To commemorate the event, some of the geniuses we have working here at Brandwatch have developed this great little data-viz, which feeds off Twitter to represent the popularity of each advertiser in a wormery.

To view the data-viz, click here!

Much better than a lousy old infographic – there’s been a bit of infographic fatigue in recent weeks – the app is a real-time representation of all the tweets about each brand’s adverts during the Superbowl.

Using our social media monitoring tool with full access to Twitter’s firehose of tweets, we’ve been able to pull in all the tweets that mention each company and the superbowl, using bespoke queries afforded by the app.

Each worm represents a one of the brands, with kit colours to match. The more mentions a brand receives, the closer that worm will get to the middle. The most popular brand will be the proud holder of the ball too.

We’ve also included all sorts of data goodies, such as a topic cloud for each brand, a simple buzz chart that illustrates when peaks in volume occurred and the total ad spend for each company.

Another sweet little feature is the sentiment breakdown for each ad, which is broken down further into days.

The app also shows US and UK news sources about the Superbowl adverts, which have understandably so far shown that American news outlets are a bit more eager to discuss it than their British counterparts.

The brands are also ranked by volume in the column on the right; almost two million mentions have been found at the time of writing.

Who will emerge victorious as the adverts are aired is up for debate, but Volkswagen are leading the pack on the 2nd of February, thanks to their recent preview of the Star Wars-themed commercial.

Another cool way of engaging with the app, aside from getting on Twitter now and discussing your favourite brand’s Superbowl ad, is to tweet a chant and include the #BWcheerleader hashtag.

Now you’ll be able to see your chant appear in the top right, right where our sexy cheerleading worm is!

Each worm lets you scroll through a selection of their latest tweets, so you can see the type of comment people are saying about each brand.

Get involved! Tweet to your heart’s content about your brand’s Superbowl advert and get your favourite company’s wormy hands on that elusive ball. Watch this space to see how things develop over the weekend.

If you’d like to know more about Brandwatch, or to request a demo, click through here to get in touch.

Whether it be their frankly embarrassing poor understanding of social media practices, or their repeated failed attempts at grabbing a decent share of the search engine market space, Microsoft often get it wrong for such a big company.

One such area that Microsoft have never quite perfected is the staging of conferences and events. There have been some successes and some failures, but Microsoft’s decision to drop out of future CES events speaks volumes for their intentions to host more Apple-like brand-led isolated events.

The awesomely fun and media-friendly party to celebrate the launch the original Xbox console went down a storm in all corners of the press, though the more recent ‘ponchogate’ Kinect launch keynote at E32010 was received far less favourably.

We used the Brandwatch social media monitoring tool to listen to what people thought of Microsoft’s last attempt at joining in with CES, and how well they fared with this event.

Microsoft’s CES Swansong

2012 was the last year in which Microsoft would be taking part in CES, despite being known for having one of the largest booths in previous years and being at the show for around 15 years.

The reason for their departure from the show is because the timing (January) does not coincide with their product development calendar.

They showed a number of gadgets and there was a keynote speech by CEO Steve Ballmer, in which he ran through (and demoed) the new products. The keynote speech also involved TV personality Ryan Seacrest and a choir singing tweets.

Conversation about Microsoft during CES took place mainly on blogs and news sites, as developments at the conference were reported.

The graph above shows conversation on Twitter on the 9th and 10th January, by hour.

We can see that there was a sharp increase in conversation at 3AM (7pm PST) which is the time at which Microsoft were making their keynote speech, showing that there was considerable interest in the address.

Generally, reaction was negative, with many complaining at the lack of ‘new’ announcements and the ‘odd’ style of presentation.

One particular cringe-worthy moment was when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was awkwardly ‘interviewed’ by TV host Ryan Seacrest.

The majority of conversation seemed to suggest that consumers were not bothered by Microsoft’s departure from the conference and understood why they had made this decision.

It seems like in so many of Microsoft’s other ventures, their attempt at staging a decent presence at their final CES showing was a mixed success. How well they will cope at their own custom events remains to be seen, but you can expect some dramatic failures as well as some awesome achievements. Watch this space!

