From our real-time analysis of Super Bowl XLIV advertising, we found that the beverage category lead online buzz with 24% of the conversations occurring during this year’s game. Advertisers such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper had success generating activity for their brands through mediums such as Twitter, blogs, and message boards.

Anheuser-Busch lead the beverage category with 63% of the conversations during the game. While Anheuser-Busch was most discussed among Super Bowl advertisers, Pepsi received substantial buzz from their alternative initiative - the “Pepsi Refresh Project.” The campaign seeks to spread its message through social media and spend the sum of the Super Bowl advertising budget on grants for community outreach projects.

We will be releasing a more detailed report the week of February 15^th examining the top advertisers’ online impact before, during and after the game as well as comparing Pepsi’s social media dynamics to that of the Super Bowl advertisers. Additionally, we will include an analysis of consumer favorites and highlight the companies that received the highest return on their Super Bowl advertising investment.

If you are interested in receiving our follow up report, please contact Mark Shavers (mark.shavers@collectiveintellect.com) to request a copy.

This confluence of traditional and social media also impacts our assessment of the larger market dynamics we are addressing. It is no secret print publications such as newspapers and magazines are being adversely impacted by the move to digital. Now, instead of 10 influential publications with an audience that could be relatively easily defined and measured, social mediums such as blogs, Twitter and message boards have shifted the power to the civilian journalist. A few books have addressed this phenomenon, including Scott Gant’s We’re All Journalists Now. Following this trend, we believe that with a few small modifications we will be able to substitute the terms reviewer, pundit, columnist and critic with a lone term: Journalist.

We see this as a key reason for why we are continuing to gain clients in the Media & Entertainment industry. Consumer generated media matters and traditional research/content discovery do not appear to work well when dealing with thousands of voices. Collective Intellect delivers value in this arena because we are able to harness thousands of independent voices and generate high level conclusions from these voices. And we do it 24/7, 365.

Considering our emergence in the Media & Entertainment arena, we noted with interest the recent announcement that Nielsen is selling several of its Media & Entertainment print publications, including The Hollywood Report, Backstage, Film Journal International and Billboard, (Here is a link to the Nielsen news release.) Because we are a nascent competitor to Nielsen in general and a direct competitor to Nielson Online which includes BuzzMetrics, we see the transfer of these assets to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners under the leadership of James Finkelstein, as a possible opportunity to collaborate to make these properties even more dynamic by adding real-time insights that can be gathered with our technology. We know the industry values these publications, and we hope they thrive under new ownership. However, in our view new ownership and new capital structures don’t magically improve the economics of traditional publications. Instead, Collective Intellect believes, as the real-time media age continues to unfold, that dynamic information, not just data, will be an important component of the success of leading publications. Time will tell and perhaps Collective Intellect’s real-time processing capability will play an even larger role in this.

Consumers who shop at these grocers are downright passionate about them. They’re not just going grocery shopping….they’re going to check out seasonal, exotic foods, sample new cheeses and buy those special one-of-a-kind grocery items in a friendly environment. They’re tweeting and blogging about it, too. Using CI’s semantic categorization technology to help us hone in on grocer conversations, we’ve evaluated roughly 44,600 and 12,300 conversations about Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, respectively, occurring over the past 6 months.

Do those numbers surprise you compared to the number of stores in each grocery chain? Let’s look at it this way:

Wow. Whole Foods is generating A LOT more conversations than Trader Joe’s, even though there are only 45 stores that separate the two. You could say each Whole Foods store generates 159 conversations while each Trader Joe’s generates only 38.

What’s just as interesting are the places consumers are talking. 53% of Whole Foods conversations happen on Twitter while only 29% of Trader Joe’s conversations occur on the popular microblog. Compare that with 38% of the Trader Joe’s conversations occurring on blogs while only 28% of Whole Foods conversations happen here. So why are consumers talking more about Whole Foods on Twitter and more about Trader Joe’s on blogs? And what are they talking about? Well, we can answer the second question right now utilizing the Collective Intellect proprietary auto discovery thematic artificial intelligence capbilities…

OK, there’s a lot going on here. No surprise consumers from both camps are talking about recipes, dieting and organic products. A couple bubbles that caught my eye were the Whole Foods chatter about the CEO’s healthcare comments and the friends and dinner bubbles on Trader Joe’s side.

