFL players inside their respective team locker rooms. These games also piqued the interest of fans and media, which often resulted in social conversation and even media coverage of the lighthearted yet intense competitions. Focusing on the insight that table tennis was already an organic mainstay of NFL locker rooms, P&G was able to capitalize on a space that had been previously untapped by utilizing its designation as the Official Locker Room Products of the NFL and establish a uniquely authentic connection between its brands and the league’s unofficial locker room sport with the first-ever P&G Battle of the Paddles: a double elimination table tennis tournament where eight of the NFL’s most skilled table tennis players duked it out for a chance to be crowned the (unofficial) best player in the league.
With the foundational insight surrounding the growing popularity of table tennis inside football locker rooms, P&G was able to create and host an event that featured a star-studded roster of NFL competitors - including Christian McCaffrey, Trevor Lawrence and more - who were genuinely excited to participate. Through a partnership with Twitch and Amazon, the inaugural P&G Battle of the Paddles was broadcast via livestream, giving fans everywhere an opportunity to witness some of the buzzworthy, tightly contested battles between NFL stars that had previously only been held behind closed (locker room) doors.
Leading into the tournament, multiple players participated in media interviews virtually and in person on Super Bowl Radio Row to discuss their work with P&G and encourage fans to tune in and view the event live on Twitch. Each player was also asked to complete questionnaires rating their table tennis attributes on a scale of 1-5, which were included on individual cards shown during the livestream broadcast of the event on Twitch and Amazon. The livestream of P&G Battle of the Paddles on Twitch mirrored traditional broadcasts of sporting events, incorporating seamless branded integrations like the "Tide Clean Shot Replay" and the "Old Spice Moment of Swagger" while also taking advantage of features typically endemic to events streamed online, such as live chat and ecommerce that unlocked deals and exclusive offers on Amazon for viewers throughout the tournament.
Capitalizing on the popularity of table tennis among NFL players, P&G successfully brought the league’s unofficial locker room sport to a national stage at Super Bowl LVII, leveraging the game’s popularity among star players, fans and media alike to create a program that drove consumer engagement and awareness with its brands ahead of the Big Game.
The inaugural P&G Battle of the Paddles generated an impressive 1.33 billion total impressions, 584% over the program KPI. Paid media delivered 11.9 million impressions, nearly 6 million more than anticipated. Moreover, the campaign delivered 1 billion earned impressions with a 96% key message pull through rate and 2.6 million impressions on social media with an Instagram engagement rate of over 11%.
The Twitch livestream attracted 3.8 million viewers, more than 9x the platform’s benchmark. The Amazon Live Shopping integration generated 561,000 views, bringing total event views to 4.3 million with an average watch time of 3:50. Sales on Amazon also saw a significant increase, with a 32% rise over the previous 30-day rolling average. Notably, 50% of purchasers from the livestream made their first P&G purchase on Amazon in over a year.
The tournament outperformed same-day programming on major cable networks, including ESPN 2, NBA TV, and MLB Network.
P&G Battle of the Paddles was considered a success by every metric, having so firmly solidified its place within the NFL cultural zeitgeist that it made a return to Super Bowl LVIII week in Las Vegas for a bigger and better year two, featuring yet another roster of NFL stars including Saquon Barkley, Trevor Lawrence, D’Andre Swift and more!
