Who Won #BrandBowl? Arianna Huffington and AOL in Overtime

My short blog about Bridgestone and Chevy winning #BrandBowl got scrapped before it could even get published this morning when I saw a tweet sometime after midnight announcing AOL bought The Huffington Post.

Already in bed, the "What?" I yelled out loud caused my poor dog to jump up and look at me very confused.

Putting the debate of whether or not the business deal was a smart one to the side here, the bottom line is it was great timing for both brands. The Super Bowl is just as much about the commercials as it is football, making ad agencies, marketers, brands and others in the field just as on-the-edge of their seats as the most die-hard football fan.

They've spent months, if not most of their year and ad budgets working on a commercial that in some cases may only be 20 seconds, but can really make or break a product -- so much so that there is a twitter party #brandbowl dedicated to talking about and analyzing just the commercials. And, you better believe the Steelers are not the only ones playing Monday morning quarterback and second guessing what they could've done better.

But, the most discussed brands I've seen being talked about didn't spend a dime during the Super Bowl, but instead made a major announcement late last night.

The Huffington Post and AOL are the water cooler talk today. Twitter and Facebook are buzzing with opinions for and against the deal, journalists who have work published on The Huffington Post are asking a lot of questions and public relation blogs are dissecting what the deal means.

Their timing was genius. If someone suggested making a big announcement after the Super Bowl, I would've laughed -- no matter how large the brand was. But, using their news instincts, Arianna Huffington and AOL knew news like this wouldn't trump the Super Bowl, but it would come in a very close second beating out any other talk.

Well played, Arianna and AOL. Well played.