Super Bowl Sunday was again this year the most-watched television broadcast, drawing over 111 million people last Sunday.  With ads costing $3.5 million per 30-seconds, many major brands pulled out all the stops—from celebrities, to animation and special effects, and even emotional spots to draw on our heartstrings.

Tim Carman of The Washington Post highlighted his picks of the best and worst of the commercials, as he explained:

“The best Super Bowl XLVI commercials, by and large, hawked neither food nor drink, but false dictators, Audi headlights, smart phones , Chevys as stunt cars and Volkswagens with a nose for pop culture.”

Almost two dozen faculty members from Michigan State University’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing voted Skechers’ ad with French bulldog, Mr. Quiggly moonwalking across the finish line, top commercial of Super Bowl XLVI from  55 commercials (according to The Detroit Free Press).  Judging was based on creativity, production and overall quality.  They rated M&M’s “naked candy” number two and Pepsi’s Elton John commercial as the “kingdom ruler” number three.

Did you bend it like Beckham with his new line of H&M underwear?  Was it Audi’s vampire party, Coca-Cola’s polar bears, John Stamos in Oiko’s Greek Yogurt that made you take notice?

Which Super Bowl ad did you like best?

You can watch them and weigh in on your faves on USA TODAY/Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter

The site lets you share your results through Facebook.  Winners will be announced tonight.

Our partner, Tech Cocktail, is in a race to sign up the most startups for the Startup America Partnership! The Startup America Partnership was launched by President Obama’s administration to support Obama’s call to celebrate, inspire and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

A new initiative of the Startup America Partnership is the Master Challenge. The Master Challenge is putting influential tech leaders head to head in a friendly competition to sign up the best young startups for Startup America. This week, Tech Cocktail is looking to beat out Startup Weekend and become the next Startup Master.

By signing up, your startup gets access to valuable resources, top tier support in industries and recognition as an economy driver. Check out examples of what signing up for Startup America could get you in Tech Cocktail’s Master Challenge article.

Or, jump on this opportunity and sign up your startup now!

All of a sudden, it seems to be everywhere.  Maybe it is because it appeals to our visual nature, is so easy to use, or because a picture can convey a thousand words, but Pinterest seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongues as of late. Over a dozen articles have been written about the platform in the past 24 hours (in my writing this post) on CNN International, The Telegraph, Fort Worth Star, PC Magazine, ZDNet, and The Frisky, to name just a few. BlogHer’s latest edition in my inbox is all about Pinterest, with many of its writers singing its virtues.  And our very own Zenzians have been addicted the past year or so, exchanging wedding dress suggestions and pinning up creative ideas, spanning personal to business.

A recent article from Lauren Indvik of Mashable sites the network’s rapid growth. Pinterest’s traffic increased by more than 4X between September 2011 and December 2011, with 7.51 million unique visitors in December alone, according to Compete. The amount of traffic it has sent elsewhere has also risen. It is a top five referrer for several apparel retailers, according to Monetate, an independent provider of testing, targeting, and personalization services for websites (search engines are still #1).

Monetate developed this Infographic, which shows (amongst other interesting facts) that Pinterest now drives more traffic than Google+.

In case you are not yet hooked…Umika Pidaparthy, Special to CNN, describes it “Think of Pinterest as a way of cataloging your passions. Members have used the website to plan weddings and holidays. Others have pinned images of clothes, recipes, architecture, art, crafts, cars and even technology.”

Pinterest allows users to follow each others’ boards and “re-pin” another person’s images. With the ability to easily download the “pin it button” on your web browser, Pinterest offers an easy way to share images, products and ideas that inspire with others (just a click of the button, while selecting the image of your choice).

You can also add a “Pin It” button for people to post products they like from your own web site. And people can now add their pins to their FaceBook timeline.

While women may be the leading users of the site, it has gained a surging number of men.  And new sites have sprung up, including the network Gentlemint, deemed as a Pinterest for “manly things”.

I asked our own Social Media Goddess (not her “official” title), Courtney O’Rourke, for feedback and she had the following to share:

“Pinterest is the stuff that dreams are made of. It’s where I go to find inspiration for many facets of life: cooking, DIY, fashion, travel, or simply to escape for a ‘few’ minutes. It’s no surprise that brands are flocking to Pinterest in the hopes that their boards and pins will inspire users and hit that emotion that is weaved throughout the site. While there are some brands that are using Pinterest in a wonderfully artful way, the landscape is not as forgiving as other networks. Brands need to be more cautious and thoughtful on Pinterest, and most importantly do their research before they can expect to be pinned to anyone’s dreams.”

As Courtney alludes, the allure of Pinterest for marketers is great. CICILYK on Babble tends to agree, “With 3.2 million users, of course Pinterest has come to the attention of marketers. In fact, I’d say that of all the social networks I’ve seen develop over the last fourteen years, Pinterest is likely the MOST natural fit for marketers because it’s visually based and everyone on there is talking about their dream items, whether it’s kitchens or crafts or food. Those dream items all require things that need to be purchased in order to complete them. In other words: Pinterest lock, meet marketing key.”

