While they may seem like nothing but a nuisance, unexpected events that interrput live TV coverage can actually be an opportunity for advertisers. This year's Super Bowl football game is the perfect example. 

When the power went out in the New Orleans arena, audience members and advertisers alike flocked to the Web to take advantage. Brands like Walgreens, Oreo, Tide and Audi all sent tweets related to the technical difficulty and gained some good PR — and possibly, sales — in doing so. 

Turning to an always-on, mobile-optimized platform like Twitter to make updates while a scheduled event is interrupted is the best way for brands to connect with a captive audience, whether at home, at a sports bar or in the stadium. Viewers were left with little to do besides check their social networks via mobile and chat about the mishap, which opens the door for these types of memorable exchanges. 

Looking forward, marketers should prepare for any amount of down time during live events that align well with a brand's audience. This includes set changes during concerts or commercial breaks during sports events.

Being prepared means first letting fans know the brand is ready to chat by promoting tweets or Facebook posts on mobile platforms. This lets brands attract audience eyeballs through online clutter. Keep...

This week at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Bentley added a detail to their models that I would not expect from a luxury brand: Each of the three display models featured custom license plates with the name hashtagged. This execution surprised me coming from a luxury car maker so well-known for their beautiful and clean aesthetic.

Though an approach like this successfully helps at getting the word out and creating a conversation thread online, it does run the risk of promo ruining prestige. I did a little research and there were mentions online using the recommended hashtags, including some Instagram photo uploads. The monitored image above is interesting because the user chose to blur out the rest of the vehicle and focus more visually on the license plate. The Bentley logo on the front of the vehicle is even blurred out.

What are your thoughts on luxury brands using social media promo on their actual product? Could hashtags be the future of personal vanity icense plates?

**Via PSFK

You've probably heard it before. "I want to join Twitter to follow what @Oprah is doing but I have nothing to say." This is a valid point, as not everyone needs to be on a platform where they don't feel the need to engage in conversation. Twitter is a gold mine of information (and entertainment) but not everyone needs to be producing their own content here. For those who feel more comfortable listening but not necessarily talking, there is a service called Tweets by Email.  

Much like Google alerts, a user is able to "subscribe" to specific Twitter handles of interest and create groups of up to five. Updates from these sources are then sent directly to the user's email in an easy to skim format. There is also a scheduling tool allowing users to specify days they would like to receive updates from each group.

Though I personally wish everyone were joining the conversation on Twitter, tools like this help those who may not yet be comfortable to not miss out on everything that's happening. So, until that day when Oprah tweets that you won a car, you can at least listen for it. 

*Via AllTwitter

The Holiday season is in full effect and so are the conversations happening online. HootSuite, a social media management dashboard, has created a "2012 Holiday Tracker" site which tracks and displays real-time analytics of the holiday-focused discussions taking place on Twitter. 

There are Twitter sentiment charts tracking conversations around "Holidays" and "Shopping". By the looks of it, "Shopping" conversations seem to have a bit more negative sentiment (i/e: sadness grief, anger loathing and fear uneasiness) than "Holidays" conversations happening online - eeeep! Some people may not be surprised by this, however.

The tracker also features trend lines covering categories such as "Mobile Devices", "Tablets" and "Retail". The "Retail" trendline actually had me a bit surprised. Amazon is, of course, the top mentioned, but eBay appears to receive double the amount of conversation than Wal-Mart.

Beyond the sentiment charts and trendlines we love in advertising, there are a few other festive sections of this tracker for everyone to enjoy, such as the #holidays and @30RockTree Twitter feeds. 

If you work in or around advertising and you aren't following @leeclowsbeard on Twitter, you're missing a steady dose of practical wisdom that our industry sorely needs. This is the Twitter account that brought us such memorable Lee Clow quotes as these:

"Actions speak louder than meetings."

"People appreciate an ad packed with every possible message as it lets them ignore everything about a brand in one fell swoop."

"If you think different yet act the same, it doesn’t count."

Except that Lee Clow never said any of these things. That's right, they were completely made up by a writer in Texas and framed as the wisdom gleaned by Lee Clow's beard being in close proximity to the man himself throughout the years of his storied career. And that was the beginning of, as Clow himself puts it,  "a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in…well, yeah, you get the idea."

At any rate, Lee Clow tells the story better than I do, so watch the video above and enjoy. It's nice to see a parody homage Twitter account done so well that the real person is flattered rather than offended by it.