We’ve taken a look at three such innovations to see what the world thought of them.

CNET, the tech and media website, are responsible for running the People’s Voice award, a user-voted accolade that rewards products that are innovative, exciting and a technical marvel.

And The Winner Is…

1st– Razer Project Fiona (gaming tablet)

This gaming tablet features dual analogue sticks, a Intel core i7 processor and a stunning 1280×800 display. The magnetometer and accelerometer add to the device’s portability, as does the impressive touch screen.

Its ability to run the super popular nerdgasm video game The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim may well have played a large hand in boosting interest (and votes) of Project Fiona, though whether this follows last year’s winner – the Razer Switchblade – as an unreleased prototype in danger of becoming vapourware, remains to be seen.

2nd – Sony Xperia S (smartphone)

This latest mobile offering from Sony has garnered a good deal of interest from all over the web. Trapped in branding limbo for weeks, the Xperia S was finally unveiled under the Sony brand, though confusingly had Ericsson plastered on the actual handset.

Equipped with a 4.3” HD touchscreen, 12MP camera and 720p recording facilities, this phone is fairly reasonably priced at ‘just’ £429.99’.

3rd – Seagate 4G Personal Server (mobile storage)

This interesting and useful little bit of kit from storage specialists Seagate allows owners to access the internet from anywhere in the United States.

Even in the heart of Yosemite park, users will be able to boot up their 4G Personal Server and access up to 5hrs of internet access through Verizon’s satellite technologies. It also affords around 500GB of storage that can be accessed wirelessly from your tablet or laptop.

Further details about the device are murky, though you can expect subscription fees on top of the initial retail price.

Conversation Breakdown

We used our own Brandwatch social media monitoring tool to listen to the buzz about each gadget during CES.

The Sony Xperia S enjoyed a huge share of the conversation, but this is typical of mobile phones, which are always a common topic of conversation in news and social media. Further analysis shows that the majority of this conversation is neutral news articles.

The majority of the (little) conversation about the Seagate Personal Server was tweets entering a competition to win a Seagate drive.

Conversation about Project Fiona, aside from neutral news reports, was largely positive.

Project Fiona is the first Windows-based gaming tablet and therefore much conversation focused on this, as well as on the specifications such as the processors and operating systems it uses.

Negative conversation about the tablet focused on the attached controllers, with complaints that they didn’t look good or should be removable, and on the battery life, which was expected to be short.

Project Fiona Breakdown

A sample of conversation during CES about Project Fiona was broadly categorised into the above themes.  The majority of the conversation was about the specifications, such as the Windows operating systems and Intel Core processors, most likely as this is the first PC gaming tablet.

Another popular topic of conversation was the ‘winged’ controllers, which were both praised and criticised – consumers felt they were comfortable and useable but also thought they were too big or should be removable.

Although it only seems to be community managers that actually care about this day, let me tell you that they are probably the most amazing, good-looking and talented people in every company you care to name.

This is where I should mention I am a community manager for Brandwatch, which in no way makes my opinion biased in this matter.

To mark the special day, the guys over at Social Fresh compiled a report into the role of community managers. You can read the full 15-page report here.

Some of the most interesting outcomes of the report are listed below:

• Two-thirds of all community managers are female
• Unbelievably, male CMs earn more than female CMs
• Content creation is the primary task for most community managers, especially in terms of time spent
• Almost 20% of all community managers are based in New York
• Community managers earn, on average, over $50k a year
• The average age of a community manager is about 30
• Unsurprisingly, software companies are more likely to employ a CM

Rather wonderfully, Social Fresh also produced a great infographic to accompany the report, so feast your eyes on this:

Thanks to Social Fresh for compiling and sharing their research!

One of the most desirable items for the Brandwatch lobby is one of the amazing new TVs unveiled at CES.

CNET, the tech media website and internet stalwart, was responsible for awarding one of the TVs with the ‘Best of CES’ accolade. We took a look at the four nominees for the prize and listened to what people were saying about them online.

The four nominated TVs in question were:
• LG55EM9600 OLED TV (CNET best of CES winner)
• Samsung Super OLED TV
• Panasonic TC-PVT50 series
• Samsung PNE8000 Plasma TV

All Talk?

