Giants #WIN, Advertisements #FAIL

For me, the Super Bowl was a great experience. My team won, I had the most amazing spicy guacamole to munch on during the game, and I had a great time with friends in person and online.

Disappointed, though? Yes. Not with the game, but with the advertisers and their so-called “social media integration” I had high hopes for brands this year… high hopes for this being the catalyst to transform television into the social TV of the future. What a big let down.

Advertisers spend multiple millions of dollars per spot for the chance to put their brand in front of a very captive audience. The audience always shows up – eagerly rushing to their televisions… and twitter… at kickoff to see the game and participate in #brandbowl. But this year, the Advertisers didn’t show up.

Coca-Cola promised a full interactive experience featuring its famous polar bears: Their sites were down – oops!

Acura was successful in spiking interest in their new NSX [very sexy car] but their website wasn’t ready for the traffic.

Toyota is under fire for their twitter campaign that sent unsolicited @ replies to users tweeting with hashtags related to the big game.

At first glance, Doritos seems to again be a winner. Their ads gained ground in the hearts of #brandbowl aficionados and lived up to expectations. They also had success with the online and social components of their ads.

And, it turns out that pre-releasing commercials didn’t take away anticipation, but brought more viewers and users through social media.

Of course it’s still too early to tell if Super Bowl advertising will impact sales and offer a justifiable ROI. Time will tell.

According to stats from ExactTarget the most popular tweet was from Mark Herzlich, a Giant’s player who has battled with and come back from cancer, who tweeted:

2 yrs ago I was told I’d never walk again, just walked off plane to #indy to play in #superbowl #takethatcancer

Proving that the surest way to consumers hearts (well, human hearts) is the emotional connection. Maybe next year advertisers will either step out of their corporate boxes and be truly innovative, creative or even just plain goofy… or embrace their story and find a connection to their customers that will ring throughout the social galaxy.

Super-Social Super Bowl

I’ve been a football fan since I attended my first game at 2 weeks old. [That’s right – I said “2 weeks old”] I don’t remember a time I didn’t love the sport. As a kid, my team wasn’t good enough to go to the Super Bowl, but I still remember the anticipation waiting for the big game every year.

My team didn’t make it again this season, but this year I have something else to look forward to: The SuperMediaSocialBowl.

Super Bowl 46 promises to score by diving in head first to social media. Brands are embracing content marketing, social community engagement and integrating social media into their advertising more than ever before.

Super Bowl Social Media Command Center
50 social media experts have been interacting with fans in real-time during the weeks leading up to the game. All the way through the big event they’ll scour the socialnet for tweets and posts containing selected keywords to respond and engage at a moment’s notice. Teams are participating in Google+ hangouts, and fans are already responding by flooding social channels with virtual cheers.

These are not your daddy’s Super Bowl ads
Brands are going beyond adding silly little social media icons to the bottom of the TV screens. Toyota will request hashtag participation via twitter and then respond in real-time to tweeting fans. No word who will end up naked in the GoDaddy commercials this year, but they will incorporate QR codes into their advertisements. Coca-Cola, no stranger to the world of social media, will debut their famous polar bears as official commentators during the game. Although skeptical about this approach, I am anxious to see how it is received and if Coca-Cola views it as a success.

User-generated content is big again. Doritos is running a Crash the SuperBowl contest. NBC’s Jimmy Fallon is partnering with Subway to push Subs Across America showcasing user-generated video.

The Super Bowl is always must-see TV. This year it will be much more than that. Some will be venturing out to sports bars. Others will be drinking beer, tailgating, or having Super Bowl parties decked out with team paraphernalia. As for me, I will be hunkered down at my own command central – 3 screens, a TV, and a smartphone – cheering my team on to victory – and, also pulling for the underdog, social media. My fingers are crossed this will be the year social media will finally show up strong and prove the naysayers wrong.

[Go Giants!]

And the award goes to… Social Media

Hollywood awards season. This is one of two (or maybe three) guilty pleasures I allow myself in life without excuse. The film, the fanfare, the fashion… I can’t get enough. From the nomination announcements to the events themselves, I love it. And the fact that its kickoff overlaps the height of my other guilty pleasure (NFL football playoffs), Well… it just doesn’t get any better.

Over the past few years the industry has been diving deeper and deeper into social media to combine it with their live spectacles. This year the partnership between social media and the awards season has not disappointed. In fact, it may have changed the way we see the future of televised programming.

Entertainment blogs sent writers and tweeters to the events. Paparazzi and event-goers posted photos to websites and social networks like Pinterest. Television networks incorporated tweet-meters and “What’s hot” indicators. Live blogging has been everywhere from the nomination announcements to the red carpet arrivals and the events themselves. The fans have enthusiastically participated live with real-time comebacks to awards hosts’ witty remarks and live commentary about fashion hits and misses and celebrity faux pas. An adrenaline-filled, multi-channel, live-fetish, interactive media overload – and I can’t get enough.

Social media makes the awards ceremonies more fun to watch; but I would be watching anyway. This year more than ever, social media is encouraging non-awardaholics to tune in and even take part. Must-tweet = Must-see. Television is turning into a living, breathing channel not just for viewing but for engaging and interacting thanks, in part, to live programming like awards ceremonies and sporting events. Just wait and see what happens at the Superbowl during the multi-million dollar commercial breaks.

Just last night I noticed major networks adding on-screen, hashtagged keywords during programming. This is a good sign toward integration. But, only time will tell if this seemingly perfect relationship between social media and television will last.  As rating successes continue for live events like the Golden Globes and the Superbowl, the industry will need to consider social media an important part of their programming decisions by creating and scheduling content that fans will not only watch, but tweet about and interact with.

This could signal a huge change in the way we’ve thought about the future of television. The networks and key players in the industry hold the future of this opportunity in their hands. Whatever the case, with the Superbowl and the Oscars right around the corner I’m in my happy place.

***The phrase “Must-tweet TV” coined by founder and CEO of Mashable, Pete Cashmore in his article The new goal: Must-tweet TV