While Hollywood royalty gathered in the Dolby Theater for the 85th Academy Awards, officially rebranded as "The Oscars," the rest of us watched on TV, Twitter and Facebook.

Not only was there a name change for the revered Awards, an image refresh with production values more reminiscent of the Tonys and lesser-known host MacFarlane, but the integration of social media and television found a new rhythm paving the way for social TV as "the screen"—mirroring and integrating broadcast and digital.

In all, there were more than 8.9 million tweets about the show.

Rookie host Seth MacFarlane lived up to his reputation as a provocative ‘outsider’ bringing fresh verve to an old gig while two brands, Samsung and Honda, seized the horns of the newest category—Best use of Social TV.

Samsung’s massive prosumer marketing message around its Galaxy products leveraged TV spots featuring director Tim Burton and the “upcoming” Unicorn Apocalypse film set, where viewers can follow game developers in real-time as they create the video game. 

With four and a half minutes of air time during the Oscars, the six spots extended the Unicorn Apocalypse theme introduced earlier by 72andSunny, underscoring Samsung Galaxy products as useful for work and play. The overall message: Galaxy products are the next big thing in business.Continue reading...

Samsung today kicks off the first TV campaign for the Galaxy S III, its new smartphone that was revealed earlier this month at a press conference in London, ahead of its international launch on May 30th.

Samsung today released the "The Next Galaxy" — the Galaxy S III, which launches May 29 in Europe — at a press event in London.

The brand's PR team tweeted from the launch about the handset's "experiential features: 3 Hubs (Game, Video, Music), mobile payment & ‘S Health’ personal wellness app to name a few" and tied the launch to its Olympics sponsorship, also tweeting: "Samsung is the worldwide Olympic partner and the #GALAXYSIII will be the hero of the Olympic Games!"

"Outside of the next iPhone, the Galaxy S III is the most highly anticipated phone launch this year," CNET commented on its live-blog. "The Galaxy franchise is one of the main reasons Samsung has been so successful at selling Android phones, avoiding the pitfalls that have tripped up so many of its competitors."Continue reading...

Samsung takes a swing at Apple devotees (depicting them as sheep) and hypes "The Next Galaxy" device — "which will almost certainly be a smartphone," reports Wired — in a new teaser promo for the May 3rd unveiling in London.

With all the excitement and many happenings with Apple and the iPhone 4S lately, it didn't take long before the standard new-phone video took hold: the drop test. So classic, David Letterman made it a regular segment on his show for years. What makes this particular drop test so juicy? It's with the brand new iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy II.

The first test was a waist high drop. The second, a shoulder high drop, and the third a facedown drop. The winner? While there's never a winner in a phone dropping contest, the least damaged phone was the Samsung Galaxy II, while the iPhone 4S was virtually shattered. No surprise there. The Galaxy II uses plastic all around and nearly indestructible Corning Gorilla Glass on the front. The iPhone uses a metal band with glass for the front and the back. But how about the idea of the video?Continue reading...

How long is your commute? What stops do you make on the way? Is it at all similar to a video game? FreddieW may be able to help you compare.

Trending on YouTube today, notching over 5.5 million views since launching  less than a week ago, is FreddieW's video "Gamer Commute." The video features a man on his way to work, but with a little twist — it appears he's in a video game. From jumping on moving cars to hijacking to a digital menu to pick out wardrobe, the video invites you to spot as many gaming references as you can.Continue reading...