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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.

Ad pages at Newsweek dropped 16.8% in 2011, but its fortunes seemed to improve after Ms. Brown's March 14 redesign. Ad pages in the first quarter were down 30.8% from the year-earlier period, then dropped 24.5% in the second quarter, 10% in the third and 3.6% in the fourth, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Newsweek said its December ad pages were up 15% from December 2010.

The "Mad Men"-themed issue, which will be dated March 19, will include a cover story on the series and a feature on the role of advertising in U.S. culture.

Unknown to Duick, someone had signed her up for the campaign at YourOtherYou.com, a web site set up for the prank. The campaign was aimed at 20-something males because the company’s advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, determined that the demographic loves to punk their friends.

Today, AdFreak celebrates seven years of CP+B and Burger King with a list of the 15 campaigns we're still talking about, for better or worse.

What are the advantages of crowdsourced research? Cost-effectiveness –- Comparatively speaking, crowdsourced research can be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional research. Quick Turn Around –- The time it takes to gather, execute, and analyze is shorter thanks to a purely digital foundation. Flexibility –- As trends emerge in findings, researchers can easily adjust their strategy to catch any shifts or “surprises.” Collaboration –- Crowdsourced research allows brands to collaborate easily with customers to ideate or improve upon products, to test concepts, ads, and experiences, and to continue the conversation over a longer term. Velocity –- Crowdsourced research can travel at the speed of digital, allowing for real-time consumer behavior analysis and insight for new technologies, memes, trends, and conversations. Marketing and Marketing Research –- Even though it’s frowned upon and often times refuted in traditional research, the nature of crowdsourced research implies there will be some form of marketing intertwined as consumers share their stories, insights, and ideas for brands they support.

Crowdtap, which is still in beta, is a tool that fills the gap between traditional research and digital, and helps with insight gathering, customer empowerment and influence. At my company, we use Crowdtap to augment our research activities, especially when time is of the essence (i.e. new business pitches, client presentations, low-budget projects). Brands and agencies can leverage Crowdtap to target questions (polls, discussion topics, and open-ended queries) to a certain demographic profile subscribed to the tool.