Let me offer a counterpoint to HN's cynicism. I watched the Super Bowl with tweets streaming through, it was fun and engaging to see reactions and wit to everything from plays, Beyonce, and commercials -- within seconds. If I scroll through now, it's like retelling a joke when the timing is completely off, and shrugging it off as, "well, you had to be there." It doesn't diminish the experience at the time, but it's hard to it relate now.

This isn't the first time for me that Twitter really added to a lengthy real-time event. I fired up my Tweetbot for both Hurricane Sandy and Election 2012. It depends on who you follow, but for me, it made for a much more entertaining night than just watching the CNN talking heads.

As for the value that these brands got, it's hard to say. We're still in the early stages of brands + social, and Oreo can't possibly account for an extra box of cookies sold with any level of confidence. But I do know that I enjoyed seeing Audi, Tide, and Walgreens get retweeted more than I saw my SF friends swearing at the 49ers for the 100th time.