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In a dramatic final quarter of Super Bowl XLVI, the New York Giants came back from a halftime deficit last night to route the New England Patriots with a final score of 21-17. See the NFL (@nfl) Super Bowl Game Highlights.

The close score throughout the night kept viewers watching to the end, which was good news for advertisers, who paid $3.5 million per 30-second spot to air their commercials. If you missed the ads, you can see coverage at

·         SuperBowl-Ads.com

·         Advertising Age (@AdAge) “Instant Replay: See All the Super Bowl Spots Again and Again”

·         ESPN (@espn) "Super Bowl Ads"

·         Adweek (@Adweek) live blogging transcript and "The Spot: Return of the Jedi" and portions of all the spots edited into a 2-minute video 

·         Mashable (@mashable) “Super Bowl 2012 Commercials: Watch Them All Here”

·         Unruly Media (@unrulymedia) Viral Video (@VideoChart) Chart

·         USA TODAY Ad Team (@USATAdBeat) Ad Meter and “Super Bowl Ads Go To The Dogs”

·         BrandBowl (@brandbowl) “Super Bowl Ad Chart” (#brandbowl)

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you advertise your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

On Practical Ecommerce (@practicalecomm), contributing editor Paul Chaney (@pchaney) says blogs have advantages over social media platforms when it comes to brand marketing, including the ability to improve SEO results and the chance to add a personal touch by having one person communicate the brand's message directly. Here are his 5 points:

1. Blogging Can Improve Search Engine Optimization

2. Blogs Add a Personal Touch

3. Blogs Help Build Brand

4. Blogs Attract Media Attention

5. Blogs Exploit Marketable Niches

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you manage your social media marketing strategy.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media/Word Of Mouth tab.

Brand owners must pay attention to their “digital balance sheet” as the rise of ecommerce, the popularity of mobile devices, and the growth of social media reshape the trading climate internationally, according to The Digital Manifesto: How Companies and Countries Can Win in the Digital Economy by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) (@BCG_Consultant).

The management consultancy says the Internet economy of the G20 countries — a group including Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, and the USA — should hit $4.2tr in 2016, up from $2.3tr in 2010 due in large part to the rapid expansion of the Web user base, which is set to surge from 1.9bn to 3bn during the same period (45% of the global population).

“No company or country can afford to ignore this development. Every business needs to go digital,” says David Dean, a coauthor of the report and a senior partner at BCG. “The ‘new’ Internet is no longer largely Western, accessed from your PC. It is now global, ubiquitous, and participatory.”

The BCG report charts several major shifts in the use and nature of the Internet:

·         From a Luxury to an Ordinary Good.

·         From Developed to Emerging Markets.

·         From PC to Mobile.

·         From Passive to Participatory.

BCG says companies that make extensive use of the Internet — including social media — to sell, market, and interact with their customers and suppliers grow faster than those that do not.

The study recommends that brands focus on their “digital balance sheet:”

digital assets comprised of

·         Information and analytics about customers, suppliers, employees, and competitors

·         Connectivity and feedback loops that lubricate the digital enterprise

·         Intellectual property that bestows a competitive digital advantage

·         The people, culture, and capabilities needed to execute and deliver

and digital liabilities (ways of working that handicap the ability to exploit their digital assets) of

·         Organizational structures, incentives, and cultures that collectively discourage adaptability and risk taking

·         IT systems, processes, and tools that limit flexibility and focus

·         Rigid strategies unsuited to a volatile business environment

Read the news release.

Read The Digital Manifesto (registration required).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you determine your own brand’s digital balance sheet.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Social media outlets including blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, have had an upsurge in credibility over the past year, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 (@EdelmanPR), which examines trust in 4 key institutions — government, business, media, and NGOs — as well as communications channels and sources, measuring attitudes across 25 countries.

Trust in government shows an exceptionally sharp drop in the 2012 Barometer. Trust in business is also decreasing. But trust in social media has taken a dramatic increase.

Overall, there is a huge drop in trust for CEOs while trust in persons such as regular employees and “a person like yourself” is increasing dramatically. In other words, people tend to distrust messages communicated by CEOs through traditional corporate channels, but have increased trust in messages from their peers, communicated through for example social media channels.

Read more here.

In this video, Richard Edelman introduces the findings from the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer.

Read the Executive Summary.

See the Slide Presentation.

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard for marketing and publishing professionals.

