Congratulations, Super Bowl Champions: the advertisers!

My favorite team may not have played in Super Bowl XLVI, but a few of my favorite things sure took center stage: marketing, advertising and branding.

Super Bowl Sunday is a proud day to be in this industry – a day that builds reputations (and, in some cases, destroys them). I was totally sucked in by the hype about the teams, the ads, the entertainment, the side stories and all the historical and current statistics.

Footage after footage of video promoted cities, NFL franchises, players, entertainers, consumer brands and corporate identities. The event brought worldwide attention to all who played – and paid. We were entertained and sold, whether you love Tim Tebow, Budweiser, Madonna, Eli and the Giants, or Brady, Gisele and the New England Patriots. The content was sexy, interesting and written to keep us glued on and tuned in. The marketing strategy worked, all demographics were hit … and how could they not? The Super Bowl was on TV, the radio, the Internet; in newspapers, magazines, chat rooms, Twitter and Facebook. Ad costs soared, ticket prices broke records, money was made hand over fist. What a proud day to be a marketer!

There are so many marketing communications lessons to be learned and so much validation of their value. Does it pay to promote? Heck, yes. Does it cost time and money to create brands? Sure it does, but, if you’re in business today, how can you not market creatively, as if you and your company were going into Super Bowl Sunday? It’s not a game; it’s business and, from what I saw, everyone and everything Super Bowl-related was in business to win… win you over, and make money.

Here are a few of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/pepsi

http://www.youtube.com/chevrolet

http://www.youtube.com/Honda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7o590nE6k

http://www.youtube.com/Metlife

Can your law firm marketing efforts learn from these successful Super Bowl ads?

Hats off to the media, reporters, publicists, creative geniuses, directors, writers, marketing teams and, of course, the players and coaches. Long live the hype.