Tweet Yourself to “Social Bowl Bingo”During the Super Bowl
While Super Bowl XLV will soon be remembered as just another Roman numeral in a long tradition of season-ending football games, within social media circles, the upcoming 2011 classic will forever be remembered as “Social Bowl I.”
Since it first kicked-off in 1967, the spectacle that is the Super Bowl has grown in visibility and influence, and today stands as the single most watched television program in American history, eclipsing over 106 million viewers last year. Within an increasingly fragmented TV viewing audience (decimated by attrition thanks to cable TV, Internet options, downloadable movies, and various social media platforms), the Super Bowl now stands alone as the one remaining real-time American tradition bringing intoxicated people together for 5 hours to eat junk food and stare at a 50-inch liquid crystal display (I mean, seriously, have you ever heard someone say, “I’m going to TiVo the Super Bowl and watch it on Monday.”)
In the 12 months since the last Super Bowl, social media within corporations has transitioned from “bleeding edge” to “leading edge” in terms of marketing, advertising, brand messaging, and target audience communication. The upcoming smack-down this year will not only feature the NFC vs. the AFC going toe-to-toe for bragging rights and league dominance, but we will also witness an equally epic battle “outside the lines” as MEDIA worlds collide, pitting the entrenched, old-line guard of traditional TV commercials vs. the proliferation and power of new social media channels for reaching the Main Street mainstream audience.
Just like the upstart challenger American Football League (AFL) back in 1967, progressive and emboldened social media advocates are anxious to make their mark and show the world that they can finally compete with the big boys in the big leagues on the biggest stage and on the biggest media day of the year. To help you keep score of this “passing of the baton” during the big game, I have enclosed your own Social Bowl Bingo card below, allowing you to play along with your rowdy friends. Fox Sports (another upstart) will be airing Super Bowl XLV this year, and I’ve recently learned that XLV actually stands for the number “45” (which is exactly the number of minutes allocated for commercials this year) so be sure to have this card handy during the advertisements, and when you get 5 marks in a row, feel free to jump up and yell BINGO (or, you can just text it, and then update your Facebook wall).
Yes, it’s going to be difficult to be sociable at the Social Bowl – watching a giant TV screen while balancing a laptop in one hand and gripping a smart phone in the other – but rather than setting up a steel curtain around you, try to have fun with it. I’ve heard the cheese-spread is 2 ½ points, so I’m going with GreenBurgh by a field goal.
Douglas O’Bryon’s sanguine Soundbite Laureate moniker paints a poetic self-portrait of this adult prodigy, who enjoys nothing more than pitting man versus metaphor in a continuing fight for justice from his vantage point high above Strongsville’s suburban Serengeti.
Author and artist, bodybuilder and businessman, cereal entrepreneur and everyman, soccer Dad and MBA grad, he is a realist, idealist, and surrealist, who considers his job done when he has blended high tech with high touch into an easy to swallow Digital Casserole, which is, ironically, also the name of his blog. He is currently working his new novel, a sequel to The Titanic.