So here are five recent dynamics that every marketing professional needs to stay on top of:

• Apple announces big news
  • The launch of the iPhone 4, iOS 4 and the iAd platform are all intertwined and add up to significant news for Apple and the mobile industry. The iPhone 4, available June 24, will not be revolutionary, but is absolutely a significant step in Apple’s evolution, and its key benefit will allow marketers to add rich media and video – at scale– in their mobile marketing communication. The new iOS software allows consumers to interact with brands in a deep and meaningful way without ever leaving an app. As a result, the ad itself will now be as important (if not more important) as a branded application.
  • The new iAd platform also caught marketers by surprise as many scoffed when Steve Jobs said that the starting price to play was $1mm. But after less than two months, Apple tallied $60mm in advertising commitments from intrepid brands like Target, Geico, Nissan, Citibank and Disney to name just a few. The Nissan Leaf communication is particularly compelling and true to Steve Job’s vision, the new ad platform allows brands to tell cohesive and powerful stories. The iAds will start to roll out on 7/1.

• The mobile wars continue to get volatile
  • The Google purchase of AdMob and Apple purchase of Quattro was just the opening salvo in the battle between these two Silicon Valley behemoths in the small but fast growing mobile ad market. Google blasted Apple last Thursday for imposing new rules on developers that bar rivals from selling ads inside the iPhone and iPad. Apple recently amended their rules to prohibit developers from sharing data from  iPhone apps with some companies and thus preventing AdMob from targeting ads giving their iAd platform a huge advantage.

• 4G becomes a reality
  • With the launch of the Sprint HTC Evo the next wave of mobile computing has emerged and make no mistake about it, this is a big deal. 4G mobile will be as important for brands and consumers as the shift from dial up to broadband. 4G will be 10x faster than 3G and there were actual lines at Sprint stores for the Evo as Sprint underestimated demand for the new phone. The Evo represents the most phones sold in one day in Sprint history. More than anything else, 4G will be a catalyst for video consumption on smartphones.

• M-Commerce starting to gain traction
  • As more consumers browse and shop via mobile devices and mobile geo apps like Foursquare and Gowalla continue to increase in scale, M-commerce will accelerate and big marketers like Home Depot, Lilly Pulitzer, Armani and 1-800-Flowers are finally starting to pay attention to its potential. Shoppers will order $2.2B in merchandise from mobile this year up over $1B from last year and as a result about 30% of retailers now have mobile commerce web sites.

• AT&T eliminates unlimited data plan
  • Many marketers and app developers are extremely nervous that just as the mobile market is poised to take off AT&T’s new “pay as you use” model will put a major crimp in consumers’ appetite for rich mobile content. Only time will tell, but if consumers start to think about “how big a file is” and if it’s worth it to download, the nascent but growing medium will be hindered.

In the span of three short weeks mobile has grabbed the headlines in the majority of marketing press and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. Although the platform garners less than a $1B (estimated $593MM in 2010) in ad spend, the sky is the limit for a platform that combines interaction, emotion and personalization. Any big trends that should be added to the above?

Doritos - "Keep your hands off my Mama!"

Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family.

They were the three brands left standing on the podium at the conclusion of BrandBowl2010. Why you ask? Isn’t it obvious, I say? Simplicity. Buzz. And dialogue.

Of course, we all know pulling off effective campaigns is a lot harder than it looks. It’s much easier to be an armchair quarterback, to write blog posts about how successful brands follow simple marketing rules, and then state those rules for all to see.

Boy, this armchair sure is comfy.

1) Production dollars don’t help you stand out at the Super Bowl.

In fact, they might help you blend in.

How do you squeeze your message through the spectacle that is the Super Bowl? How do you break through all of the hype, through the blaring graphics, the laser shows, the celebrities, the boatloads of slickly produced, over-the-top spots?

You chill out.

