This year’s Super Bowl will mark several digital firsts. Not only will the game itself be streamed online for the first time, but advertisers will be looking to social media and digital technology more than ever before to generate anticipation for their spots during the game and even in the days preceding it. Brands are now looking for other mediums to complement their TV spots. Phones, tablets, and laptops will be playing an unprecedented role in Sunday's game, which follows the most-watched Super Bowl in history, XLV, which drew 111 million viewers.

In recent months a slew of trendy new websites have popped up, aiming to help consumers with their future shopping needs. No, not with daily deals, but with product and brand discovery. Sites like Fancy, Pinterest, Svpply, and CircleMe, to name a few, are deeply social but don’t try to connect consumers with one another and then try to show brand ads to all of them. Instead these sites offer platforms with which consumers can discover and display the art, books, clothing, brands, and technology they already love.

Today the Digital Lab hosted our second annual Demo Day, an all-day digital innovation and technology fair that sought to connect 21 of the most dynamic emerging consumer tech and interactive marketing startups anywhere with our staff at BBDO. The expo fostered a fun and creative environment where staffers were able to engage in meaningful conversations with these exciting innovators, opening up opportunities for future collaboration.

In this age of Twitter, we are now hungry for real-time information, an appetite which traditional news media is no longer able to satiate in times of trouble. Social media has stepped into fill that void, providing information and even assistance often before journalists can arrive on the scene.