Well I’m sure most of you tuned in yesterday to watch the Super Bowl. Congrats to the New York Giants for winning, it was actually a decent game this year. Since the Steelers were not in the Super Bowl I really was not that interested in the game, but as always I was interested in the commercials. I can’t even imagine what they are charging for ad spots during the super bowl these days, but I assume it is A LOT! Companies always try to create great commercials for the Super Bowl ad spot, what better way to get people to use your service or buy your product, especially with that many people watching.
Before I get into my favorite Super Bowl commercials of 2012, let me talk about some of the ones that did not make the list. While I was not impressed with the GoDaddy Body Paint commercial, it was the only ad that was really meant to drive traffic to their website, this has been a theme of GoDaddy for quite a few years now. GoDaddy’s second commercial had a QR code on it, do you really think I am going to walk up to my TV and scan that thing GoDaddy? C’mon! The Bud Light Platinum commercial was alright, but I did like that they used the hashtag #MAKEITPLATINUM. As someone said on Twitter hashtags are the new AOL Keywords.
I think my favorite commercial was one that was not even shown to US audiences. It was shown to Canada only. It was the Budweiser Flash Fans commercial. I would have much rather have seen this commercial than the other Budweiser commercials that were shown in the US!
The next ad that really caught my eye was the Best Buy Mobile Phone Game Changer commercial. This commercial was awesome because it showed the creators of many of my favorite iPhone and Android apps. Great way to get the attention of us geeks out there!
I think the only commercial that made me laugh this year was the M&M’s It’s that kind of party commercial. I’ll let you see why below.
I’m sure you can guess why I like the next commercial…Adriana Lima! But this commercial does a great job of keeping the male audience’s attention then promotes Teleflora, which is most cases guys will be sending girls flowers on Valentines Day, genius!
All of the movie trailers were awesome, except for the Disney one of course. The reason I did not include them on this list is because I have seen the trailers for all of these movies months ago. Also we did not see any commercials from Intel or Google, I always look forward to those. Anyways I hope you enjoyed my list of favorite Super Bowl Commercials of 2012. What were your favorites this year?
One of the best things about CES is the parties that companies throw. Las Vegas has some of the craziest and most over the top hotel rooms and suites. Many companies rent these suites out for private parties. This year there were 3 parties that were pretty memorable this year.
The first party was the “Night Before CES” party that has been going on for quite sometime. This party is put on by FutureLooks.com and Redux. This is one of the best parties not only because it is at the Palms Place Penthouse, which has one of the best views of Vegas, but this is the party where most site owners show up so it is one big party for all of us.
Photo my buddy Shawn took of me on the balcony, notice the awesome view of Vegas!
The next party was put on by Zotac, NZXT, iBUYPOWER and ADATA. This party was held at the Palms 2-Story Sky Villa.
This is one cool suite. Not only is it 2 stories it has a pretty large pool on the balcony! This also makes for a great view of Vegas as well. Did I mention this suite has beds that are shaped like circles and they have a remote to make them rotate!
The last party was at the Hardwood Suite at the Palms and was put on by Patriot, MSI and Intel.
The Hardwood Suite as you can guess from the photo above is a basketball themed suite. It has a basketball court inside the suite itself! This was the first time I’ve been in this suite and it is probably the craziest suite that I have been in, in Las Vegas. It definitely made the party different than the normal CES party.
One of the best things about going to CES is getting swag, free stuff companies give out as they lure you to come check out their booth. I mean what better way for companies to get your attention then with free stuff! Also rumor has it that on the last day of the show if you stick around long enough many companies will just give away stuff so they don’t have to pack it up and take it back with them. Anyways here is what I was able to snag this year at CES.
Some of the more noteworthy things are a tablet, Thermaltake headset, Corsair solid state drive, and a Kingston Wi-Drive. My favorite thing would have to be the backpack from Rosewill (the black one on the right). It is actually a really nice backpack, much better than the one CES gives press. It is more or less a camera bag with a bunch of protective compartments in it. I used it on my way back from Vegas as my carry-on and I plan to use it in the future, so thanks Rosewill!
Stay tuned for a contest on ThinkComputers where I will be giving a lot of this stuff away!
Well as I said I was heading to Vegas for CES and I have just got back. All I have to say is what a trip! This trip seemed different than all other trips to CES. I am really not sure what it was, but it was a good feeling for sure. This year was definitely more relaxed, less stressful and just a lot of fun! So why was this year so different from others?
First we stayed at a condo this year, not a hotel room. The place we stayed at was called The Jockey Club and it was right in the middle of the strip. Having a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo was much more comfortable than having everyone in a single hotel room. The condo also had a full kitchen, which definitely was a plus. Having the extra room of a condo made it possible for CyberPower to provide us with a desktop system to do video editing on. This not only saved us time, but make working much, much easier.
Second, the ThinkComputers coverage was all video this year. This meant we did not have to write as much. Coming home after a long day on the show floor, press events and industry parties the last thing you want to do is sit down for 2-3 hours and write articles. Having video meant that we really only needed to write intros for the articles. This definitely elevated a lot of stress. To give you an idea of the videos we shot check out my interview with Bill Owen of MNPCTECH!
Third, things were much more relaxed. It seemed in the past I really got stressed out over things at CES, but this year things were just chill, even down to our “dress code”. I decided this year that myself and staff could wear jeans and a simple dress shirt or something similar, most importantly everyone could wear sneakers instead of dress shoes. Besides just our dress code I scheduled most of my meetings so I was not running all over the place.
Finally I have gone to CES so many times I knew exactly what I needed to do and what I needed to get done. I don’t think there was one time during the week where I was super stressed or pissed off. Another great thing was my staff, not only are these guys great at what they do they are great friends and who better to spend a week in Vegas with! Stay tuned for many different posts about the trip. You can also check out all the coverage over on ThinkComputers!
As you are reading this I am most likely on a plane from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas (gotta love being able to schedule posts with WordPress). I am on my way to Vegas for this years Consumer Electronics Show or CES as we all call it. If I am counting this right this will be my 6th year at the show! I can’t believe 6 years ago I made the plunge and went to CES and Vegas for the first time ever. A lot has changed in those 6 years that is for sure! Luckily since I have been blogging since 2005 you can go back and see my blog posts about previous shows.
Obviously I am going to CES for ThinkComputers. We hope this year is going to be a huge year for us and we will be doing mostly video coverage. To give you an idea of what to expect check out the video below.
To follow all of the coverage on ThinkComputers you can bookmark this URL: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/tag/ces-2012/ or follow myself or ThinkComputers on the social networks below.
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See everyone in Vegas!
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