Because of this CICILYK cautions marketers need to tread lightly.  As with any social network, brands need to be aware of being too overt when it comes to trying to sell their wares on Pinterest.  Being too “ in your face”, without also thinking about what is in it for followers, can be a turn off for many and only result in negative perceptions, and ultimately, “unfollows”.

Still, Pinterest done right holds a world of potential.  At Zenzi, our brains are already abuzz with applications for brands and their advocates (bloggers, consumers, celebrities, etc.) to generate “conversation” and subtly build recognition for their ideas and products. Think sharing pictures, images and products for: planning birthday parties, creating the best ever Valentine’s Day dinner, planning your next Disney vacation…to name just a few…and ensuring welcome collaboration with just the right balance.

The possibilities are virtually endless…

We’re three weeks into the new year and just about every social media, public relations and marketing blog has weighed in what they think are the “Top Social Media Blunders of 2011.” To a PR professional, these faux pas are the stuff of nightmares, so read at your own risk. We’ve rounded up our top list of lists, but we’ve also included a few social media blunders from consumer companies below. Hopefully, there are a few lessons we can all learn from these.

Top Lists for 2011 Social Media Blunders:

• Advertising Age’s “Marketing’s Biggest Social Media Blunders of 2011”
• Ragan.com’s “What the biggest social media blunders have taught us” 
• Vocus’ “Five Easy Resolutions for Avoiding Social Media Apocalypse in 2012” 
• Inc’s “Top 12 Social Media Blunders of 2011″

Zenzi’s Top Consumer Brand Social Media Blunders:

1. Kenneth Cole Spring Collection vs. Cairo Revolution

The revolution in Cairo had begun and only hours later Kenneth Cole tweeted, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo – KC.” Not only were its Twitter followers stunned, but so was the mainstream media. As news programs covered the historic events in Cairo, they also interrupted coverage to mentioned Kenneth Cole’s poor marketing ploy. This decision was especially egregious considering people were fighting for civil liberties – some even dying along he way. Kenneth Cole later tweeted, “Re Egypt tweet: we weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment –KC.” For many, it was too little too late.

2. Entenmann & Casey Anthony

What do Entenmann and Casey Anthony have in common? Well, if you were on Twitter during Casey Anthony’s notorious trial, the trending hashtag #NotGuilty! Entenmann, the baked goods company, started incorporating trending hashtags in their tweets as a way to reach a larger audience, but in this case it went too far in many people’s mind.  Entenmann tweeted “Who’s #NotGuilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?” This tweet was either a result of ignorance or insensitivity, but regardless of the reasoning, the angry backlash was substantial.  Entenmann tried to apologize, but the damage was already done. Tech Crunch’s article “Entenmann’s Hashtag Surfing Fails Hard With #NotGuilty Tweet” noted “Entenmann’s has raised the bar for social media stupidity, taking the cup from previous #winner @KennethCole.”

3. Ragu ‘Disses’ Dads

Many companies have been chasing the ever-elusive goal of making their video go “viral.” Some companies’ videos have knocked it out of the park like Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral for SmartWater, but others have been met by crickets. Unfortunately, Ragu’s video “Dad Cooks Dinner: What is Dinnertime Like When Dad Cooks?” went viral for all the wrong reasons. The video featured a few moms discussing and poking fun at their husbands in the kitchen, but the video’s poor editing, unpolished nature and lack of comedic timing made it more offensive than funny. Several ‘daddy bloggers’ got a hold of the video and publicly criticized Ragu for this sexist view on family dynamics.

4. Chrysler Drops the F-Bomb

Chrysler had just launched the Imported from Detroit campaign at the last Super Bowl, when an employee at New Media Strategies used the F-bomb under Chrysler’s Twitter handle.  To make matters worse, he also was using it to describe Detroit drivers. The tweet said, “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to (insert expletive here) drive.” Needless to say the employee was fired and New Media Strategies lost the Chrysler Group account, but the damage was done. Apparently, the NMS employee thought they were logged onto their own personal account. Yikes! For more information, see this article from AdAge.com. 

5. NetFlix Forgets Twitter

Lastly, you’ve most likely heard about NetFlix making a separate company for its DVD-rental service called Qwikster. Immediately, customers began canceling their memberships altogether. Many took to Twitter to express their displeasure, but they were met by @Qwikster, a “foul-mouthed stoner” as Mashable described him. Netflix had failed to secure the @Qwikster Twitter handle before the launch. The Twitter account was filled with tweets about girls and smoking weed – not the image any company would want to be associated with, especially when announcing service changes that consumers are already unhappy with.

Ultimately, if there is anything to take away from these situations, it’s that you can’t be too careful. Whether you work for a PR agency or in-house, you are controlling the reputation and future of the companies you represent. One of the best ways to avoid these kinds of mistakes is to create editorial calendars, get tweets and Facebook posts approved ahead of time, schedule future posts and have separate Hootsuite or TweetDeck accounts for your clients and personal accounts. A little preparation and organization can go a long way!

Can you think of one I haven’t mentioned? Which do you think is the worst?