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 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.

ad:tech is one of the leading digital conferences, focusing on the intersection between advertising and internet technology. The worldwide conferences feature keynote speakers, panels, and workshops to better prepare media, marketing, and technology professionals for the changing landscape of interactive advertising and technology.

QR codes, or quick response codes, are the dominant for of two dimensional codes that allow anyone with an appropriately equipped cameraphone to scan or “read” data and media available in or through the code. They initially made their big spash in Japan in the mid-1990s and have since been embraced there as a key means for marketers to inform and engage the advanced mobile consumers in the market.