Whether you love football or not, the Super Bowl ads are still usually entertaining. Totino’s pizza rolls and video game streaming platform Twitch have hatched an idea up the ante in both the interactivity and the fun factor. Their “Bucking Couch Bowl” sounds like a blast even if you don’t care whether Denver or Carolina take home the trophy for Super Bowl 50.
On Super Bowl Sunday at 12 p.m. PT, these companies are hosting a gaming competition featuring some of the top Twitch gaming influencers where they’ll compete head-to-head with an interesting twist. While one gamer is seated on a normal couch, the other will be spinning around on the “Bucking Couch” controlled by Twitch viewers. The couch will buck, spin and move around as viewers send in commands via chat, likely proving to be an enormous distraction for the player seated on it.
Amazon-owned Twitch is prepared for a huge number of fans to get involved during the stream with sophisticated tracking technology. Bianca Nieves, Senior Director of Client Strategy, Twitch, says, “Every 15 minutes, there will be an opportunity for users to type into chat how they want the couch to move, whether that be to vibrate, tilt or pivot. We will show in real time which action receives the most votes and that action will then occur.”
The other player on the ‘normal’ couch won’t be sitting silent. Adds Nieves, “There will be many disruptions to distract them from their gameplay. They range from some specifically targeted to the game to general disruptions. We have ensured that no one will be getting off easy during the Bucking Couch Bowl!”
To meet this challenge, Twitch is bringing in some of their top players, including influencers like GoldGlove, iijeriichoii, summit1g, and TimTheTatman, who have thousands of fans each that are generally in age categories that are good targets for Totino’s (i.e., twentysomething pizza roll fans). Of course, Totino’s products will be on-hand if the participants can manage to grab them while being bumped around.
Brad Hiranaga, Business Unit Director at Totino’s, said, “We know that Totino’s fans embrace the freedom to indulge in their entertainment passions, such as gaming, watching sports, streaming their favorite shows and hosting movie night. Because the couch is the hub of this entertainment, we call this act of freedom ‘Living Free and Couching Hard.’ The Totino’s Bucking Couch is an unexpected way for us to bring (that) mantra to life.”
Twitch has long shown itself to have a good sense of humor for its content and marketing partnerships, from its Painting with Bob Ross marathon to its campaign with Old Spice that allowed viewers to control the movements of a man wandering through a forest. The Old Spice video garnered over 2.6 million views alone. Like the Old Spice campaign, this Totino’s promotion is part of the streaming platform’s “Twitch Plays” program that launched interactive advertising campaigns with major brands.
How will Totino’s judge the success of this unconventional campaign? Hiranaga notes that they are focused on bring an entertaining, and interactive experience for our fans. “Our goal is to enable a fun experience where our fans want to be a part of the action, so success will be measured by participation in the chat and bucking of the couch on Sunday.”