Today, spending $4 million dollar on a 30-second ad can be quickly eclipsed by creating the right material at the right time – especially if people are briefly distracted from an event as big as the Super Bowl.

That’s exactly what happened this evening at the XLVII Super Bowl when a power outage cut out lights to half the stadium, knocked sideline systems offline and even muted commentators Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.

While CBS Sports producers and directors undoubtedly scrambled to try to fill dead time, marketers jumped at the chance to create unique and relevant messaging, all within the 34 minute timeout between plays. 750,000 tweets were posted in the half-hour, according to Marketing Cloud, and brands certainly took notice.

I’ve briefly blogged about how @Oreo had an instant response to the Super Bowl Blackout.

Creating Relevant Messaging in Under a Half Hour. Amazing.

Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

Within moments, others jumped on the bandwagon as well.

We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower twitter.com/tide/status/29… — Tide (@tide) February 4, 2013

But perhaps you don’t have your creative agency on retainer at 9PM on a Sunday. Even some notable tweets appeared.

Because Mercedes Benz sponsors the Superdome:

Sending some LEDs to the @mbusa Superdome right now…

— Audi (@Audi) February 4, 2013

And Audi sister-company Volkswagen reposting their ad from earlier in the night:

Lost power during the Big Game… Don’t worry, #GetHappy: vwoa.us/VDSvjj

— Volkswagen USA (@VW) February 4, 2013

Budweiser conveniently just released Black Crown beer:

We promise, this isn’t a pre-planned, super-elaborate scheme to promote our new @blackcrown beer … probably. #poweroutage #intheblack

— Budweiser (@Budweiser) February 4, 2013

Switch To More Interesting Programming?

This might be a good time think about alternative programming. #SuperBowlBlackOut #WeHaveDowntonPBS — PBS (@PBS) February 4, 2013

Tying the blackout to another network’s program as well: 

If only the stadium had one of these… #RevolutionMarch25 ow.ly/i/1sWdP

— Revolution (@NBCRevolution) February 4, 2013

Since the lights are out anyways, some small-screen programming for the ladies: 

Since the lights are still out… vine.co/v/b1iiiiUz5uq #SB47 — Calvin Klein (@CalvinKlein) February 4, 2013

Where you can get your own blackout supplies?

We do carry candles. #SuperBowl — Walgreens (@Walgreens) February 4, 2013

…we also sell lights. #SuperBowl

— Walgreens (@Walgreens) February 4, 2013

Hey dome operators at the ‘Big Game’, there are a few Lowe’s nearby if you need some generators.

— Lowe’s (@Lowes) February 4, 2013

So who was at fault when it came to the outage?

That debate was also waged on Twitter.

Entergy, the utility company for New Orleans claims they had nothing to do with it:

Power issue at the Super Dome appears to be in the customer’s side. Entergy is providing power to the Dome.

— Entergy New Orleans (@EntergyNOLA) February 4, 2013

UPDATE: This tweet has since been deleted and replaced with:

Until the investigation is complete, any statements on possible causes of the outage are just speculation.

— Entergy New Orleans (@EntergyNOLA) February 4, 2013

CBS Sports claimed the feed coming to the stadium went down.

“Outside power feed coming into the stadium that suddenly went dead…each team will have a warmup period.” -@stevetasker89 on @nfloncbs.

— CBSSports.com (@CBSSports) February 4, 2013

Is real-time marketing setting an unattainable benchmark? Does it lend itself to unapproved messaging, or is it all in fun and a test of our real creativity? Let us know in the comments.

UPDATE: How was the Oreo graphic so quick to production?

According to AdAge: 

The Oreo graphic was “designed, captioned and approved within minutes,” according to Sarah Hofstetter, president of the cookie brand’s digital agency of record, Dentsu-owned360i. All the decisions were made in real time quickly because marketers and agency members were sitting together at a “mission control” center, or a social-media war room of sorts, at the agency’s headquarters in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. Among those who were there were two brand team members from Oreo, and nearly a dozen creatives, strategists, community managers and social-media listeners.

BusinessWeek added how quickly they moved, “from concept to posting in five minutes.“

UPDATE 2: How quickly were brands bidding on blackout related terms?

Bionic Marketing on Quora:

According to the TwitterAds team, for example, advertisers started bidding on “power outage” as a sponsored search term within four minutes of the blackout.  Four minutes! 

UPDATE 3: Ironic Photo of Utility Employees

I found this photo of the employees of PG&E and BGE, the utility companies for San Francisco and Baltimore showing their support for their sports teams. Ironically, they may have needed to supply some bucket trucks too!