Digital marketing and advertising, going mobile, streaming, interactive TV, live tweeting. One thing all of these venues have in common is technology. Technology is the driving force behind how we consume our media, decide on a purchase or supply us with brand information.

Last week on the blog, we discussed how social media and technology affected the State of the Union and TV viewing. In that blog, we lightly touched upon the upcoming SuperBowl and corresponding BrandBowl. Today, I am going to expand on that a bit. Twitter and the SuperBowl are not new cohorts. The hashtag for BrandBowl has been around for several years. Each year brands are finding more and more creative ways to incorporate hashtags into their game day ads. They don't just use a hashtag of their brand name, nope they use one that corresponds to their ad, like say Budweiser's "Puppy Love" from 2014, which officially had the hashtag "BestBuds" at the end. When viewers communicate on Twitter about the ads, they either use the hashtag the brand highlights in the ad or comes up with their own that catches on.

This year, it seems more than ever that brands are trying to get even more exposure out of their big ad buys by starting pre-game, I mean a week or so pre-game. Take Pepsi for instance. They have an ad about the first halftime. The ad is a promotion for the Pepsi halftime show featuring Katy Perry. I have to say, that I thought this was brilliant! Very creative and wide audience appeal.

There is also Doritos. Doritos is often in the top 5 of BrandBowl ads, and they want to make sure they stay there. They have an active campaign going to allow the fans to pick a game day ad! And, then you have GoDaddy. They are notorious for having controversial ads on game-day. Typically their ad offends someone. Well, this year they tried to piggy-back on the Budweiser "Puppy Love" ad with a cute puppy ad of their own, only to be met with backlash this week. The ad depicts what could be construed as promoting controversial puppy mills. GoDaddy heard the outcry and has publicly said they will pull the ad, and CEO Blake Irving tweeted the following "Thank you @animalrescuers for the candid feedback. What should have been a fun and funny ad clearly missed the mark and we will not air it,".

The time and money that brands are spending on BrandBowl and now the ads leading up to their game day ads is escalating. It is a clear indicator that major brands are embracing technology and digital media. They understand the driving force behind digital marketing and advertising. The power of the hashtag in a tweet or on an Instagram image is huge and trackable! The data a company can mine from hashtag usage is huge. Some brands even get in on the fun without even paying to run an ad. Take for instance Oreo's Twitter feed during the blackout, it is said to be one of the biggest digital hits of the night and Oreo didn't even spend big bucks on a game day ad. Nope, they used quick thinking and instantly launched a social media campaign.

Many in years past couldn't image how technology, social media and TV could co-exist. Well, co-exist they do and enhance the experience for millions of viewers and fans.  Statistics show that Budweiser had 1,309,403 social media mentions!  This is real time marketing gold. And, this year will be just as impressive. What ad's are you looking forward to? Do you participate on social media during the game or are you strictly a BrandBowl participant? Live tweeting, real-time marketing, mobile, hashtags and social media are just another way that technology enhances the way businesses function and enhance experiences.