With Foursquare getting its own Potty Posting, it’s clear that the service has officially arrived.Oh, and they did get the TV commercial shown to the right, too. But c’mon, a Potty Posting! As a follow-up to our coverage of Foursquare and other location-based social networks, we’ve compiled a whole slew of marketing applications below. (We’ll [...]

We’ve got a new Potty Posting available for your reading pleasure! We take a look at location-based social networks like Foursquare and suss out whether there are fruitful marketing opportunities. Spoiler alert: there are. Click here for the full-color PDF, and please feel free to share with clients! Or, if you’d prefer the text only [...]

After our “Cause Marketing Gets Bigger. And Smaller.” post from last week, a couple of subsequent examples popped that were worth passing along. For starters, we mentioned that a number of cause marketing efforts were tapping the wisdom of crowds to generate unorthodox solutions to daunting social problems. PechaKucha, who we’ve profiled before, recently brought [...]

As we’ve mentioned in our discussions of Immersive Sensory Experiences, the increasing prevalence of engaging technologies has driven consumers’ expectations through the roof.  No longer confined to early adopters, it’s the everyday consumer who now expects evermore immersive experiences from all forms of media. While Steve Jobs can’t take all the credit for this trend, [...]

Last week, Ad Age ran a brief article titled, “The Most Influential Cause Marketing Campaigns.” Much of the list is familiar; we’re all aware of the massive efforts like the Livestrong bracelets and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. However, some of the campaigns on the list took on a decidedly narrow mission, such as AmEx’s [...]

Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. The economy’s not that bad. Nonetheless, we’re seeing a lot of bartering examples popping up in unexpected places. While we’re not suggesting that marketers give up cash payments for beaver pelts, we do think there’s a lesson here for how to better incentivize consumers. Consider the Dust Jacket [...]

A: Um, everything. Duh. eMarketer (via Cone) recently considered this question across a number of different categories (including many of our clients’ industries), and the results are unanimously un-unanimous. The data suggests that consumers want information and entertainment, and incentives, and a forum for feedback, and even marketing in these “new media” spaces. (Demanding, aren’t [...]

It wasn’t too long ago that we talked about how to generate word-of-mouth conversations, especially for brands that don’t inspire a whole lot of chatter on their own. Since then, we’ve introduced you to the concept of Delighting Consumers with Hidden Surprises. And now, to connect the dots. If you’re trying to get people talking [...]

Oy. Again with the busy day? Yes, unfortunately (or fortunately?) we’re still a bit swamped, so today’s post’ll have to be a quickie. So, we’ll let PSFK delight you with their spotting of these wine labels that let you Mr.-Potato-Head-ify (or is that Colorform-ize?) the bottles. Nifty! A full post is coming tomorrow, we promise!

Brands, are you really confident about the quality of your products and services? Are you certain that you could send your customers into your competitors’ arms, and they’d still come running back to you? You’d better be. Welcome to the world of Ubiquitous Connoisseurship. See, there’s a reason we made this trend #1 in our [...]