Mix two teams, a Super Bowl virgin, and a bucketload of wings. The result? A Blink Wink!

When you factor in two beloved teams, a Super Bowl virgin who’s all poised to delight us during halftime, and the colourful theatrics of Canada’s own Moment Factory, you know it’s going to be the greatest event of the year. If you missed it, well you missed a great show. But, hey, you’ll still have the commercials.  Here are some of the highlights:

Tom Brady: 3 SuperBowl rings.
Manning Brothers: 3 SuperBowl rings.
LET’S CALL IT EVEN!

Samsung continues to take a bite out of Apple! ♥ it!

Acura & Jerry Seinfeld. If you are a Jerry Seinfeld fan, you may appreciate this and the reference to a special someone at the end. I chuckled.

DO you still work with Monkeys? Don’t despair. CareerBuilder is here!

Budweiser, Return of the king Super Bowl ad – evokes The Untouchables and The Natural.

Since I worked on Honda in my past life, I have a great affinity for the brand and it’s possibilities. Great attempt at reprieving the role of Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, but perhaps lacked a proper director and tight script.

Pizza Hut supporting budding artists. Not particularly a creative breakthrough but thumbs up for attempted brand initiative.

Time Warner Cable incorporates shows. But could have been a bit more creative! Ricky Gervais guest stars.

It’s HalfTime in America by Chrysler. Starts somber, transcends product, conveys an imp societal message.

When the world ends, all that remains is Chevy & wait for it, the Twinkie. @WendyWilliams what do you think?

Coca Cola - Interesting idea – Makes you wonder why they didn’t think of this years ago.

Madonna’s nemesis endorses Pepsi.

Was it Victoria’s Secret? Was it a Yogurt ad? No, it was the Fiat 500 Seduction ad. Definitely kept you guessing. 

Chevy Aliens - Go Home! 

And if you’d like to catch the complete list of superbowl, catch up on the entire list here: Super Bowl Ads 

CONGRATS Giants! 

Let’s face it, there are only 2 reasons you would spend over 6 hours watching the Super Bowl.

             One, if you are really into the game.

             And, two, if you are an ad junkie.

I fall into the latter. But it doesn’t really matter what side you are on, because Super Bowl Sunday is surely going to make you blink, wink and think.

Here’s a few sneak previews of the Super Bowl 2012 – video stream via Brand Channel

Samsung Super Bowl Ad Makes Us Wink
Most of us have a soft spot for the underdog. And even though I have an obsessive love for the Apple brand, I can’t help but smile about how smart Samsung has been with it’s marketing strategy in the past year, slowly but decisively planting the seed to go after the #1 position. Avis did it years ago with Hertz, with their brilliant tagline “We are number 2: so we try harder.” It worked.

Personally, I like that Samsung is taking a different approach. Not choosing to play the part of the victim, but rather carving its own identity, confidently owning a space and pitching the benefit of their product over Apple.

Volkswagen Star Wars Super Bowl Spot Makes Us ThinkRemember the Darth Vader kid from last year’s Super Bowl spot? That was cute and surprising. This year’s spot keeps the same Star Wars theme, making it fresh, intriguing and best of all, cleverly referencing last year’s spot. Brilliant!

Audi’s Truth In Engineering Makes Us Catch a Wink
Now here’s one of my least favourite ads. Check out the Audi video. Don’t get me wrong, for I totally understand the recent obsession with the Twilight saga and vampires being cooler than sliced bread. But seriously, for me, this direction for Audi feels a bit off brand. I’ve always considered Audi chic, sophisticated, mature, stylish. Perhaps they are trying to appeal to the Gen Y demographic, but in my opinion feels like they will lose their current loyal brand followers, like me, who buy an Audi because it stands for something. And that is the truth in advertising.

So you’re a self-professed entrepreneur – up at 6:30 am, sending your first tweet by 7:10 am, catching up on emails shortly thereafter. A quick check for any new Twitter followers in the past hour  results in a disappointed shrug. So you post another quick generic 140 character tweet about your business, then head out to do “real” work. At the end of the day, you still do your due diligence and sign back into social media…to see if it’s worked.

How do you measure if it has worked? Is it a magic follower number? A retweet perhaps? The answer isn’t that simple, and it requires some soul-searching.g.

Start with 4 questions:

1. WHY do you want to use social media?

2. WHO are you trying to reach?

3. WHAT do you want your audience to DO?

4. WHAT can your social media presence do FOR your audience?

Answer these four questions honestly, and focus on serving your customers and audience. Only then will you have a strategic framework that helps you make good decisions about social media platforms and tools.

Over the next series of blogs, we will explore each of these questions in detail. Stay tuned to assess if you are on the right track with your social media strategy.

Facebook asks me what I’m thinking.
Twitter asks me what I’m doing.
Foursquare asks me where I am.
Conclusion: the internet is my girlfriend.