Social Media Research Source #1

Steinberg, Brian. "Who doesn't want a piece of Big Game ad action? While lion's share of spend still goes to TV, search, social networks and others cash in." Advertising Age 83.5 (2012): 2. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This source investigates the trend for companies who are moving away from NBC’s traditionally coveted multi-million dollar televised ad spots during Superbowl Sunday, to advertising online targeting the increased traffic on social networking and file sharing websites on the same day. This points toward the increasing trend for people to engage with multiple types of media at the one time, watching the Superbowl with a tablet in hand and a couple of social media sites at the ready.

Examples of this type of advertising on social media sites include:

· Facebook has offered ad packages to all the advertisers sponsoring the Super Bowl broadcast on NBC, with Pepsi, Samsung Mobile, General Motors and Anheuser-Busch InBev supporting the social network's alliance with USA Today's popular Ad Meter. Coca-Cola is using Facebook to display the antics of its animated polar bears, who will weigh in on the gridiron action from a special "page" on the site.

This is a more standard way to use Facebook to market a brand, in that it’s making use of Facebook’s already established advertising columns rather than joining the network itself.

· GetGlue, the entertainment check-in site, has secured a deal with Pepsi in which the beverage maker will award prizes to people who check in during pregame programming and the game itself.

This is an example of how companies are developing marketing strategies integrating the somewhat ‘virtual’ idea of “checking in” to physical spaces on social media websites.

· "If last year was a '10'" in terms of the intensity of new-media outlets calling on advertisers who want to play off the Super Bowl, "this year goes to 11," said Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer at General Motors.

This could be interesting to look at as a case study of how different companies are moving away from marketing on a traditionally broadcast televised medium towards the more participatory marketing strategies that online social media sites offer.