In terms of share of conversation, there was only one clear winner. The LG 55 OLED absolutely dominated the discussion about the CES TVs, and the buzz mirrored the decision made by CNET to declare this the best TV of the show.

It was the year of the OLED, as the Samsung OLED TV also enjoyed a fair amount of conversation across social media sites, though the other two non-OLED TVs barely garnered any mentions at all.

The Winner

The beautiful LG OLED had all sorts of things talked about it, with people everywhere rushing to their favourite sites to talk about the new TV.

The amazing 55-incher is the biggest OLED screen ever made, with such screens normally being used for smart phones and the like. Perhaps more amazingly, not only is this screen unprecedented in its size, but it is also much thinner than any smartphone you care to mention, at just 4mm thick.

Unsurprisingly, it’s these two awesome feats of dimension that most of the conversation was centred around, with over 70% of online buzz focussing on the size and thickness of the screen.

As well as being amazingly thin and large, the TV has some other wonderful features, such as the resource-light passive 3D technology it comes with. Ultimately, there were few mentions that were negative in nature.

Much of the discussion about the LG TV was about the possible release date and retail price, and well as the obvious comparisons to the show’s other major OLED TV, the Samsung Super OLED.

But just what were these resolutions for 2012? Just how hard will they be to stick to for another eleven and a half months? We used Brandwatch to try and find out.

Main Resolution Themes

Those looking to change something in their lifestyle were the most numerous to announce their intentions online. The most frequently mentioned lifestyle changes people were looking to improve upon were issues with procrastination and punctuality, which I’d imagine they’ll get round to sometime next year.

The second largest theme regarding pledges for the coming year was focused around healthy eating. Interestingly, many of these mentions also expressed a low level of confidence in achieving their goals.

Oddly, Lucozade and Diet Coke were the two most commonly talked-about drinks when discussion of New Year diets occurred.

Other main aspects people were aiming to change for 2012 were quitting smoking, hitting the gym, finding a new job, learning new skills and sorting out financial situations.

The dawn of 2011 saw the advent of a million screaming, bleating JLS and One Direction fans join Twitter, ruining and distorting the trends for everyone else thereafter. Understandably this had the knock-on effect of producing thousands of delirious New Year resolutions made in the name of these musical acts.

Ladies and Gentlemen

There was a significant difference in discussion of New Year resolutions between the two genders. The fairer of the sexes was far more active in stating their objectives for the year, and females were dominant in mentions about diets and healthy eating.

Three quarters of all talk about dieting was generated by ladies, while a hefty 73% of lifestyle pledges were also made by women.

Men seemed more focused on learning new skills. Unsurprisingly, many of these skills were of little practical use, and a large chunk of them referred to gaming. If becoming a better Call of Duty player is high on your agenda for what you hope to achieve in 2012, then at least it’s a resolution that’s fairly easy to stick to; a rather fun and unproductive year all round for these unambitious dreamers.

High Definition Resolution

The tweets that generated the most interest were generally posted by celebrities. It’s little wonder that the Twitterati are the primary influencers in the world of New Year resolutions, especially considering it’s a field that doesn’t particularly require any degree of thought or expertise. It’s a case of the larger the audience, the more likely it is to be retweeted and shared.

Lady Gaga’s resolution, for example, was retweeted over 100 times. Jokesters such as Ricky Gervais were popular too, proving that a small witticism or gag has the potency to spread a lot more than someone’s benign ambitions for the year.

How long did you last with your resolution? If you’re still going, then congratulations: there’s only 95% of 2012 to go!

Although we’re not at the election stage proper, the primaries for the Republican candidacy are proving hugely exciting, especially now the budding candidates have wised up to the social media game.

The most recent Republican vote took place in the North Eastern State of New Hampshire. We took the opportunity to use the Brandwatch tool to track the Twitter buzz surrounding it: leading up to the event, during it and of course what eventually happened.

Before The Vote

In what must be a crushing disappointment to Jon Huntsman, his status as the highest TV ad spender did not result in much of a discussion about him online. Likewise, Ron Paul’s splashing of cash didn’t result in much conversation after the Iowa caucus was over.

