Methodical Madness

The Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads of 2010

The Super Bowl is the time of year when many companies show the world their creative "A-game" and set the tone of their marketing efforts for the rest of year. 2010 showed a surprisingly solid batch of commercials during this year's Super Bowl. We wanted to take a moment to show you the best, the average and the worst ads from the 2010 Super Bowl.

The Best

Home Away Griswalds

The classic 80’s movie National Lampoon's Vacation gets an updating thanks to Homeaway.com. I don’t know what they do, but I want to go to the site to see the rest of the movie.

Coca Cola - Hard Times / Simpsons

Coke and The Simpsons, it’s the best match since The Simpsons and Butterfinger. 

Volkswagen - PunchDub

Volkswagen plays with the slug bug game and gives a great punch line.

Dr Pepper Cherry - Dr Love / Little Kiss

Kiss and little people. What could be better? Nothing, that's what.

Bud Light - Asteroid

Bud Light’s theme for the Super Bowl this year appears to be avoiding disasters through Bud Light. The world’s worst astronomers discover Bud Light makes it all better.

Google - Parisian Love

This ad does a great job of showing how Google is used in life. Surprisingly effective.

McDonald's - Play You For it

McDonalds revisits familiar territory with a new version of the classic Michael Jordan/Larry Bird commercial from the 90’s.

Snickers - The Game

Abe Vigoda and Betty White in the same commercial! Score one for Snickers.

Godaddy - Movies / Danica Patrick

GoDaddy.com doesn’t shy away from the sexist commercials but for once, they don’t just focus on women with large breasts.

Vizio - Beyonce / HDTV 

I don’t know what it will do but I want it.

The Last Airbender

It’s hard to believe that M. Night Shyamalan has a movie that anyone wants to see, but this trailer makes it look very promising.

The Average

Bud Light - Plane Crash

LOST has returned and Bud Light cashes in on the phenomena. 

Boost Mobile - Shuffle

Now here is something I never thought I would see. Mobile Boost dusted off the Bears Super Bowl Shuffle (one of the most embarrassing sports events ever) and made it fun. 

Cars.com - Timothy Richman

Fans of Wes Anderson should enjoy this little slice of life ad.

Teleflora - Valentines day/ Don Rickles talking tulips

Don Rickles makes everything better. 

Denny's - Chicken Warning

Good day to be an American (unless you have cholesterol issues). Bad day to be a chicken.

Doritos - Underdog

Doritors returns with their fan created commercials. Speak boy, speak.

Focus on Family - Pam & Tim Tebow

Anti-abortion group Focus on Family does a surprisingly good ad that isn’t political. It even has a little humor in it.

Shutter Island

Great trailer that reminds us that Scorsese can do horror just as well as gangster films.

Honda Accord Crosstour - Squirrel

I have no idea what this has to do with Honda but it sure is pretty.

EA - Dante's Inferno - Go To hell

Don’t know how the gameplay is, but it looks amazing.

The Worst

Coca Cola  - Sleepwalker 

A sleepwalker risks his life to get a Coke. It felt neither creative nor inventive. Coke has done so many great ads over the year, this one just felt lazy and uninspired.

Michelob Ultra - Lance

Lance Armstrong hawking beer just feels wrong.

Bud Light - Bridge Out 

Bud Light gives us a swing and a miss. There appears to be a small town of highly functioning alcoholics that would risk their lives by forming a human bridge to get beer. Why?

Bridgestone - "Your Tires or Your Life" 

What starts as a nice homage to Mad Max style films ends in a bit of misogyny. Fail.

Dockers - Wear the pants

Free pants not withstanding, watching a bunch of pudgy men walk around in their underwear is not good for anyone.

ETrade - Baby Girlfriend

The Etrade babies have over-stayed their welcome. Time to put them down for a nap.

Bud Light - Light House

I was waiting for that moment when the house crashed down around them because they drank out a retaining wall.

Monster.com - Fiddling Beaver 

I’m not really sure what they where thinking when they created this idea because a beaver that can play the fiddle certainly doesn't need help getting a job. It's pretty amazing all on its own.

Hyundai - Paint

Calling a Hyundai a beautiful work of art is really stretching the meaning of ”art”.

Dodge Charger - Man's Last Stand

I’m not sure if they are saying men are a bunch of slobs or women are shrews. Regardless, the Dodge Charger is here to straighten it all out.

