Last night the biggest American football game of the year – the Super Bowl – kicked off in all its brand-orientated glory. Though a lot of the chatter stemming from US viewers focused on the game itself, some (many in fact) of the audience were more interested in the ad spots that surrounded the match.

To capitalise on the massive amount of conversation online, ad agency Mullen and monitoring company Radian6 kicked off Brand Bowl 2010 (which resulted in over 98,000 tweets containing the hashtag #brandbowl) to track which ad had the best response online. USA Today held focus groups that tested viewer’s reactions live and pretty much every major news outlet and marketing trade mag has covered the story.

Pepsi, General Motors and Fedex all pulled out of advertising deals surrounding the Super Bowl this year. And though there wasn’t exactly fear that the game’s power to influence had diminished, the decision from some brands to shift spend from traditional television to social media for some had set tongues wagging.

However, there’s been no shortage of buzz around the big budget, often controversial ads. Jay Leno and David Letterman, with Oprah Winfrey as referee, stunned viewers by joining forces in an ad for CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman”, Golden Girl Betty White was physically knocked to the ground on behalf of Snickers and Denny’s strange protesting chickens all polled well. Surprisingly, Google also stepped up to the plate, apparently by accident. CEO Eric Schmidt explained via his blog; “we didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search,” Schmidt wrote. “Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.”

Ads are social events now, but it’s still surprising how one event that’s not really that culturally relevant for those outside the US can still capture so much attention. Suddenly TV, once considered to be ‘old school’ or scattergun, is starting to become the perfect compliment to social networking as the 2 Screen effect starts to ramp up speed.

Just like the X-Factor and American Idol, the Super Bowl naturally drove people online to discuss what was going on. And while the Super Bowl is a huge sporting event already,  the ads resonate further around the world. If ads can still command such audiences, with brands such as Google vying for attention, is there anything similar in the UK that commands the same creativity from advertisers? Honda has shown a spark of real imagination through its ‘event’ ads, such as the live skydive, but who else out there is bold enough to step up? If an audience is online when they’re watching an ad, what are brands doing to encourage them to talk to each other?