Rick Santorum enjoyed a surge in standing after his surprise performance in Iowa, though Mitt Romney ended up consistently growing in popularity throughout the week as his followers continued to discuss his campaign.

During The Vote

Moving from a daily scale to an hourly one, this chart now shows the primary as it developed by the hour.

In line with media expectations, although Santorum was still buzzing from the Iowa vote for much of Saturday, the volume of mentions about him began to drop away as the New Hampshire election beckoned.

Ron Paul and Mitt Romney were neck and neck alongside Santorum on Saturday, but as Ricky dropped off, Paul also began to fade away and Romney began to dominate discussion by the start of the week.

The Battle for Second

By Tuesday it was abundantly clear that New Hampshire would be a one-horse race for Romney, so the battle for second place was on: an important platform for generating further support and funding moving forwards.

Incredibly, the volume of mentions of each candidate at just an hour before the polls closed was remarkably mirrored by the final results of the actual election. Not only were they ranked in the same order, but the percentages were also incredibly similar:

• Ron Paul claimed second place with 23% of the vote and 21% of the tweet share
• Jon Huntsman strolled into third place with 17% of the vote and 15% of tweets
• Newt Gingrinch was next up, with a respectable 9% of the vote and 11% of tweets
• The final significant runner was poor old Santorum, whose momentum really ran out of steam by Tuesday. Just behind Newt, he had 9% of the vote too with slightly less tweets about him too, at 10%.

This report is the second in a series observing and monitoring the American political elections of 2012. Please get in touch with us (Joel at Brandwatch.com) if you’d like to get involved with our coverage in any way.

Under the auspices of ‘helpfulness’, the past year has seen Google kindly put a priceless link to G+ on the homepage, as well as integrating it with their increasingly popular Android mobile system.

Google Looks to Reinvent

Today marks the most radical of these types of pushes, as Google have transformed their famous search function in a bid to promote G+ even more.

From this point onwards, Google now offer the results from the crawling of public information from all over the web as they always have done, with the added inclusion of private data pertaining to your Google+ account.

There are plenty of blogs and posts marking the significance and the detail of this update, but what is of particular interest is how this positions Twitter as a channel for real-time searching, especially with regard to current events and commentary.

A Blossoming Relationship

Up until July 2011, Twitter and Google had a relationship whereby Twitter results would appear at the top of Google’s search results regarding topical news events, therefore keeping Google’s results fresh and up-to-date. Twitter would have also gained increased exposure and revenue, as well as myriad other benefits.

Aside from heavily relying on Twitter, Google also tried including sites such as Quora, MySpace and Jaiku in order to keep its real-time search results relevant and current, though they have notoriously struggled with the presentation and searching of Facebook data – something that looks to be changing with this update.

Now, with this new update to Google’s search, the company is aiming to provide cutting-edge, personalised search results without Twitter’s help, as well as increase the presence of Google+.

The Fling is Over

Whatever the reason for the breakdown in the Twitter/Google agreement was, Google’s decision to supplant this service with this week’s new G+ integrated search has somewhat irked Twitter, who have been admirably frank with their statement on the matter:

“For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet.

Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic. As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results.

We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.”

As Google shift themselves further into Twitter’s thus-far uncontested control of the real-time search market, the data Twitter affords has (arguably) become less valuable, or at least less unique.

The ins and outs of these Internet behemoths and how they sit in the tech world is fascinating on their own merit, but much of this repositioning also affects how social media monitoring companies may do things in the future.

The Firehose

Twitter conveniently allows people to search for and view tweets on any topic they desire, providing a potent real-time list of results to keep track of current sentiment and news. One inherent issue with this though, is that the data never stretches further back than a few days at the most.

Social Media Monitoring tools like Brandwatch can crawl through historical data on Twitter to view old conversations and posts in order to remedy this.

However, even crawlers are limited; Twitter does not allow other companies to access all of its data, just a certain amount of it.

Take that, Internet

For companies like Brandwatch and other SMM tools, it can be very important for their clients that they have absolute coverage of a platform.