CBS Late Show - Dave 

I don’t know how CBS did it, but having Dave, Oprah and Jay together watching the Super Bowl was comically awkward. For three people that are in front of millions on a daily basis, they couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable in front of the camera.

There you have it. The good, the average and the worst of the 2010 Super Bowl ads. What were your favorites and which did you think were the most ill conceived?

The best Super Bowl ads of the decade

This Sunday is the ad world’s Christmas. The Super Bowl stopped being about football for most of us a long time ago (especially for us working in advertising). But it’s not just about catching the funniest ads during the game, now it’s seeing which gets the most hits on YouTube. 

So we decided to dig up our favorite Super Bowl TV spots on YouTube and get a bit nostalgic. Here are our favorite ads from each of the last ten years. 

2000 – The Cat Herders 

EDS shows us what the wild west would have looked like if it had been settled by a crazy cat lady.

  


2001 – Running of the Squirrels 

EDS claims the first two spots with another bizarre animal themed ad. 
 

2002 – Crazy Legs

Apparently, Levis jeans turn your legs into silly putty. 
 

2003 – Office Linebacker

The violence of football invades the office in this hilarious spot from Reebok. So funny we’ve embedded the long version.

2004 – Alien in the Office

Bloodthirsty aliens prefer FedEx. As if that wasn’t obvious already.

2005 – Fantasy Creatures Invade the Living Room

A father lies to his child so he doesn’t have to share his Emerald Nuts. But she has friends in high places.
 

2006 – The Dragon

A beautifully animated spot from United Airlines about the magic of flight.
 

  

2007 –Learning English

A group of immigrants learn the finer points of regional dialects from a Bud Light spokesman.
 

2008 – Magnetic Attraction 

Not many things are more satisfying than watching Justin Timberlake take a beating…except maybe Adam Sandberg randomly appearing in drag.

2009 – The Evil Plot

Alec Bladwin tells us how Hulu is taking cerebral gelatinizing to the next level. We don’t stand a chance.

Let us know if we missed your favorite. Go to The Duffy Agency website for an early peek at this year’s Super Bowl ads. Stay tuned for Monday’s full review of the highs and lows of Sunday's showing.       

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry. 

What’s in a name? If the name is iPad, a great big joke.

Steve Jobs helped menstrual humor go mainstream. That’s probably not what you’re looking for when you launch a new product.

 

Apple has been grooming the public over the past decade. With the release of the iPod Touch and the iPhone, we’ve been subtly conditioned by Apple to use the iPad. From initial reports, using the iPad is just like using the iPhone, only bigger. With 75 million iProducts sold, Apple has a built-in audience virtually guaranteeing success. 

But that doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable. In 2009, we saw Tropicana redesign their brand and suddenly disappear from the market as people couldn’t find their distinctive logo. Gatorade changed their logo to a big “G” and fans were not amused. Now Apple has launched the iPad. For those of us not baptized into the Cult of Apple, it’s easy to sit back and laugh at the product and the somewhat unfortunate connotations the name brings to mind.

When it was still rumored, the iPad had lots of names including iTablet and iSlate (both of which would have been a better choice). It’s curious that Apple would pick a name that could so easily be mocked and linked with feminine hygiene products. In a blog post on the New York Times, Claire Cain Miller goes into detail about how women have cringed at the name. On Twitter, the word “iTampon” is more popular than “iPad”, with the hashtag #iTampon hitting the top spot for trending topics. Here are some of the funniest tweets: 
 

@celeva93: Uncomfortable cramping and bloating? There's an app for that 

@godispretend Steve Jobs, I'ma let you finish, but Moses had the greatest tablet announcement of all time. #itampon

@melizeche "I'm not buying an iPad. Period." #iTampon

@kathycacace: Okay, just one more. The iPad: protecting your data from embarrassing incidents. #iTampon 

@Johnpapa: "64 gig iPad will forever be known as the heavy flow model." #iTampon 

@Lymed: Does the Period Tracker app come free? #iPad, #iTampon

@NellMood: It's so beautiful when an electronics company finally becomes a woman... #iPad #iTampon

@vlvtjones: So will iffy Wifi coverage be called iSpotting? #iPad #iTampon

@DaniGray: You can do things with #iTampon that you just can't do with #iPad - like biking, horseback riding and swimming.LOL

@Knightd427: Please follow all safety precautions when applying iPad. Remember, iPad does not protect against STDs such as SYFY. #itampon

And then there was the obligatory “Hitler responds” video:

Someone even found a MadTV sketch from 2006 that featured an iPad from Apple, though it has a slightly different use.

