According to Peter Daboll, the company’s CEO, the top spot was actually tied by M&M’s with its “Just My Shell” spot and Doritos with its “Sling Baby” ad. Coca-Cola followed with its “The Catch,” and the Doritos “Man’s Best Friend” and Coca-Cola’s “Superstition” ads came in 4th and 5th respectively.

As Daboll explained, all these ads were humorous, which gave them a broad demographic appeal that is perfect for the Super Bowl audience.

On the not-so-effective side, Ace Metrix’s least effective ads were Budweiser’s “Welcome to Halftime,” Hulu’s “Hulubratory,” Budweiser’s “Work,” H&M’s “David Beckham Bodywear Collection,” and Budweiser’s “Eternal Optimism.” According to Daboll, these ads were not properly tested and left people wondering what the real message was.

What were your favorite ads? Which did you like the least? We’d love to hear in the comments.

It’s clear that users have played a big role in building Facebook, but what does the IPO mean for them? According to Chris Treadaway, the founder of Polygraph Media as well as the author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, Facebook will improve the user experience but will be very focused on increasing its revenue.

While there are concerns over how big and powerful Facebook will become, especially in light of all the data it has, Treadaway doesn’t think that people will simply drop the service.  As he explains, Facebook provides many benefits for its users and has become a huge part of society. For these reasons and others, he says it would be difficult for the trend to change so quickly.

Another group that has influenced the growth of Facebook is marketers. The Facebook platform offers a unique opportunity for marketing, and both marketers and advertisers have taken advantage of it. Treadaway tells us that, with its IPO, he expects Facebook to become more involved in lead generation with consumers and sellers of consumer goods.

In addition, he said there would likely be more tools going forward to accommodate Facebook’s greater push toward behavioral ad targeting.

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s IPO? We’d love to know.

These are just some of the questions that people are wondering about in regards to this year’s big game. WebProNews spoke with Peter Daboll, the CEO of ad analytics company Ace Metrix, who offered some insight into what we could expect to see as well as what works and what doesn’t.

For starters, he told us that celebrities don’t ensure success. In fact, he said that ads without celebrities generally work better than those with them. However, he did say that animals seem to always be effective because they appeal to a broader demographic and are much more likable.

It appears that Sketchers is finding this out since it recently dropped its spokesmodel Kim Kardashian for a dog.

Although we won’t know which brands will pull off successful ads until Sunday, Daboll said that we could likely expect effective spots from Coca-Cola, M&M’s, and Doritos since they consistently do well.

Do you prefer animals or celebrities in commercials? Let us know.

WebProNews spoke with Dan Jaffe, the Executive Vice President of Government Relations for ANA, about ICANN’s execution of the plan. According to him, ICANN’s plan will be harmful to both businesses and consumers.

Not only have ANA and CRIDO pleaded with ICANN, but the FTC and other areas of the U.S. government have also reached out to ICANN to express their concerns about the plan. ICANN has said that it would protect businesses against defensive buying of domains, but as Jaffe explained to us, it has not tested to see if its protections actually work.

While the impact of ICANN’s action won’t fully be felt until after it closes the application process in April, Jaffe told us that ANA and CRIDO would continue to raise its concerns in hopes of being heard.

Incidentally, ICANN has said that it has already approved 25 successful registrants for new domains.

As it is nearing holiday shopping crunch time, she said that social networks are especially important because consumers are going there to find last-minute gift ideas. For this reason, O’Shaughnessy told us that marketers should take advantage of these opportunities.

She advises that they make clear goals, target a very specific audience, and have a clear call to action. If these steps are applied, she believes they can have a successful holiday season, while meeting the needs of consumers.

According to Stelzner, why would someone generate content to bring people to his or her site and then serve ads that send them somewhere else? A better approach, in his opinion, is to develop a newsletter and advertise through this back channel. He told us that this approach worked to grow Social Media Examiner into a multimillion-dollar business.

Stelzner talks about his strategy in his new book, Launch, in which he also provides his formula for success: Great Content + Other People – Marketing Messages = Growth.

What do you think of this approach? Do websites put too much emphasis on display advertising, or is it the better method for becoming profitable?

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

“When affiliate marketing becomes something like that, it becomes an enhancement to content and not so much an advertisement,” said Waite.

The company also has a WordPress plugin that brings all its tools and functionality to one place to make it easier for bloggers and publishers.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

As Pavan Katepalli, the startup’s CEO and Founder, explained to us, advertisers create contests around particular topics and encourage bloggers to write about them for a prize. The advertisers also receive a link back to their site and the opportunity to have their message spread across social media sites.

In turn, the blogger gets a prize and recognition on Bloggers Compete.

The extended partnership will not only further Yahoo’s reach, but it will also give local advertisers access to Yahoo’s targeted ad solution. Lem Lloyd, Yahoo’s VP of North America Channel Sales, told us that the companies hope the extended alliance will have the same success that their previous partnership has had.

Ace Metrix, a company that measures television advertising effectiveness, released a report that found Apple to be the overall winner of the most effective ad campaign this year. Jack McKee, Ace Metrix’s head of marketing, told us that the other tablet makers put forth a very strong effort, but that it still wasn’t enough to beat Apple.

Percelay spoke with WebProNews and told us that the fascinating and entertaining content that they create is the key to allowing their videos to go viral. He also pointed out that, unlike traditional television ads, their promotions create questions, which help to engage the audience.

Up to this point, every campaign that Thinkmodo has released has been a success.

David Pann, the General Manager of Search Networks at Microsoft, told us that these improvements hope to create a good consumer experience and also produce a greater ROI for advertisers. He said that advertisers could expect better targeting, better reporting capabilities, and an increase in quality traffic.

These improvements are expected to be rolled out in full over the next several months.

WebProNews spoke to Li Evans, the CEO and Co-founder of LiBeck Integrated Marketing, who told us that she believed Twitter’s move was effective for both brands and users. Although users have responded with mixed reactions, she said that they would get used to it and even “expect it and want it” if brands provide value in their paid posts.

The announcement is also said to be part of a bigger advertising plan that Twitter says it will release later this year.

Microsoft and Yahoo partnered in a search alliance 2 years ago in an effort to better compete with Google. However, neither company has shown a tremendous amount of improvement.

Ballard told us that he was pulling for Bing but that it needed to make some changes to better meet advertisers needs.