This is why Twitter does allow, in special cases, complete access to their archives of tweets, for a fee. It does this through two companies, one of which is called GNIP: the process via which Brandwatch gets its so-called ‘firehose’ access.

Other companies, such as Topsy and Micosoft’s Bing, also pay for this access to Twitter’s firehose, though most use it to provide searching facilities.

The Future of Real-Time Search for SMM

Now that Google have decided that access to this firehose is no longer necessary to provide relevant and appropriately historical data, will this change the way SMM tools crawl their results too?

The answer is unlikely. Brandwatch’s drive to crawl and cover as much of the relevant parts of the internet doesn’t cease with one company’s decision to change their coverage, regardless of how large they are.

Much of the data used in Brandwatch is through Twitter

However, as data providers, these developments are very important to keep track of, observing how the lines between network, platform and search tool are blurring and maintaining a keen understanding of how people are using the internet is integral to how we track data across the web.

It will be interesting to monitor the rate at which these changes affect uptake of Google+ too, which is currently still lingering way behind Facebook and Twitter in terms of number of users, and could prove increasingly worth listening to from an SMM perspective.

The firehose access is just one cog in the Brandwatch engine that helps shower users with the most comprehensive and cleanest data available.

The web giant is notorious for its playful modification of its logo, an ancient tradition by internet standards. Luckily some of these have come a long way since the early days, when some of these blasphemies surfaced.

We decided to take a look at how Google’s Doodles have been received throughout the year. It’s important to note that these events can never be unexpected news, rather it must be something that either occurs every year, or something that Google can anticipate.

Above is a snapshot of the buzz surrounding Google Doodles for 2011, generated using the Brandwatch tool.

It’s clear to see each instance a new Doodle is featured on the Google home page from the peaks in the online activity, though it is also evident that one or two particular Doodles are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the discussion they managed to generate.

We’ve compiled a list of the top ten most talked about Doodles for 2011, and included a small breakdown of how well-received they were at the bottom of this post.

10. Stanislaw Lem

This celebrated philosophical technology writer isn’t perhaps as well-known as many of the others on this list, yet this fantastic author is responsible for the thought-provoking Solaris and is highly regarded within the field of science fiction.

Google honoured the 60^th anniversary of his first book publication with this neat little game made in HTML5. The web was full of fondness for the Polish visionary this November and Google’s charming puzzler made an apt focal point for the curiosity-laden buzz.

9. Mark Twain

November also heralded the advent of Mark Twain’s 176^th birthday. Another author, Twain is an American fiction legend, with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn amongst the best-loved books in US history.

Google worked their magic on their logo, transforming it into a scene from Tom Sawyer in which the protagonist is made to whitewash a fence.

8. Harry Houdini

Houdini was for much of his career the highest-paid showman in vaudeville, and is famous even today for his unbelievable feats and commitment to dispelling myths about the supernatural.

His tragic death perhaps overshadows his tough endurance, and the Silicon Valley giant instead chose to commemorate his 137^th birthday with a vintage Houdini-style advert, on March 24^th this year.

7. Alexander Calder

The American artist Alexander Calder would have turned 113 this July had he still been alive, and if he somehow had, he would have been witness to Google’s most advanced Doodle yet.

Using HTML5 and realtime 3D rendering with vector graphics, this abstract spin on Google’s logo echoes the work that Calder is most famous for: the mobile. Google even managed to add accelerometer features into the logo, allowing users to play with the mobile using physical movements.

6. Jim Henson

Few icons of the film industry have left such a rich legacy behind as the man behind The Muppets and Labyrinth, Jim Henson.

The Jim Henson studio and Google worked together to make this interactive logo as a homage to the master puppeteer on what would have been his 75^th birthday this September. It functions as a digital puppet, so users can experience what it’s like to play with his iconic creations.

5. Jules Verne

The grandfather of marine fiction, Verne was the man who penned ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea’ and Google have marked his birthday with yet another wonderful logo.

The compelling ideas expressed in his fiction span a multitude of inventions and vehicles that were at the time yet to be realised. In respect to his thoughts about submarines, February’s Doodle was an accelerometer-enabled interactive journey into the depths of the oceans.