Apple had to have known they were going to alienate women and become the source of ridicule for others. The connection is to obvious. The question has been jokingly asked, “Are there any women on the marketing team for the iPad?” You have to wonder if they were there, why didn’t any of them object? The good news for Apple is they have such a strong brand that most of the criticism will have no long term effects on the sales of the product, but if a weaker brand had released this, it would probably have sunk the product before it went out the door.

Early reactions to the iPad have been mixed. Gizmondo is giving it a big thumbs down but TechCrunch has been very positive. It’s too early to tell if the iPad will be the big hit Apple hopes it will be or if it will be another toy used by a few to feel more elite. In the meantime, there is a heavy flow of jokes to be made at Apple’s expense while we wait to get the product in our hands.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

A complete list of Apple iPad features

Steve Jobs’ latest creation has the tech world in an uproar, but will it really revolutionize our lives?

 

The level of excitement surrounding the release of Apple’s newest product, the iPad, is normally reserved for the likes of Star Trekkers, comic book geeks and sci-fi convention goers. The Cult of Apple is strong among those that consider themselves to be hip and trendy. There are very good reasons for this fanboy behavior. Over the past decade, Steve Jobs has taken his company from the brink of collapse to one of the strongest and best known brands today, launching products that have helped shape our modern lives. Coming off a string of hits like iTunes, the iPod and iPhone, Apple’s iPad is sure to be a must have product.

The internet has been a buzz with rumor of what exactly this product will be and tonight the rumors can end. Jason Calacanis leaked many features earlier today through his Twitter account. Jobs has finally revealed his latest brain child and the list of features is even more impressive than we expected. 

• .5 inches thin
• 1.5 pounds
• 9.7 inch IPS display
• powered by 1GHz Apple A4 chip
• Available in 16 GB, 32GB or 64GB 
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• full capacity multitouch
• WiFi 802.11n
• Accelerator + compass
• Speaker
• Microphone
• 30 pin connector
• 10 hour battery life, with a month of standby
• resizeable apps
• runs all iPhone apps
• apps bought for iPhone can be transferred to iPad without additional cost
• iPhone SKD support the iPad
• built in iTunes store, YouTube and YouTube HD
• smooth iPhone like scrolling
• built-in calendar
• click through photos and email like iPhone
• change view screen from horizontal to vertical by movie iPad
• menus pop down from the top
• onscreen popup keyboard
• iPhoto access with Google geolocations tied in
• iTunes access is similar to the laptop interface
• GPS
• built in painting app
• live video within apps
• iBooks, Amazon Kindle like book reader. They have deals in place with Simon & Schuster, Penguin, HarperCollins, MacMillan and Hatchett Book Group.
• changeable font in iBooks
• iWorks redesigned for iPad
• iWorks apps will be priced at $9.99 a piece
• projector connection
• syncs to iTunes like iPod and iPhone does via USB
• $14.99 for up to 250 MB of data
• $29.99 for unlimited data
• free use of ATT WiFi hotspots
• iPad 3G models come unlocked and uses new GSM micro SIMs
• international deals by June/July
• pricing starts at $499 up to $699
• shipping in 60 days
• keyboard docking station
• Kindle like case can be used as a stand
• no multitasking
• no phone
• no camera
• no built in DVD player

Only time will tell if the iPad will be the next iPhone or the next Newton. All signs point to it being the former, but there’s certainly room for failure. It’s not a cheap piece of hardware (and there’s a bit of a recession going on, last I heard), and exactly what it’ll do for your average Joe to change their day-to-day life isn’t crystal clear. The iPod let us carry thousands of songs in our pocket. The iPhone turned mobile phones into mobile computers. What mobile need is the new tablet really satisfying? The need to carry an entire mobile entertainment center with us wherever we go?

If you’re planning on buying an iPad, leave a comment and tell us why you think it’s worth putting down your hard earned cash for when you’ve already got a laptop, an MP3 player and a smart phone. As for us, we’re still debating whether or not to join the fans camping out overnight to get one the day it’s released. Maybe we’ll see you there. 

