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Ms. Brown is the second female in the M&M’s cast, after Ms. Green, and like her colorful counterparts she will be imbued with a distinct personality. Ms. Brown is an intelligent woman with a sharp wit who finally decided to reveal herself after working for decades behind the scenes as “chief chocolate officer.”

Their devotion to the Super Bowl comes at no small cost. NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for each 30 seconds of commercial time in the game, compared with an average of $3 million for each 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLV on Fox in February 2011. Even at that price, commercial time for Super Bowl XLVI has been sold out since Thanksgiving, NBC recently disclosed.

One way to ensure that a Super Bowl commercial is “not a splash, a flash in the pan,” Ms. Sandler said, is to make it the centerpiece of an elaborate campaign that takes place before, during and after the game. In fact, the spot will serve to “kick off a year of activity” to introduce Ms. Brown, she added.

The commercial also ushered in an era in Super Bowl advertising that we still inhabit: the ad as entertainment.

That we expect ads during the Super Bowl to be as entertaining as the game itself can largely be traced back to "1984."

In 1989, just a few years after "1984," the national newspaper introduced a revolutionary concept -- and a marketing masterstroke. Take a small panel of people, isolate them in a room with a meter and tell them to constantly turn a dial rating what they're seeing on a scale from one to 10.

As befits a performer whose following is concentrated so much among young people, the campaign to promote Girlfriend, with a budget estimated at $20 million, is focusing on social media like Tumblr and Twitter. Mr. Bieber’s Twitter feed is followed by almost 22.9 million people, and he has close to 44 million “likes” on Facebook.

The new media aspects of the campaign will also touch on the ads appearing in traditional media. For instance, Mr. Bieber is going on Facebook and Viddy, a mobile video sharing service, this week to invite fans to enter a “sing-off” on Tumblr to help create a 60-second television commercial for Girlfriend.

The agency working on media planning for the Girlfriend campaign, Media Kitchen in New York, part of the Maxxcom Global Media division of MDC Partners, also handled those duties for the Someday campaign.

As the US digital radio landscape matures, several trends are taking hold, including: Strong demand for two dominant listening modes: personal stations that serve songs based on users’ preferences, existing digital music collections and prior listening activity, and digital extensions of over-the-air stations A shift toward nondesktop devices, such as smartphones, tablets, in-car systems and other consumer electronics embedded with digital radio apps A mix of monetization models that ranges from free access on an ad-supported basis to premium tiers that cost up to $10 per month for ad-free, unlimited listening

Many companies that are marketing through digital radio use 15-second audio spots, some tailored to specific services. Advertisers are also creating branded playlists and sponsoring launch events, contests and festivals.

The full report, “Digital Radio: Usage Grows, but Lack of Scale Remains a Challenge,” also answers these key questions: How many people are using digital radio services, and how are they using them? What is the outlook for digital radio advertising? How are marketers using digital radio to promote their brands? How is competition affecting the digital radio landscape and potential marketing opportunities connected with it?

The video above introduces the concept and you can see more of what Morris is exploring at 9lives.com/CatsEyeView.

Agency EVB -- which was also responsible for Catstarter, the feline crowdfunding website -- has created an interactive experience in which viewers can watch the brand's long-running "spokescat," Morris, explore his house while fitted with a pair of smart-cam goggles and a Wi-Fi-enabled activity-monitor collar.

The rules are pretty simple: Allstar Products Group, the maker of Snuggie, is inviting people to enter the Snuggie Choice Film Awards via SnuggieFanClub.com.

All you have to do is create your own tribute, parody, song etc. — no longer than three minutes — and submit it to the webpage above. The contest ends on September 1 at midnight, at which point six finalists will be chosen by Snuggie fans. The finalists will be flown to New York in October. Awards () include a $5,000 grand prize and $2,500 for second and third place, Snuggies (natch), and the chance to appear in future commercials.

A mirror hanging in the entryway of the ISP Sports office is more than just a mirror. It’s an animated billboard. The Geico gecko strolls across the top of the reflective panel touting their insurance brand. Then an ad for Pledge cleaning supplies pops up.

Were someone to step forward in order to lather and rinse or check their makeup, those ads would disappear offering the person a clear view of themselves and the room — just like a normal mirror.

It’s a bit of new technology that East Carolina University Pirate football fans will soon be accustomed to seeing. ISP, which handles the corporate sponsorships and broadcast rights for ECU athletics, partnered with a company called Mirrus this year to try out the new advertising medium, Vice President and General Manager Meghan Heinchon said.

That's the question for the search engine as it struggles to gain a foothold in the fast-growing and here-to-stay social web. That web isn't marked by speed and elegance but rather by pit stops and side roads that allow people to pull over, meet new or old friends, play a game and buy souvenirs. In short, have fun.