4. Ice Cream Sundae

It’s amazing to think it’s not even been 120 years since the ice cream sundae was invented, a hallmark of Western civilisation and Americana that seems timeless.

The original magic to combine syrup and ice cream is the topic of folklore, with many even claiming it was the result of two colliding trucks.

Although the vintage logo and anniversary of ice cream are cause for sweet celebration, much of the buzz surrounding this logo in April was due to gossip that circulated suggesting this Doodle was a clue that Google would be introducing its OS (codenamed Ice Cream) soon after, an ultimately fulfilled rumour that spread rapidly through tech circles.

3. Royal Wedding

The most important event of 2011, or perhaps even the millennium, took place on April 29^th. The earth-shatteringly amazing occasion that touched all of our lives was also felt by Google, who could do little more than remain speechless and devote their homepage to a fairytale-style cartoon of the wedding.

Prince William and Kate Middleton got married, in case anyone missed it.

2. Freddie Mercury

Not quite the most talked-about Doodle of the year, Freddie Mercury’s 65^th birthday was the inspiration for one of the best-received logos that Google have ever created.

The camp superstar tragically died from AIDS at just 45, and this year saw dozens of homages and tributes flood in, as it has now been 20years since his death.

Queen’s killer hit ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ is the backdrop for an animation that sees Mercury vacuum cleaning, singing and being adorned by a his legion of fans. The full video for the logo can be found here, and it really should be watched if you have a spare minute or two [note: it takes a few seconds to load].

1. Les Paul

Miles ahead at the top of our list, June’s tribute to Les Paul was made ever more poignant as it was not even two years after the great guitar pioneer had passed away, following complications after contracting pneumonia.

The man behind the Les Paul guitars, the first guitar to ever produce that famous rock and roll sound, was responsible for a plethora of acoustic innovations and experiments. Google tailored a wonderful Doodle in honour of the legend, which granted users the ability to play melodies on the Google logo itself.

The tunes could be played using the strings that substituted Google’s lettering, and the company even included a record button to allow players to play back their songs, which could then be shared with the URL creation that was also included.

 Which Doodle received the ‘best’ buzz? 

The year-long data shows just how popular the Les Paul doodle was, and also highlights the short-lived nature of the Doodles’ buzz. Here we’ve included a pie chart for each Doodle, showing how warmly each one was received.

This shows that despite poor old Stanislaw only just making the top ten most-talked about Doodles of the year, his buzz featured more positive discussion that any of the others.

Likewise, although the ice cream and the wedding nestled in at numbers 4 and 3, both events provoked a mere 8% positive mentions.

Happily for us, the man behind popular web blog Personalize Media put together a wonderful stats counter about social media way back in 2009.

Due to the rapidly evolving nature of social media, the stats need updating all the time and the latest iteration reveals some fascinating insights.

• There are 2.3 billion Google +1s clicked a day

• Half a million new Android users register their account each day

• Amazingly, despite the staggering billion tweets sent out every week, YouTube videos receive view counts twenty times that

• Facebook now generates £2,500,000,000 a year in advert revenues

• Around 10 billion apps for iOS devices are downloaded each year

• Within just three weeks, Google+ had over 20 million accounts

• There were 80 million new Facebook accounts registered between January and April this year, and there are half a million Twitter profiles activated every day. LinkedIn is not far behind, with a million new users a week

• A mind-boggling 300,000,000 minutes of call time are clocked on Skype per month

• Google Chrome has risen from 10 to 20% of web browser market share in the past year

• A casual 30 billion items are shared on Facebook each month

Despite some questionable calculations when arriving a statistics like the US movie industry loss due to piracy, this popular little counter also allows you to view statistics on the mobile, games and somewhat condescending, but probably true, ‘heritage’ industries.

[Note: you may need to refresh your browser page for the widget to appear]

We are experts at trawling the web in search of insights, and our tool is potently equipped for us to do so. Sometimes though, it’s just nice to take a step back and absorb some of the amazing statistics that not even the most ambitious of prophets could have predicted just ten years ago.