APPLE FACTS:

250 million iPods sold

284 Apple Stores

50 million visitors last quarter

140,000 apps

3 billion downloads

50.6 billion in revenue last year

World's largest mobile device company

Rumored Apple Tablet Features

 

The highly anticipated Apple Tablet/iSlate/iPad is being announced today.  Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis on his Twitter profile leaked some of the presumed features of the new device. He has been playing with one for the past two weeks. If what he says proves to be true, then Steve Jobs will once again have out done himself. But, the road to success hasn’t always been an easy one for Apple and their list of bombed devices almost out weights their successes. Jason lists the following features.

• connects to other tablets over wifi for gaming
• two cameras for video conferencing, one in the front and one in the back
• solar panel to help recharge the battery
• thumbpads on each side for mouse gestures
• fingerprint identification
• runs multiple apps at the same time
• OLED screen
• price will be $599, $699 and $799 depending on size and memory
• built in HDTV tuner and pvr
• wireless keyboard and mouse for TV

Fans have their hopes set so astronomically high there could well be a major letdown looming. But if it can do everything we're dreaming it can, maybe it will be that next leap forward.  We’ll have to wait and see what materializes later today. 

You can watch the big reveal at these sites.

Macrumorslive

Engadget

Gizmodo Live

Svenska Macworld

Slashgear

Methodical Madness needs your vote

Methodical Madness closed out 2009 winning the blog of month for November. Then we were short-listed by Social Media Examiner along with 20 others for the distinction of the world's Top 10 Social Media Blogs. Our fellow finalists include a roster of stellar blogs like  Chris Brogan, CopyBlogger, Mashable , and Social Media Explorer . Winners to be decided soon by jury.

Methodical Madness is also short-listed with 12 other finalists on Fuel Line's Ad Agency Blog of the Year. Please VOTE before Friday, January 22. Below you can see the Fuel Lines poll results live. 

CLICK HERE to VOTE for The Duffy Agency

How Twitter can (and can’t) change the world

Acting through Twitter helps, but it can’t end there

When a crisis hits, most of us feel a gut instinct to help. But most of us won’t go that far out of our way to do something. That’s exactly why Twitter has inspired such huge numbers of people to get involved in causes: they can contribute to a better world in 140 characters or less (or at least feel like they have). Millions have devoted their time and money to solving the world’s biggest issues. But for that effort to not go to waste, we need to get our feet back on the ground and accept that social media can’t solve the world’s problems by itself – it can only contribute to the hands on solution. Many of us seem to be losing sight of this.

Losing sight is understandable considering Twitter’s remarkable achievements. Within hours of the 7.0 earthquake rocking Haiti, Twitter was giving people a way to show the world images of the carnage and a medium to tell their stories. With the country’s infrastructure devastated, there weren’t many other options for getting the message out. And with that message spreading across Twitter like wildfire, millions opened their wallets to support relief efforts – including more than $20 million donated to the Red Cross’s text message campaign.

  

But while the donation is instant and simple, relief getting to the people is far from it. The mobile industry has regulations which delay the donations by 90 days, and the aid that is available is delayed in getting to the people due to a lack of rescue workers. In other words, there are great big on the ground problems that need people’s help which Twitter can’t solve, but aren’t getting due attention. The people in need are still facing a dire situation, but that is masked to some extent when we go on about the impressive amount of involvement that’s taken place.

The quake highlights both the inherent triumphs and shortcomings of what a Twitter campaign by itself is capable of. Social media efforts need to have comprehensive strategies – from your computer screen to the end result – to accomplish their goals. That probably sounds obvious, but how many people do you think write their tweet, feel like they’ve done their part and forget about the issue? Sometimes social media provides answers that are in fact a little too easy to be true, and leaves people feeling absolved of responsibility anyway. 

It’s still early days in utilizing Twitter in crisis response, and its ability to generate massive, global awareness within minutes of an event is already a landmark achievement in the history of communication. Never before have we been able to make so many people aware of a crisis so quickly, and then get them to do something. But we have to get real about what Twitter and social media can accomplish before they will truly change the world for the better. If action stops at the keyboard, it will only amount to a drop in the ocean. What you do out there in the real world is still what wins the day. 

Though it isn’t the whole solution, money is still desperately needed to save lives in Haiti. Check out our previous post to learn 10 ways you can contribute, including campaigns to send workers into the field.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry. 

10 ways you can help the people of Haiti right now

Do your bit in just a few clicks

The devastation in Haiti is on a level scarcely imaginable for most of us. It’s made doubly nightmarish by the fact that Haiti is far from being one of the wealthier countries in the world. But millions of dollars are being donated through internet fund raising campaigns that allow people to lend a hand instantly. To make your contribution of desperately needed funding, check out the options below. And after you’ve made a donation, tweet a link to the organization’s site or write about it on Facebook.