A campaign is under way in New York to promote a weeklong celebration of the Academy Awards — the film industry’s equivalent of New Year’s Eve in Times Square

The campaign is being sponsored by NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism, marketing and partnership organization, which is staging the week’s events in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The goal is to stimulate interest in the 82nd annual presentation of the Academy Awards, scheduled for Sunday, with activities in New York carrying the theme “Oscar and the City.”

The public events, which start on Monday, include screenings of Oscar-winning films with New York themes as well as exhibits of Academy Awards and film posters. The week is to culminate with an “Oscar Night and the City” viewing party on Sunday, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, where paying guests can watch the ABC broadcast of the show.

Category: Best Use of Social ($2 million - $4 million) Few marketers, especially beauty brands, have made it their mission to improve their consumers' self-esteem. That's what Unilever brand Dove has done, making inroads since 2004 with its "Campaign for Real Beauty." But a lot can change in a decade. "In 2004 women were fundamentally benchmarking themselves against the images in a magazine," says Cindy Gustafson, managing director of the invention studio at Mindshare. "And in 10 years there's been an incredible seismic shift because of the advent of social media and technology. The fact is this is where women are now taking their self-esteem cues from." Mindshare analyzed 18 million tweets and found that a third of them contained negative beauty or body image content, and women were 50 percent more likely to tweet negatively about themselves. Dove decided to change the conversation and partnered with Twitter for the #SpeakBeautiful campaign, which encouraged women to use social media as a tool for body and beauty in a positive way. Given the image-conscious nature of awards shows, Dove launched #SpeakBeautiful during the Oscars' Red Carpet and published tweets every 30 minutes. It also sent 800 personalized messages to women during the event, hoping to inspire them to send positive messages. The results were impressive: The campaign scored almost 6 million tweets, over 800 million social impressions and reached a unique audience of 13 million. Compared to the Oscars in 2014 there were 30 percent fewer negative tweets and 69 percent more positive tweets about self-beauty. It helped Dove's brand perception, too. Among people who engaged with the campaign, 27 percent had a higher intent to purchase Dove products, according to Nielsen; brand sentiment also increased 17 percent, according to Twitter. —Kristina Monllos

Category: Best International Campaign ($1 million - $5 million) No one can dispute the success or ubiquity of Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign, which substituted the iconic Coke logo with people's names in a bid to personalize their carbonated experience. But how to keep it bubbly? Coke and MediaCom U.K. planted the flag for Year 2 of the campaign in England, giving viewers of Channel 4's 4oD digital catch-up TV platform (now called All 4) a chance to see their own names on bottles—a potential reach of 11 million. Led by Chris Binns, managing partner and head of engineering, MediaCom U.K. latched onto 4oD subscribers' sign-in names to create personalized ads for each viewer, ending the messages with the tagline "Share a Coke With …" followed by the viewer's name on the bottle. In total, the effort generated 4 million dynamically generated, highly personalized TV ads. And 4oD subscribers carried the effort one step further, with many taking to Twitter to register their happiness at seeing their names on the small screen. ("How did the 4oD Coke advert know my name and put in on a can? I'm so confused and happy!" tweeted @remzitomlin.) The effort, says Binns, "delivered that moment to millions of consumers in their own homes, in a natural way while they were doing something they loved [watching TV], rather than … hoping that they would find their bottles on store shelves." Furthermore, campaign awareness in the U.K. rose 17 percent, while ad recall jumped 71 percent and purchase intent gained 24 percent. —Michael Bürgi

Category: Best International Campaign (less than $1 million) To give fashion fans a sneak peek at the Alexander Wang x clothing collection at the department store H&M, media agency UM turned to Twitter as "the key to unlock the mysterious box of Wang." The IPG shop aimed to show fashionistas around the world that its client had the most exclusive apparel from a leading designer, and it built buzz (while downplaying competitors' campaigns) by focusing on bloggers and social media influencers in the high-fashion vertical. First, the client created a literal box that appeared in London's St. Christopher's Place. Curious fans could only view the fashion-forward contents of the box by tweeting the campaign's hashtag, and H&M followed by sending both personalized tweets and images/videos of the Wang items in question to these aficionados. Using this strategy, UM was able to create significant hype around the collection's release, despite having a smaller budget than previous campaigns. UM creative director Marcia Siebers says the campaign was "a direct consequence of our unique relationship with H&M," adding that the live personalization "built anticipation for everyone who got involved" and delivered a unique experience to both those who visited the physical site and those who watched online with "the speed that our fashionista customers demand." The campaign led to a 32 percent increase in positive mentions among influencers when compared to the client's preceding launch. It also facilitated a 179 percent monthly bump in Twitter mentions, with 80 percent of users tweeting about the collection more than once. Most significantly, all six London H&M stores sold out of the collection within 24 hours. —Patrick Coffee