Super Bowl 2013: Go viral or good riddance. 

Personally, count me in as one of the who only tune in for the most creative advertisements of the year. Sometimes it seems that top executives must meet with their ad staff at some point and convey that if they have one good idea all year, it better be ready at Super Bowl time. Whether you’re watching for the game or the ads, social media will play it’s biggest advertising role ever in NFL Super Bowl XLVII.

          Hootsuite launched a real-time Super Bowl Social Media Command Center. You can check out the Super Bowl’s command center to see an analysis of the overall social media fan sentiment throughout the game. Before the AFC and NFC, Hootsuite was able to correctly predict the winners by analyzing fan sentiment through Twitter conversations.
         Visualize with me for a second. Visualize spending $8 million for 60 seconds. Social media will help corporations know if they got the most bang for their buck.
         In decades past, marketing executives could only measure success based on possible impressions from ratings data. No more. This year, analysts will measure an ad’s success based on if it goes viral or is a trending topic around the world. How many people shared the ad or talked about it on Twitter? Were the reactions positive? Real-time, two-way communication between corporations and audiences will give marketers the data they need to up the advertising game and measure campaign success.
         Audi relied on social media to build awareness for their ad weeks before the game. This isn’t a new practice for the company. In 2011, they got 2 million YouTube ad views prior to the game and last year that figure doubled. This year, Audi allowed the public to vote on YouTube for this year’s Super Bowl ad ending.
         Coke’s ad this year is promoting a social media game. Their 60-second spot depicts 3 teams trying to get a giant bottle of Coke. The ad ends in a cliffhanger and it’s up to the audience will choose who wins the coke. Subsequently, the audience will choose their final 30-second spot that will air at the end of the game showing the outcome of the race. Coke is creating an online conversation.
          The question is what hashtags will trend during the game. In recent interviews, Super Bowl players expressed fearing their team names being next to #lose. When Sunday rolls around, I’m going to sit in front of my TV, with my french onion dip, and see how corporate marketers across industries are approaching social media integration into their marketing strategy. Also, waiting to see which ad is the first to make me giggle. What are you looking forward to this Super Bowl Sunday?