Remember to be wary of giving money to an unknown group, as scam sites have popped up to take advantage of people’s good will, and every dollar counts as it will help provide desperately needed medical supplies and shelter. If you’re unsure about a charity group, check out the Better Business Bureau’s site dedicated to reviewing charity organizations.

Most of these sites suggest donation amounts, but you can enter whatever amount of money you have to spare. Every little bit will help.


Oxfam’s emergency response team (whose regional headquarters happen to be in Haiti) is working hard to provide water and sanitation services in the hope of stemming the spread of disease that usually follows this kind of disaster. More money means more clean water for the people.

Google Support Disaster Relief Google pitched in the first million dollars themselves, but there’s a long way to go in recovering from the quake. On their disaster relief page, you can quickly and simply submit whatever amount you want donated to either UNICEF, who are working to help children affected by the earthquake, or CARE who are sending rescue workers to the country. There’s also an interactive Google Earth map on the page that gives you a look at how badly the country was hit.

Doctors Without Borders are saving lives on the ground by providing emergency medical care. The donated money will help them supplement Haiti’s devastated infrastructure.

United Nations World Food Program is pooling resources to provide food for 2 million people affected by the earthquake over the next 6 months. Already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti needs help more than ever to feed their hungry.

AMURT With a decade of relief work in Haiti under their belt, AMURT are organizing both staff members and teams of volunteers for relief efforts. Donations will help support the teams already there and fund additional teams being sent to Haiti.


World Vision has already sent 18 tons of relief supplies to Haiti. Help them send more by making a donation.

AmeriCares is raising funding for critical medical supplies and medicines, as there is an especially great need of them with a major hospital having collapsed.

Catholic Relief Services have a staff on the ground in Port-au-Prince. They are accepting donations of any amount to buy and distribute emergency supplies.

Direct Relief International is supplying their partner organizations working in Haiti with emergency supplies. More funding means more critical supplies will reach people.

You can also donate money through a text message. To contribute $10 to the Red Cross ‘s disaster relief efforts, send an SMS with the message “HAITI” to the number 90999. You can also make a $5 donation via text message to the Yele Haiti earthquake fund by texting “Yele” to the number 501501.

With a little help from each of us out here in cyberspace, the people of Haiti will be able to put their lives back together much faster. Feel free to add to our list of ways to contribute in the comments section.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry. 

7 social media predictions for 2010

 

2009 was a great year for social media. Twitter went mainstream and Facebook dominated the world, replacing social networking websites that had a strong foothold in their country. As the world became more aware of social media and web 2.0 techniques, we saw some interesting marketing efforts from Pepsi, Fiat and Pringles, among others. With the new year upon us, let’s take a moment to look ahead at what we think will be the big game changers of the new year.

Micro communities - Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are the big impersonal dogs that dominate the social media world as we know it. People are starting to look for smaller, more relevant communities in the coming year. 2010 will see the rise of Ning, Xing and Linked In, as well as location based communities like Foursquare and Gowalla, which will be purchased and incorporated into Facebook and Google in 2011.

Facebook starts to slip - After obtaining the seemingly impossible in five years (350 million members), Facebook has justly secured their place as top dog in the social media world. There is no where to go but down from here. While expanding their functionality and destroying their credibility through poor decisions on how to handle user privacy, Facebook will lose members as users become overwhelmed with follow requests, app requests, security settings and a million other little things.

Google makes search more relevant - Google released real-time search at the end of 2009, but it’s not as refined as it could be. Google will continue to refine their search techniques based on the personal experience of the user. This means my search for a thai restaurant in San Francisco could be completely different from your search. Google rushed real-time search out in order to beat Bing to the punch, but expect it to be streamlined by the end of the year.

Gaming becomes more social - We talked about console gaming going social in our hugely popular blog post last month, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 2010 will be a rebirth in gaming with games not just linking to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but by allowing users to create original content through them as well. Add to that online gaming companies like Zynga, Playfish and Crowdstar who are expanding the capability of their games. Also, expect mobile gaming to go to great heights with the iPhone and Android phones changing the way we envision mobile gaming.

