Super Bowl Sunday is an iconic American tradition, but the Monday after is a different story altogether. Enter Budweiser's "Apology Cakes" activation on Imgur, which attempted to make amends for those who "Superbowl'd" a little too hard.
For Super Bowl 2016, Budweiser launched their "Give A Damn" campaign: An initiative designed to promote safe, sober driving. But we knew we wanted to keep the conversation going even after the big game had ended. So in order to extend the anti-drunk driving messaging past the Super Bowl, VaynerMedia worked closely with Imgur to help users thank (or apologize to) the person who got them home safely the night before.
As Super Bowl 50 approached, Budweiser's social media strategy was focused on raising awareness of its initiative and encouraging social media users to stand with its message against drunk driving. We wanted to continue the conversation after the Super Bowl was over, but knew any messaging would be up against a lot of noise on one of the busiest media days of the year.
So, we took to Imgur to continue the movement on a niche, on-demo platform that is the number one web destination for males 18-34. Our concept was inspired by the "apology cake" trend, when people bake cakes to apologize for actions from the night before. We made our own funny, honest, and relatable apology cakes to encourage fans to show their appreciation for the friends who got them home safely, in a way that was native to Imgur and its community.
Budweiser's "Apology Cake" activation on Imgur garnered more than 1.1 million unique page views, as well as an 87.71% upvote ratio. Additionally, it surpassed all Q1 partner in-demo performance to date and exceeded the benchmark (55%) by over 31%. Budweiser successfully continued the #GiveADamn conversation after the big game and was the first CPG advertiser to activate on the platform. Above all, Budweiser encouraged people to passionately discuss an extremely critical, timely, and surmountable issue.
