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Social Media Lessons From the SuperBowl Ads

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One activity that got a sure boost from the weekend's sport was social media. To get the measure of it I got talking with Robin Carey who runs Social Media Today, meeting place of the world's social media professionals, and discussed the Super Bowl "interventions" by Oreo and Audi

We wanted to be a bit more live with this interview but our agendas clashed a bit - but hey, leave comments and ask more questions if you like.

So it was all smart stuff. But what is the context?

1. As we know some super-smart brands jumped on the power outage at this year's Super Bowl and got some good real-time engagement - it's great, it's fun but is it new?

Yes it is new, we never before had the ability to respond to advertising in real time. But it's only valuable if it's sustained ... and the agency, 360i, has shown that they are nimble enough to keep this up.  What is also new is that digital marketing partners and agencies will now be tied to real-time events for creating new brand opportunities. Audi also had a clever response with its offer to send LED lights for the Mercedes sign at the SuperDome.

2. Does it mean we are headed to ads as dialogue?  

Yes.  The brands which react the best and fastest will trump those that, for example, spent $15M on a passive, static message.

3. What do you think it means for how companies should regard their social media efforts - this was all driven by Twitter but Twitter might give you a few thousand eyeballs that are busy with other things? Isn't this a lot of effort for a little gain?

Not at all. Have you seen the buzz today about Oreos on Forbes, Business Insider, Buzz Feed, etc?  Twitter drives traditional media, and has for a long time.  If anything, it's a little effort for a lot of gain.

4. You talk across the country about social media, and talk with most of the best practitioners  - what in your view are the big changes taking place in the business right now? 

Wow, big question. Obviously, we are beyond the "what and why."  Everyone is saying that buying fans and likes is a waste of time.  But I'd say that one of the concerns is the degree to which they outsource social vs. working on social in-house.  Companies also are beginning to understand that they need to convey something authentic (very few do this well) and that they have tremendous resources in their back yards with their own customer interactions.

5. One piece of advice for marketers tomorrow?

Plan to be spontaneous.

So, in short: ads are real-time, sustained, brought more and more in-house for authenticity, recognize that Twitter is a major distribution platform, and leverage customer interactions. That should be all part of the plan.

Follow me on Twitter@haydn1701 and ask Robin any questions here.