Big Brother won’t have to watch us – we’ll do it ourselves - In our ever expanding need to feel relevant and hip, we now do what people a decade years ago would have viewed as implausible. Privacy isn’t an issue like it used to be. We now tell people where we are and what we’re doing every moment. Thanks to Foursquare, Google Geotagging, Gowalla and Britekite, we can automatically update our location without lifting a finger. Expect this trend to continue, and get much more invasive, before it gets better.

iPhone loses ground to Android - Sure, the iPhone is great, but it has one major drawback: it’s only available on one phone. Now imagine the same software that makes the iPhone great spread over several phones with cheaper price-tags. The Android has the potential to be a game changer in next gen phone development. With several phones coming out in 2010, the huge market share that the iPhone now controls will quickly erode.

Companies discover how to use social media - 2009 was the year that businesses discovered that the internet isn’t just a children’s toy any more. 2010 will be the year that companies finally start using social media as an important marketing tool and will devote more of the advertising funds to online efforts. 2009 saw some interesting uses of Twitter, Facebook and iPhone apps as companies dipped their toes in the pond. Now that they’ve explored a little, expect some interesting online campaigns.

7 predictions for Twitter in 2010

The Christmas presents have been opened (thanks for the Kindle, mom!), the new year celebrated and the year in reviews written, so now it’s time to look ahead to 2010. As we wrote earlier, 2009 was a killer year for Twitter. But will 2010 see the micro blogging sensation continue to rocket upwards? Probably not, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Here are 7 predictions of what the coming twelve months hold in store for everyone’s favorite little blue bird.

1. Twitter will expand more aggressively outside of the US, but overall growth will drop off
Twitter is about as big as it ever will be in the US, so if they want their user base to continue expanding they’ll have to make a more significant push into Europe and beyond. It will gain millions more followers outside the US as new population groups discover its potential, but the overall growth of Twitter will never again attain the huge increases of the past few years. It will cease to be a pop culture phenomenon and hot buzz word, and start to find its long term place in the social media tool box.

2. The Twitter horde will get thinned out, leaving a more manageable core of users
Many people who jumped on the Twitter bandwagon will forget about it as they hop onto the next one. This wave of everyone and their sister being interested cresting and receding may end up being a good thing. Twitter has long been frustrating for people interested in using it because of the fluff-to-useful content ration being way out of whack. With users who are more focused and dedicated staying on while others jump off, that ratio may well start to balance out.

3. Innovative mashups will keep the excitement alive
The waning novelty of Twitter will be somewhat abated by the novelty of new mashup applications utilizing the service. By all accounts location based apps are the next big thing, and Twitter is sure to factor into many of these new creations. I’d expect to see features like having each Tweet tagged with your current location and creating a map of where you’ve tweeted from. But people smarter than me are sure to come up with far more clever uses.

4. Companies’ Twitter use will become more focused and get a budget
Companies will start to really get their heads around Twitter this year, having had time to let the idea of it sink in and its potential become apparent. What once struck them as a fad among kids has now proven an effective marketing tool in enough cases to change their minds and get them to put some money aside for running a Twitter campaign, and create the guidelines to do it well. But it’s the ones who got in early who will really start to benefit this year.

5. Better analytics will make Twitter a valid market research tool
The ability to use Twitter to listen in on targeted groups will keep getting more refined. Getting an intimate look inside the minds of the people you’re trying to talk to is invaluable, and with Twitter companies will be getting this at minimal cost. As companies accept more and more that Twitter is not just a toy for young people, they’ll see just how big a treasure trove of market insights it is – and develop the tools to mine them. 

6. Twitter will make more money than Facebook
The monetization of Twitter has already begun with Google and Bing paying for Tweets to appear in their search results. Twitter is certainly a long way from reaching Facebook’s level of profitability, but it has a big advantage over the social networking site as it’s much better suited as an information sharing and promotional tool. More companies will realize Twitter’s value and pay good money to incorporate it into their offer. And with real-time search results gaining ground as the search method of the future, Twitter has a lot of potential to become a hot commodity.

7. Twitter will get sold
It may seem a little premature to sell before it becomes truly profitable, but Twitter is probably valued higher right now than it ever will be. The surge of interest in it and growth have plateaued, leaving it’s future direction and focus up in the air. The time is ripe for one of the big boys to step in and give it just such a direction and future. I see Google, Microsoft or Facebook taking over Twitter and developing it as part of their service. Whether or not that will be a successful venture, well, time will tell. It’s going to be an interesting year.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.