They were not bemoaning that the Patriots folded under pressure and that the Giants spoiled a perfect season for them. They didn’t even bother to comment on the quality of advertising that brands spent millions for 97,500,000 viewers to see. What they complained about was that advertisers did not make more use of the new technology to connect with viewers during or immediately after the game was over.

The angst began on Tuesday with an article in MediaPost’s Mobile Insider by Steve Smith. Smith is convinced that all of us have our mobile phones in our pockets just waiting for brands to text them. “Aside from the nondescript Bud Bowl ad poll and Cadillac’s MVP voting, there were no sustained efforts to a parallel program on mobile. There were only a few spots that even called out to a text tie-in. When I spoke with HipCricket’s Vice President of Brand Solution, Steve Siegel, yesterday, he called it a day of ‘missed opportunities.’ I am less polite: marketing just fumbled the damn ball.”

Steve went on to say that he actually texted his vote for the Cadillac MVP during the game and was upset that they didn’t respond until after the game.

Feel the angst?

It grows. On Wednesday, Bill McCloskey wrote in emailInsider, another MediaPost on-line newsletter and blog, “E-Mail and the Super Bowl: A Sorry Tale.” They actually put a white paper together to evaluate how brands used e-mail to support their Super Bowl advertising. Their conclusion was that “The most interesting thing is how little email seems to have played in the role of one of the biggest marketing events of the year. Companies spending millions on one minute Super Bowl spots apparently spent little, if any, time thinking about how email might fit into the overall mix.” He noted that Bridgestone sent out e-mails promoting they are the official tire of the Super Bowl, but does not disclose who they sent them to. (Let me know if you got one.) Budweiser did do some e-mail efforts prior to the game, had a special website and even did mobile marketing.

McCloskey’s angst boiled over when he closed his analysis by saying, “Come on, people! If you are going to spend more than the GNP of a small South American country for 60 seconds of airtime, how about throwing a few pennies to develop an ongoing communications channel with some of those eyeballs (a large percentage of which, I can guarantee you, were sitting with their laptops on their Barcaloungers scanning their e-mail and checking in with their bookies.)”

There’s more. Janel Landis wrote in SearchInsider that, ”This year’s Super Bowl drew an estimated 97.5 million viewers and was the second most-watched TV program ever. We found 64% of Super Bowl advertisers included a Web site in their ad; however, just 12% of the ads actually called out the advertiser’s Web sites in the voiceover.” According to GO DADDY, they recorded about a half-million visitors in the first 30 minutes after their “Beaver” ad ran. This either indicates there are a lot of viewers who are actually multi-tasking or a lot of fair-weather football fans.

David Berkowitz wrote in SearchInsider that “Yahoo, The Fourth Quarter Is Still Yours.” His angst was directed at the pending battle between a Microsoft and Yahoo connection and Google. He, too, was filled with angst but that’s another topic for later.

The Marketing Implications

I always support new technologies and we all should. But these writers are off-the-wall space cadets. If their idea of marketing is to invade my space during the Super Bowl or any other time when I don’t want them too, they are 360 degrees off base.

We had our kids over to watch the Super Bowl. We had lots of food and the game was fantastic. We graded every commercial and lamented about the quality of most. We had fun. Our son-in-law was periodically texting his out-of-town friends, but no one had laptops. My cell phone was not even in the room and had I received a text message during the game, I would have ignored it or been offended that a brand caused me to take MY eye off the ball.

I asked my friend Greg Osenga, at Hawkeye/FFWD, how he viewed the issue and he agreed with me. He was more interested in getting a beer or talking about the game than getting a text message.

This week’s AH-ha! is very basic. USE COMMON SENSE in developing every campaign. Use all the new technologies when it makes good sense. Text messaging is the next big marketing opportunity – over 156,000 million Americans are texting. It’s an untapped portal.

However, if we follow the advice of Smith and McCloskey, we will destroy the marketing value of these technologies. The consumer is in control and she or he can turn you off with a click of a mouse, so don’t do anything stupid like interrupt a romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day or when it’s 4th and one with a minute left in the game.

The rules of marketing really have not changed as long as you remember to put your customers at the heart of your business and do to them what you would want your brand to do to you.

This week, purge the angst. There’s a rocky economy to deal with and customers to keep active. Ask your team, and yourself, if you are practicing smart marketing.

Stay warm and have a great week.