Google reused their elegant “Parisian Love” spot from their Search Stories campaign. It was nothing more than a simple screencast of an enthralling dialogue-free story. You (yes, you!) can purchase a license for Snapz Pro for $69, get yourself some royalty-free music and in an hour produce something similar yourself. Gene Simmons—and his midget—can eat their hearts out.

2) Pre-game buzz is worth more than any thirty-second spot.

Set against a white seamless backdrop, Focus on the Family had Pam Tebow talk about her difficult pregnancy. Then her son, 2007 Heisman Trophy winning Tim Tebow, tackles her to the ground. Goofy smiles and heart-warming feelings ensue. Not a particularly memorable spot in and of itself.

But Focus on the Family got their $2.6-million-dollar-buy worth before Drew Brees brushed his teeth Sunday morning. According to the BrandBowl, Focus on Family was far and away the most tweeted about brand among Super Bowl advertisers in the days leading up to the big game. That the actual spot turned out to be something of a non-event didn’t matter.

3) Mix the first two rules, add a dash of dialogue with your consumers, and you’ll win the BrandBowl!

Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign continued the brilliant crowdsourcing effort they’ve been running for three years now. It eschews top production values, in favor of building buzz and a community of avid followers in the months (and years, really) leading up to the game. It lets the people take control of the brand. The result is hilarious, simple, stand-out spots that get tweeted about in droves, make Doritos feel like a contemporary brand and makes them winners of the Brand Bowl.

Acknowledgment: this article was written with contributions from Andy Schneider.

BrandBowl2010 Winners

According to the 63,000+ Twitter users whose comments were captured in BrandBowl2010, Doritos was the most effective brand to advertise on the Super Bowl telecast on CBS this year. Budweiser Select55 was the least effective brand.

Mullen, and Radian6, a leader in social media measurement, created BrandBowl2010, a Twitter/Super Bowl experience that combined tweeting, ad reviews and a host of metrics to let viewers generate and view real time ratings of the TV commercials that ran on the big game.

The results were determined from a total of 98,656 Tweets collected at BrandBowl2010. The site provided an overall ranking of the brands advertising on the game based on a composite score that takes into consideration both volume of tweets and sentiment (positive or negative).

TOP SCORERS
When all was said and done, the top three brands were Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family. Doritos won the title by virtue of dominating the sheer volume of tweets. That was enough to keep them ahead of Google, which had a higher percentage of positive tweets.

MOST POPULAR
The most popular brands at the BrandBowl were McDonald’s and Dr. Pepper. Interestingly, neither of these brands had the sheer number of tweets to break into BrandBowl’s top ten—but the tweets about these brands were overwhelmingly positive.

MOST VOLUME
Again, the top three brands were Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family. These brands gapped the rest of the field in terms of volume of tweets, which dropped off sharply after the top three.

Free creative for Budweiser Select55

Mullen is offering Budweiser Select55, the last place finisher in BrandBowl2010, free creative services to make a better Super Bowl commercial next year. Mullen has produced four Super Bowl commercials in the past, including the Monster.com spot When I Grow Up, which many ad critics consider among the best Super Bowl spots of all time.

“Clearly no one wants to come in last place,” said Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen. “So to ease the pain, we’ve made a commitment to recommend, for free, to the losing brand, creative ideas for next year. Perhaps we’ll even crowdsource those ideas, asking the entire social media community to join us in offering up free recommendations.”

The Top Ten Most Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Doritos
2. Google
3. Focus On Family
4. Snickers:
5. Budweiser
6. Bud Light
7. Hyundai
8. Kia
9. GoDaddy
10. Coca-Cola

The Five Least Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Budweiser Select55
2. Michelob Ultra
3. Teleflora
4. Honda
5. Diamond Foods’ – Pop Secret

The success of Brandbowl is due not only to all the people at Mullen and Radian6 who built it, but to many people in the social media community who helped promote it: @bbhlabs, @bigspaceship, @rga, @erproulx, @benkunz, @schwartzie14, @stevehall,  @kenwheaton, @lvanderpool and dozens of others.  That alone is a reminder of the worth of having a social network and a community.