Social Media Super Bowl: the Year of Brand Engagement

Brandie Broihier | @brandienic As you sit down this Sunday with your chips & dip, smart phone and wings, you'll be joining the incredibly connected world that has become Super Bowl culture. Super Bowl Sunday, 2012 is leaps and bounds beyond the games of years past.

We will see brand engagement soar through social connectivity at the biggest television advertising event of the year. "The big goal is to be the most connected Super Bowl ever, we think we're going to be able to achieve that," said Chairman of the Super Bowl Host Committee, Mark Miles.

Social Media Command Center

For the past two weeks, a team of nearly fifty social media experts have been working around the clock to interact in real time with fans arriving in Indianapolis for this year's Super Bowl.  This Social Media Super Team will provide directions, Indianapolis local entertainment suggestions and other important information (such as what to do in case of an emergency at the stadium).

They will be able to pick up on keyword phrases like “parking is awful” and respond quickly with help. The command center has taken more than a year of planning to achieve and will run on over a mile of ethernet cable to fuel its success. From the main Super Bowl XLVI site, fans can access the social media command center's activity through its management of the Super Bowl Facebook page, Flickr and Twitter accounts and the site's blog.

Coca-Cola Polar Bowl

Coca-Cola's famous polar bears have a new toy: a TV.   For the first time, Super Bowl fans can watch the polar bears react in real time to the game. Not only will the polar bears (who sport team scarves to support the Giants and the Patriots) comment about the game, the Coca-Cola polar bears will share their live reactions to the commercials, an event nearly as anticipated as the game itself.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h_fjYBtVhk[/youtube]

RSVP at Coca-Cola's website.  #GameDayPolarBears

Fan-Made Commercial Contests

Super Bowl anticipation has been underway for months, with the past few weeks gearing up to record-setting levels of communication about the “other” game: fan-made commercials that air in million dollar time slots.

Doritos hit the ground running again this year with Crash the Super Bowl.  As the pioneer of brand engagement via Super Bowl advertising, we've seen rejected ads go viral weeks before expected.

Take this already famous "rejected Doritos ad" for example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3usaGfn7r0w[/youtube]

The Super Bowl is, well, the Super Bowl of Advertising.  Brand engagement via contests continues to grow as an ingenious way to converse with customers and preserve the loyalty of consumers.

Social Media holds a sweet spot in the hearts of sports fans. 2011 saw record-setting tweets about Tim Tebow (9,420 tweets per second). And the only Facebook status that topped number of posts about the Packer's win at last years game? The death of Osama bin Laden.

The 46th Super Bowl will take place on February 5, 2012 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 ET on NBC.

NY Giants vs. NE Patriots

References: http://mashable.com/2012/01/21/super-bowl-xlvi-social-media/ http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/super-bowl-ads-doritos-pepsi