MSC Cruises set out to do something ambitious: introduce itself to the American market not as just another cruise line, but as a new kind of cruise experience: European style paired with the comforts U.S. travelers expect. The launch of the “Let’s Holiday” platform marked a pivotal moment for the brand, anchored by MSC Cruises’ first-ever Super Bowl commercial starring Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom.
Social played a critical role in ensuring this moment didn’t begin and end with a single 60-second spot. The objective of the organic social strategy was to transform the Super Bowl commercial into a living, cross-platform experience that felt timely, participatory, and culturally fluent. Every social activation needed to authentically extend the “Let’s Holiday” brand message while meeting audiences where they already were: scrolling, reacting, and engaging in real time.
The primary goal was to drive meaningful follower growth across platforms by leveraging the scale, excitement, and cultural relevance of the Big Game. Secondary goals included sparking high-volume community engagement, generating earned media through brand-to-brand interactions, and maximizing brand visibility beyond the broadcast investment by riding the natural momentum of game-day conversation.
Success meant using social not as amplification but as acceleration by turning one of the most competitive advertising moments of the year into a sustained brand introduction that positioned MSC Cruises as bold, modern, and unmistakably different in the U.S. cruise landscape.
The strategy was simple in principle but complex in execution: turn one marquee media moment into a multi-day, multi-platform social experience that unfolded before, during, and after the Big Game.
In the lead-up to Game Day, MSC Cruises rolled out teaser content across platforms featuring Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom, building anticipation while reinforcing the “Let’s Holiday” brand world. Ten days ahead of the game, the brand launched a TikTok dance sweepstakes designed to tap into platform-native behavior and invite audiences to participate directly in the campaign. Winners were revealed live during each quarter of the Super Bowl, creating a reason for audiences to stay engaged with the brand throughout the game.
Agility became a defining feature of the execution. When TikTok temporarily shut down just days before the sweepstakes launch, the team remained ready to pivot without compromising timing or creative intent but ultimately launching on schedule and maintaining campaign momentum.
On Super Bowl Sunday itself, MSC Cruises and Socialfly operated as a unified, onsite team at the brands HQ, focused on real-time cultural engagement. Across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X, the team reacted live to gameplay, participated in trending conversations, and engaged directly with other major advertisers through smart replies, custom memes, and precisely timed content drops.
Every post had to strike a careful balance: fast enough to feel relevant, polished enough to meet brand standards, and authentic enough to avoid feeling opportunistic. This required extensive pre-planning, asset development, and clearly defined roles across content creation, approvals, publishing, and community management paired with the flexibility to adapt in the moment as trends evolved.
Community management was treated as a core creative function, not an afterthought. Live editing, optimization, and platform-specific adjustments allowed the brand to stay responsive across channels while maintaining a consistent voice.
The result was a social presence that felt seamless with the broadcast moment yet fully native to each platform and transformed the opportunity from a single ad placement into a dynamic, always-on brand experience.
The campaign delivered results that significantly exceeded expectations and demonstrated the impact of real-time, culturally fluent social activation.
On Super Bowl Sunday alone, MSC Cruises gained more than 4,100 new followers, representing a 90% increase over typical daily growth and signaling strong audience resonance during the brand’s biggest moment to date.
Earned media impact was equally powerful. Through strategic brand-to-brand interactions, MSC Cruises generated 6.6 million earned impressions from advertiser engagement alone, along with 2,900 brand mentions, a 152% increase over daily averages. Owned Super Bowl content drove more than 551,000 impressions and 24,000 engagements.
In total, the campaign generated 92 million earned brand impressions, dramatically extending the reach and lifespan of the original Super Bowl commercial well beyond its airtime.
Beyond the numbers, the effort established a new benchmark for how MSC Cruises shows up in culture. By combining internal collaboration, agency partnership, and real-time agility, the brand transformed a single high-stakes media moment into a platform-wide success.