According to a survey of senior executives conducted by Weber Shandwick (@WeberShandwick) in partnership with Forbes Insights (@ForbesInsights), 84% believe their brand’s sociability is not up to world-class standards.

In the report “Socializing Your Brand: A Brand’s Guide to Sociability”  Weber Shandwick offers 9 tips. The study finds that being a world class social brand means interacting with target audiences and creating original content that heightens the interactive experience, going beyond broadcasting news, deals, or events..

1. It’s not the medium — and it’s more than the message

2. Put your brands in motion

3. Integrate or die

4. Make social central

5. Listen more than you talk

6. Count what matters — meaningful engagement

7. Think global

8. Go outside to get inside

9. Be vigilant

Read the report.

Infographic: horizontal pdf / vertical jpg

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Branding tab.

Because Somersault (@smrsault) is interested in effectively communicating messages, whether it’s a subject line on an email message, a day-long seminar, or a long-term branding campaign, we’re sharing with you this video that poignantly demonstrates what NOT to do when attempting to reach an audience during a presentation. It’s produced for Habitudes For Communicators by Tim Elmore (@TimElmore), president of Growing Leaders (@GrowingLeaders). Can you relate to it? ☺

Let Somersault help you clearly communicate your message (your content) to your audience.

The long-lasting value of branding can be seen in the news. Maureen Farrell (@maureenmfarrell) of CNNMoney (@CNNMoneyMarkets) writes that “neither bankruptcy nor a liquidation can kill iconic brands.”

Before the ink was even dry on Hostess Brands' bankruptcy filing, interested buyers were already digging into the potential value of the Hostess name and [its brands]....

Should Hostess Brands choose to liquidate rather than reorganize, the brand names - Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread - will very likely live on.

Buyers have made multi-million dollar bets on brand names like Polaroid, Sharper Image, and even Borders that continue to resonate with consumers even after the parent company has liquidated.

“The marketplace has, without question, become a lot more sophisticated in terms of intellectual property since the world came to an end in the fourth quarter of 2008,” said Jason Frank, a managing director in Hilco's appraisal business which values liquidated brands. “Before that everyone knew brand names were worth something but no one put much value on it.”

....Many potential buyers are also weighing the value of Kodak's brand-name since there's been a lot of talk that it may consider filing for bankruptcy. For now the company plans to restructure out of court.

....even brands with significantly less cache like Borders can attract eight-figure investments. Barnes & Noble spent $13.9 million to buy the rights to its defunct rival’s brand name....

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) and let us help you plan your brand strategy.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Branding tab.

Co.Design (@FastCoDesign) editor Belinda Lanks (@BelindaLanks) has selected the following essays as a way of sparking #innovation in the coming year:

·         What Made Steve Jobs So Great? by Cliff Kuang (@cliffkuang)

·         4 Ways To Spot Markets Ripe For Disruption by Luke Williams (@LukeGWilliams)

·         The 6 Pillars Of Steve Jobs's Design Philosophy by Cliff Kuang (@cliffkuang)

·         There Are 3 Types Of Innovation. Here's How To Manage Them by Conrad Wai (@sventured)

·         Why Do B-Schools Still Teach The Famed 4Ps Of Marketing, When 3 Are Dead? by Jens Martin Skibsted (@jmskibsted) and Rasmus Bech Hansen (@rasbech)

·         The 3 Biggest Barriers To Innovation, And How To Smash Them by Luke Williams (@LukeGWilliams)

·         Why Do We Hold Fast To Losing Strategies? by Tim Harford (@TimHarford)

·         Branding Is About Creating Patterns, Not Repeating Messages by Marc Shillum (@threepress)

·         Wanna Create A Great Product? Fail Early, Fail Fast, Fail Often by Jeremy Jackson (@jeremy_jackson)

·         4 Keys To Creating Products For The Lady Gaga Generation by Sarah Nagle (@SmartDesign)

·         The Mac Inventor's Gift Before Dying: An Immortal Design Lesson for His Son by Aza Raskin (@azaaza)

Be sure to bookmark Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

iPad storyteller Joe Sabia (@joesabia) introduces his TED (@tedtalks) audience to Lothar Meggendorfer (Lothar Meggendorfer at University of North Texas Libraries), who created a bold technology for storytelling: the pop-up book. Sabia shows how new technology has always helped tell stories.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Infographic: The Periodic Table of Storytelling.”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you tell your story and promote your brand.