From worrying over divided attention to leveraging the potential of the portable screen, marketers have started linking the ‘second screen’ (tablets and mobile phones) with the ‘first screen’ (TV) to raise levels of engagement.

“The second screen can turn TV viewing into a shared experience, enable fans to go deeper into the story world, allow instant follow-up on a call to action, extend a message beyond the limits of 30 seconds—and the list goes on,” says Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for JWT.

Read More »

The dramatic finish to the second leg of the Chelsea v Barcelona Champions League semi final did not only light up television screens around the world it set a new record on Twitter.

As football beat out the NFL’s Super Bowl to become the biggest sporting event on Twitter and set a new tweets per second record. I’m guessing many were surprised that Fernando Torres had scored a goal at Camp Nou to seal Chelsea’s victory – having scored only a handful since September 2011. Read More »

At the end of the Super Bowl last weekend Twitter launched its first-ever Ad Scrimmage competition and for a week following the game users voted via Tweet for their favorite Super Bowl ads.

The results are in and Samsung’s Galaxy Note ad won, which features Justin Hawkins as a busker playing “I believe in a Thing Called Love”. Read More »

Are you a fan of the H&M David Beckham Super Bowl ad? It has had a mixed reaction from sone quarters and none more so that from CNN political analyst Roland Martin who was suspended on Wednesday for “offensive” tweets during the Super Bowl.

The tweets have been taken as anti-gay by some and it is easy to see why. In one  Martin said as the Super Bowl took place on Sunday that if a “dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him”. Read More »

This is the year that the Superbowl is getting all social on itself. With an estimated 60 per cent of its 100 million viewers tuning in via a ‘second screen’, it’s no wonder the main players have woken up to social plug-ins.

The Superbowl has – until now – been the primary platform for blockbusting TV ads. So it’s interesting to see how the big 30-second spot is evolving in the era of social media. Pepsi is tying up with Shazam to let viewers download Melanie Amaro’s (X Factor USA’s winner) performance of Otis Redding’s “Respect”. Audi is looking to use social TV to extend their interaction beyond the commercial break with the hashtag  #SoLongVampires. Read More »

Super Bowl Sunday is almost upon us as the New York Giants get ready to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI on February 5.  We’ve already seen lots of ads being trailed and lots of social chatter.

This Super Bowl promises to be the most social yet and this year Facebook really is going to be a Super Bowl marketer’s best friend and it is set to edge out YouTube for ad searching and sharing, according to a study from US ad agency VB&P. Read More »

UPDATED Feb 7 Volkswagen looks to have a major social media success on its hands. Its humorous Super Bowl ad featuring a pint sized Darth Vader has already racked up more than 14.5 million views on YouTube in a year where brands are making more use out of social media than ever before when it comes to the Super Bowl.

Last week that figure stood at 4.5 million. Another Ten million have flocked to watch it over the weekend. Read More »

PepsiCo brand Gatorade is taking its social media strategy very seriously indeed – so much so that it has built a mission control centre replete with screens beaming out brightly-coloured visualisations of what people are saying about it on the likes of Twitter. Read More »

Ok, so they may never win a Cannes Lion. I’m not too cool to admit I love the Budweiser Clydesdales.

And I am not alone. You’ve probably heard that Budweiser reversed a decision not to run a Clydesdales spot this year based on fan demand. Although I suspect the initial ‘no’ was just an engineered Facebook page traffic driver.

But no harm, no foul. Why shouldn’t a mass market brand pander to the tastes of the mass market in their ads as they do in their beer? These ads are classics. I’m American, but I don’t think you have to be to get misty at the post 9/11 one, or my own favorite called ‘The American Dream’ where a young colt gets an unseen assist from his parents. There are some fun silly ones too. Do you have a favorite?

Take my TweetSwell poll via Twitter: What team will win Super Bowl XLIV?