Whole Foods CEO’s personal thoughts about healthcare really hit a nerve with consumers, and not in the warm and fuzzy way. Regarding the Trader Joe’s friends and dinner bubbles, there is interesting discussion of customers experiencing a wonderful evening with friends and family over a dinner from Trader Joe’s.

Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s: When it comes to specialty food shopping there’s a lot to listen to, a lot to garner insights from and a ton both companies can learn from their consumers. Let the shopping begin.

Twitterville is less a business manual than it is a collection of short success stories. The book is so effective because of the personal, one-on-one style with which it is written. It is both entertaining and informative, and while reading it you can’t help but feel good about social media and about the future of the world we live in as a whole. Perhaps that was why the insuppressible cynic in me kept rearing its ugly head and wondering: “is this all too good to be true?”

Allow me to explain. Very few impartial “business” books that I have read are written with as much earnestness as this one, and with such an unflappable belief in the goodness and value of the idea or goods being extolled. Throughout the book questions kept recurring in my head: “what about Twitter’s inherent ability to allow others to behave badly?”, “if Twitter becomes a platform for large companies to promote their business, why would people like me and you continue sharing personal opinions on Twitter?”, “does Twitter really represent a ‘Ville’, or are large swathes of the town’s population conspicuously absent?” Many of my questions were answered as I continued reading (one of the last chapters discusses bots, spam and other malevolent twitter techniques), but a few were not. Anyone looking for a “fair and balanced” (to steal a term from a different medium) representation of Twitter may want to consider these questions as well.

Perhaps my favorite section in the book is about IBM. On pg 132, Israel describes how thousands of IBM employees are involved in numerous conversations with analysts, customers, vendors, and media via Twitter daily, and that none of these conversations involve the selling of any goods. What is surprising is that these interactions are completely unmonitored by any of the higher-ups at IBM. Israel explains that “at IBM, employees are not just trusted to make decisions; they are directed to do so without consulting headquarters.” This struck me as somewhat miraculous: a gargantuan company allows its employees to communicate with the world freely, without fear of retribution for embarrassing the company’s name. This is all well and good and IBM certainly is to be credited for taking such an enlightened approach to business, but realistically, how many companies can and will take the same approach?

Twitter is simply a tool that allows people to communicate. It is much like Facebook and Myspace before it, and the hundreds of microblogging sites that will attempt to dethrone Twitter from the top of the Social Media sphere in the future. Twitter is as much or as little as people put into it, it can be as positive a force as people wish to make it, but can be equally as negative in the hands of anonymous wrong doers.

Seemingly, that is where Israel has fallen in love with the new medium, its ability to start communities from scratch, to give people the ability to share anything and everything from their office desk or their living room bean bag. How this is different than either Facebook or phone texting, however, I am as of yet uncertain. Twitterville is a great glimpse at the success stories (and a few words of warning about the possible failures) of the business world’s soirée into the realm of personalized social media as well as a guide into the wonders personal branding can have on ones business. It is entertaining reading and should certainly be read by anyone considering Twitter as a means to promote their company. Just keep in mind that Twitterville is not a Utopia. It is a complex, modern town just like yours or mine.

“Simply put, makers of TV programs are learning that seeding the show among fans must take place months, not just weeks, in advance. The hope is that by using new strains of social-media, TV producers will create new momentum among hard-core fans, which can then spill over to others – generating new excitement for even the most buttoned-down video properties.”

These changes are in part a reaction to declining viewership. To that end, it is clear to see the effect that viewer participation early on in the awards process has had on viewer ratings. The program, which typically generated 15 million participants, expected more than 60 million people to take part in 2010. Those are promising numbers leading into a broadcast, and they resulted in a ratings victory for the night.

Demonstrating social media savvyness, Ashton Kutcher (who was awarded Favorite Web Celeb) ustreamed his award experience online - bringing the fans that much closer to the action. By doing this, he enabled social media to help close the gap between the glamorous celebrity life and the Ordinary Joe, something that the upcoming Golden Globes are attempting to do in their own way. Their take on web integration involves a partnership with digg to provide a daily digest of coverage leading up to the broadcast. It will be interesting to see how they weave that coverage into the actual event, and how awards shows will evolve in the coming years.

