How Mad Men’s finale helped Coke and McCann
Mad Men, the popular award winning TV show about the advertising world, recently came to an end after seven seasons. The finale drew more than 3.6 million viewers, but perhaps more importantly, provided unprecedented free exposure and brand lift for the iconic brands featured in the storyline, highlights the data from Amobee.
The series finale featured the real 1971 McCann Coke ad “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”, giving both McCann Erickson and Coke a push on social media as the interest in the campaign spiked.
Around the last minute of the Mad Men final episode; where Don Drapers’ serenity on a hippie commune cuts into the Coke ad, insinuating that moment inspired the classic campaign; Coke’s digital consumption increased 991 per cent, comparing May 18 to May 17.
This is pretty unprecedented in the history of television, a completely earned reason to within the context of the story to end a popular TV series with an actual ad, and it has turned the sing-along spot into an instant viral hit 44 years in the making. Coke has already got two weeks worth of consumption around them in less than a day, Amobee highlights.
Consumption around McCann also increased 1,055 per cent so far on May 18 compared to May 17. While theoretically attributing the ad to a fictional Don Draper would shortchange the actual visionary behind the spot; instead it appeared to spike interest and appreciation for him. About 41 per cent of the McCann digital consumption on May 18 is mentioning Bill Backer, the real McCann creative director behind the ad for Coca-Cola.
The data highlights that there were 21,204 tweets around Coca-Cola in the three hours since the Mad Men final began airing, and 2,925 tweets around McCann in the same time period. McCann and Coke both helped themselves in amplifying the earned mention on social media as 828 of the McCann Mad Men related retweets came around them congratulating Don on finally coming up with a good idea, as they embedded the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” ad. Meanwhile 612 of Coke’s retweets came around their sharing the same video on Twitter.
In terms of paid advertisers, movies faired the best around the Mad Men final. There was 106 Mad Men related tweets around the new Steve Jobs biopic, and 77 Mad Men related tweets about the upcoming NWA biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’ in the three hours around the final episode airing. Buick had 38 tweets around their Mad Men ad, Lincoln had 37 tweets around their Mad Men ad and Adobe had 34 related tweets around their long running and popular Photoshop ad utilising Aerosmith’s Dream On.
Leading into the final, Don Draper is D.B. Cooper was the most popular theory on how the Mad Men series was going to end, looking at April 16 – May 16. There was 88 per cent as much digital consumption around the theory that Pete Campbell was going to be eaten by a bear, while Don commits suicide generated 54 per cent as much consumption as the D.B. Cooper theory in the same time period. Megan Draper is Sharon Tate generated eight per cent as much consumption as the D.B. Cooper while the Don gets a brain tumor theory only generated four per cent as much consumption between April 16 – May 16.
