Hashtags were almost as prevalent as potato chips during the Super Bowl yesterday.

Twitter ruled the roost of social networks during the commercial portions of the big game, with half of the national television ads broadcast during the game using a hashtag or making some other Twitter reference, according to the unofficial count by Marketing Land. Facebook was referenced in 8 percent, and Google+ in none.

“When it comes to second-screen advertising, it’s Twitter’s world now and there’s no close second place,” writes Marketing Land’s Matt McGee. “Last year, brands split their focus on Twitter and Facebook with eight mentions each. This year, brands recognize that Twitter is where they need to try to attract the online conversation around one of the world’s biggest events.”

Why is this shift happening? For live events, at least, the real-time flexibility of Twitter continues to give the social network the edge. This was demonstrated most clearly by Oreo, which quickly released this ad on Twitter that garnered huge attention by playing off the second-half power outage.

BuzzFeed has the story behind this tweet. Oreo agency 360i used a mission control approach to the game, with Oreo execs close at hand, allowing them to react quickly and take advantage of Twitter’s most important feature — speed.

Also see Twitter’s official roundup of the big game in tweets.

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