The brands and messages behind this year’s historic Super Buzz…

Yesterday Fox reported that more than 107 million people tuned in to watch its broadcast of Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in history — and positioning the NFL’s Super Bowl hands-down as the world’s most-watched television programming of modern times. Voluminous media coverage before and after the game informs us of the exorbitant prices that brands pay to tie-in their marketing — and of their successes and failures. Today I wanted to share two different lenses into the companies who boldly ventured into this year’s Super Buzz.

First, I encourage you to visit a story written by Dorian Benkoil for the Jack Myers Media Business Report, which reports on “Super Bowl Websites: Winners and Losers.” Since most of this year’s much-hyped ads were designed to drive web traffic, Dorian’s analysis provides an interesting quick-read on the bottom-line results of this year’s Super Bowl marketers, while also providing the links (where available) to go see what the shouting was all about. And next, in the event that you somehow have missed the ads themselves, Advertising Age’s Super Bowl XLII coverage has them all available on-demand, along with the news-worthy highlights from the events surrounding the day that the New York Giants defied expectations and upset the all-but-perfect New England Patriots.

Ford steals the show in brandchannel’s product placement awards

For anyone who has never worked in the film industry, I imagine one of the great pleasures of watching movies is to be able to enjoy scenes where Chevrolets, bottles of Aquafina and Budweisers appear on-screen without interrupting the viewer’s escapist fantasy. For the rest of us, our loved ones and unfortunate others seated nearby, such product placements prompt involuntary nudges, head wags, eye-rolls and whispered rhetorical ponderings of, “How much do you think they paid for that?” My wife, some guests and I had that experience repeatedly Saturday night watching Michael Bay’s “The Island,” which I still enjoyed immensely, despite all the jarring, overt product placements.

If you too suffer from acute product placement awareness syndrome, or if you just want to better understand this extremely powerful marketing phenonemon, you’re bound to appreciate this year’s edition of the annual Product Placement Awards feature from brandchannel and writer Abram Sauer. To give you a taste, here’s a list of this year’s top category champions.
. Brandcameo 2006 Award for Overall Product Placement: Ford
. Brandcameo 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement: Everlast
. The Coca-Cola Kid Award for Achievement in Title: The Devil Wears Prada
. The E.T./Reese’s Award for Achievement in Press Coverage: Casino Royale
. Brandcameo 2006 Wayne’s World Award for Product Placement Placement: Thank You for Smoking
. Brandcameo 2006 Award for Best Supporting Support: Belstaff
. Brandcameo 2006 Award for Impact: Night at the Museum

Be sure to check-out the feature itself for the rest of the winners and Abram’s interesting analysis. Beyond defining Best Practices in this glamorous field of marketing, the information is sure to add color to our whispered musings when next we experience cinematicus interruptus courtesy of Ford and company….