Well, America might not know who its next president is yet, but there was at least one winner of Election Night—the Calm app. With all the stress, frustration and anxiety filling American households Tuesday night as TV networks divulged that results would not be ready until every vote was counted, the meditation app saw an opportunity to stand out and help Americans take a moment to relax.
Calm sponsored CNN’s “Key Race Alerts” throughout the night and ran a 30-second spot during CNN coverage, featuring nothing but rain falling on leaves—of which the brand has an eight-hour version on YouTube for people to listen to as they sleep. Meanwhile, on social media, the brand shared breathing and relaxation exercises for its followers.
Americans loved it, briefly replacing their stress and frustration with humor. And the tweets poured in. According to analytics company Talkwalker, Calm saw 9,700 mentions, a 248% increase from the previous day, generating more than 56,000 engagements. Talkwalker tracked all social media platforms, websites and online forums for mentions of the brand, and found 99.3% coming from Twitter. In the week before Election Night, Calm was averaging 500 mentions a day.
“LOL. Genius. They bought this ad for the RTs and it’s really paying off,” tweeted Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and co-founder of venture capital firm Initialized Capital.