While Conan O’Brien was his usual funny-self, poking fun at the possible end to his career in his opening monologue on January 12^th, consumers find nothing funny about NBC’s decision making. Moving his late-night time slot back to 12:05 ET, NBC wants to make room for Jay Leno at 11:35 ET after a disappointing shot at capturing prime-time ratings. Even less funny, Conan says that the decision will destroy the “greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting”. Whether you agree with NBC’s decision or Conan’s statement, let social media speak for itself.

Consumers have been tweeting away, making up a whopping 69% of conversation about Conan O’Brien in the past week. What are their reactions to the news? On the most active day in recent months, January 12^th, consumers rallied in support of Conan. Hash tags were developed on Twitter to show support for Conan and also for Jay Leno, however, #teamconan made up 99% of the conversation. A miserable showing by Leno’s fans and might indicate that NBC might want to re-think moving The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, before it’s too late. I wonder what Comcast would say about this?

Join the conversation— Who do you prefer: Conan or Leno? Do you think Jeff Zucker and company made the right decisions with Leno? Does the fiasco make NBCU a less attractive purchase for Comcast?

*DISCLAIMER: Collective Intellect was not commissioned by any affiliated parties in this post. The supporting data was created using CI’s next generation real time social analytics solutions and is analyzed by CI staff.

Our industry is still a new one. In the annals of sales and marketing, social media is still in its infancy. I remember growing up on a farm in Central Illinois where our main exposure to marketing every year was the bi-annual edition of the Sears-Roebuck catalog and the very special Christmas edition.

We would read through it like a novel, focusing mostly on the toy section. These days when my kids want some new Lego’s, they hop on the internet and a few days later a box shows up at our door. Sales and marketing have come a long way since the Direct Marketing Association was formed back in 1917 and the Advertising Research Foundation was founded in 1937. The social media industry is evolving and growing rapidly, and we feel that we’re on the cutting edge of the changes happening in our industry. We are thrilled to be able to push the boundaries of the industry where we encounter them as we continue to learn and grow as a company.

To communicate with a focus, we will be publishing information based on monthly industry themes relevant to our client base. We’ll also be publishing current events (including our own product launches) and Special Features highlighting leadership in our burgeoning industry.

We’ve decided that 2010 will start with a focus on the world of Media & Entertainment. In February, we plan to spotlight CPG. We debated about where to begin and it was a tough call. In 2009 our revenue emerged from six key industries – Media & Entertainment, CPG, Technology, Consumer Electronics, Pharmaceuticals and Finance. We continue to grow in each market, but we decided to begin our 2010 blogging venture with the Media & Entertainment industry because of the expanded role it will be playing here at CI in the near future with some interesting projects we are not ready to unwrap just yet.

We hope you enjoy sharing your thoughts about the new frontier of social media as much as we do. We invite you to learn along with us as we continue to explore the ever evolving world of social media.

Collective Intellect wishes you the happiest of holiday seasons! We’d like you to click right here for some cheer!

Analyzing the online conversations of these two American cereal staples over the last twelve months, there were roughly 10,300 Cap’n Crunch conversations and 30,800 Lucky Charms conversations.  Wow…Really?  Yep, and it seems like consumers like to tweet about these sugary bowls of goodness rather than blogging about them — a whopping 61% of the Cap’n Crunch conversations and 54% of the Lucky Charms conversations took place on Twitter.

So what are consumers saying, you ask?  A big theme which emerged within Cap’n Crunch conversations was about the cereal cutting up the insides of their mouths.

A theme emerging from the Lucky Charms conversations is about, you guessed it, marshmallows…

Interestingly, both Cap’n Crunch and Lucky Charms conversations occur most often on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Humm, Why?  Do cereal companies know about this?  Do they care?  Most importantly are they listening and paying attention to the posting activity of their consumers?  They should.  The US breakfast cereal industry is a $9 billion dollar revenue generating machine and ready-to-eat cereals like the two above make up 90% of the total revenue.  Cap’n and Lucky, if you’re reading this pay attention…because even if you’re not, thousands of consumers are.