As much as the Super Bowl is about football, chicken wings, and Bud Light, it’s also about marketing. A 30-second spot during the big game not only allows companies to promote their product and be seen by the hundreds of millions of people watching but also to be a part of larger media conversation. Who had the best commercial spot? Which ad was the funniest? Which featured the biggest celebrity?

(Personally, my favorite of the night was the Budweiser Clydesdale commercial. Who didn’t get a little misty when the horse recognized his trainer at the end?)

This year, CBS charged between $3.8 and $4 million for every ad shown during last night’s game. In a night of lackluster commercials, one of the most powerful marketing gambits came courtesy of your very own Twitter feed.

When the Super Bowl broadcast was abruptly interrupted by a power outage, Oreo jumped on the chance to promote their product. They tweeted this ad:

It was retweeted more than 10,000 times in an hour. With the amount of people most likely on Twitter during the game’s broadcast, especially during a down time such as a blackout, Oreo brilliantly created a Twitter campaign to take advantage of a real-time situation.

AdAge reported that the tweet was “designed, captioned, and approved within minute’s” at a “social media war room of sorts” at the company’s headquarters.

For all the planning, money, and time that goes into making a Super Bowl ad, this one was just as, if not more, effective and was completed in mere minutes for no cost.

Working in social media, it’s exciting to see a brand as big as Oreo take risks like this and embrace the instantaneous, communal nature of social media.

Everyone watching the Super Bowl was experiencing the power outage and when they reached to their phones to check Twitter during the downtime in the game, you bet those that follow Oreo could relate, or at least connect with, the tweet ad in ways they might not have with some of the flashier, elaborately staged television spots.

On the ad industry’s biggest night, Oreo just might have scored the night’s biggest slam-dunk.

Besides the Ravens (and Beyonce), of course.