How Michael Cera Earned CeraVe 9 Billion Impressions Before the Super Bowl Kicked Off

As anyone who has watched the big game can attest, the Super Bowl is known for its abundance of celebrity cameos. From retired football players to Hollywood actors, rockstars and beyond, the advert breaks are consistently a who’s who of famous faces every year.

To stand out from the usual fare, you’ve got to create something quite special – a celebrity spokesperson partnership that feels natural, but surprising; funny, but informative; on-brand, but fresh. So for Super Bowl 58, skincare brand CeraVe found its perfect partner: the aptly-named actor, Michael Cera.

Known for his stilted comedy style from roles in ‘Superbad’, ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ and ‘Barbie’, the Canadian star’s chemistry with the brand goes beyond their nominative similarity. Created by Ogilvy North America, the Super Bowl campaign applied his off-kilter humour to gen z’s favourite skincare brand in three stages. 

Firstly, fake news made people believe Michael was the mastermind behind CeraVe (including a website, fake paparazzi shoots and influencer interviews with the likes of Bobbi Althoff). Then dermatologists and influencers started an online conflict to ‘debunk’ Cera’s campaign, and finally, the project concluded with the actual Super Bowl spot, directed by comedy duo Tim & Eric.

To find out how this perfect partnership came to be, LBB’s Ben Conway caught up with Charlotte Tansill, Ogilvy North America’s president of PR, social and influence.

LBB> So when did the Michael Cera / CeraVe connection first get made? How long has this Super Bowl campaign been in the making?

Charlotte> We made the connection about eight months ago when we pitched the idea to the CeraVe team. As we always do, we began by turning to social listening for intelligence, insights and inspiration, and to ensure we create work that resonates in culture first and foremost. In this research, we found several Reddit and social posts from several years ago speculating whether Michael Cera is somehow connected to CeraVe. We saw the potential of it. The Super Bowl is a space that commands celebrity, disruption and bravery. And Michael Cera would be an unexpected partner, especially for a skincare brand that is developed with dermatologists, not celebrities.

LBB> The big game spot is brilliant, but the wider campaign has really used Michael Cera to the fullest – can you tell us a bit about the social content that you had him doing around the Super Bowl?

Charlotte> Over the last several years, CeraVe has achieved significant success with their social and influencer-first approach, and they haven’t been afraid to take risks and innovate at the forefront of the category. So, we knew that what we brought forward to them needed to be brave, built to be shared, and multi-channel. 

So, we saw an opportunity to do the Super Bowl differently by unfolding a story over time, rather than within the TV spot. We built a campaign that didn’t speak at people, but rather brought them along on a month-long journey and gave them an experience in which to participate, while also educating and engaging them with entertaining content every step of the way.

We meticulously planned the roll-out from the get-go across PR, social, influence and digital, and then once we launched, we met daily to assess internet reaction and optimise in real-time. We put influencers in the front seat of the campaign, activating hundreds of influencers of different tiers in different ways that were authentic to them. For our hero influencers, we concepted content ideas based on their talents and then we co-created with them to maximise the authenticity and the drama.  

Broadly speaking, we unfolded the experience in three phases. The first part was the ‘fake news’ phase, which introduced Cera’s rogue mission to make people believe he is the mastermind behind the brand, including planted paparazzi photos and an unexpected pharmacy run-in where Cera was signing CeraVe bottles. Next, we took the fight public, getting dermatologists and influencers involved in debunking Cera’s campaign, while the actor made every effort to reinforce his claims. And finally, there was the epic resolution, which was revealed in the actual Super Bowl spot.

[Above: Model and influencer Haley Kalil's social post]

LBB> Writing for Michael must have been great fun – what are some of your favourite lines from the ad or on the website?

Charlotte> Michael Cera was deeply involved every step of the way, making the campaign the best it could be. He allowed us to go much further than what is typical because he was excited by the idea and the unique way that we wanted to bring it to life beyond the commercial itself. He was unscripted in our hero influencer videos showcasing his natural wit, for example in the interview with Bobbi Althoff. A few of my favourite lines are ‘the truth has been hiding in plain sight’, ‘human skin is my passion’, ‘I just want people to think I make this’, and ‘I’m telling them our story’. We all have a lot of heart for the narwhal scene as well. 

LBB> Besides the obvious name connection, why is Michael Cera an ideal celebrity to have represent the brand – and to build a campaign around? 

Charlotte> The whole idea really hinged on his participation. The shared namesake allowed for an authentic and playful partnership. But possibly even more important, Michael Cera is culturally relevant and brand relevant. His accessible, approachable persona, tone of voice and offbeat humour made him the perfect partner to lead this immersive campaign and unfolding drama. 

Michael was captivated by the concept from the start. He was drawn to the authentic use of his character and the play on his name. We were lucky that he was quite involved every step of the way. 

LBB> Were you on set at all for the big game spot shoot? If so, what was that like? What key lessons came from that experience?

Charlotte> Yes, the Ogilvy team, our directors Tim & Eric, and our hero influencers – Bobbi Althoff, Caleb Simpson, Haley Kalil, and Dr. Muneeb Shah – were all on set. What stuck out to us the most was how serious Michael took his role. This energy fed into the creativity on set and even led to Michael doing a bit of improv with the script. While handing out CeraVe to people on the street, Michael went deep into character, so much so that one influencer on set confessed they second guessed if the whole thing was real. Michael’s dynamic with Tim & Eric was also hysterical and at times, it was difficult for Michael to keep a straight face.

LBB> What was the most difficult part of this campaign – and how did you overcome it?

Charlotte> Michael does not have his own social media handles, which meant we couldn’t rely on his presence there to tease the campaign. Instead, we needed to find other clever ways to seed the narrative to consumers and get them involved. For this, we relied on the power of influencers and earned media to catch wind of the prank and let human curiosity and the magic of the internet be the power that drove speculation and conversation. 

LBB> What does it mean to be involved in a Super Bowl ad? Is there a particular pressure or pride that comes with it?

Charlotte> As America's biggest advertising stage, there is certainly a high set of expectations and pride that comes with the territory. But what was interesting in how we approached our campaign was that on game day we had already built so much momentum and conversation with over 9 billion earned impressions that we were in a different position than other advertisers before kick-off. The success and reception of the spot was the cherry on top of every communication, every influencer, every tactic that we had deployed over the previous month – that was our pressure period. 

LBB> What can we expect from any future CeraVe work? Will you be expanding the CeraVerse past the Super Bowl?

Charlotte> Only time will tell!