Many hotels are already offering experience-based rewards in their loyalty programs and enhanced concierge services to assist guests with discovering the world outside of the hotel. Instead of stockpiling points for a free night’s stay, members of these programs can earn cultural activities, like going backstage before a performance at the Peking Opera or spending the day with a professional bullfighter. Some loyalty programs even offer express experiences specifically designed for business travelers who may only have an hour or two to spare but who still want to go home with at least one memorable insight into the destination they visited.

Additionally, several startups have recently emerged to meet the wanderlusty needs of travelers by offering trip curation tools, local knowledge and a much-needed dose of personalization to the online trip planning process.

Launched in April, Vayable connects travelers with tour guides offering unique and intimate local experiences, like scouting Montmartre street art in Paris or visiting sample sales in NYC with a fashion insider. By allowing these independent guides to sell their local knowledge, Vayable is redefining the tour and activity segment of the travel market.

And then there’s Fortnighter, also launched this year, which provides (for a fee) made-to-order itineraries from professional travel writers based on the user’s dates of travel, interests and budget. Fortnighter brings currency, personalization and expert knowledge to the travel planning table and allows users to steer clear of the unreliability of algorithms and user reviews.

A slew of other services have also cropped up recently. All of this suggests that the travel experience marketplace is heating up, and there appears to be room for more. When looking across the dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing and sharing travel cycle, what kind of product or service can you offer that will assist travelers with collecting those sought-after experiences? How do you evoke the moments that inspire us when we travel? How do you help deliver more authentic travel experiences?

The invitation-only site has taken the creative world by storm. It’s given users access to a seemingly endless world of “pins” that can be saved on their own categorized pinboards and titled however they see fit. See a recipe on a blog that you want to make for dinner next weekend? Pin it to your “foodie” board. When you click on it later you’ll be taken back to the original recipe. Planning a wedding and trying to find the perfect bouquet inspiration? Do a search for flowers and pin photos of gorgeous bouquets to your little heart’s desire on your “tie the knot” board. See a quotation that makes you laugh, cry or think of a friend? Pin it!

Silbermann and his co-founders took the visual bookmarking to another level. Users may “follow” friends (and strangers), and comment on each other’s posts, much like on other social networking sites. Facebook users may also recognize the “like” button on Pinterest, while Twitterers can use their beloved hashtags in their pin captions. A recently updated iPhone app and brand-new mobile capabilities for other smartphones make for easy pinning on the go. In other words, the idea that inspiration is all around us has been “pinned” down, and you can quite literally take it with you wherever you go.

As Pinterest continues to grow, brands are taking note and jumping on the pinningwagon too. The popular home goods retailer West Elm uses the site to pin not only their own catalog of products, but other inspirational images as well. From there, followers can click on or repin images that link to the West Elm website where visitors can easily purchase. It’s that simple!

Go ahead. Request an invitation here. And start pinning!

Pros. The high demand created exponential word of mouth for the promotion. Created new news for the brand. Most likely, brought in new consumers that might not already shop there. And, sold out in record time. All great for a return on investment.

Cons. Frustrated shoppers that didn’t get the offer or product. Loss of other (non-promotion) sales during the downtime. Possible negative brand image impact.

In these two promotions (Missoni at Target and Whole Foods on LivingSocial), I’m convinced the pros outweighed the cons. The offers were compelling. They created high consumer demand and the site overloads made consumers want it even more. The offers alone gave consumers a reason to care about it, and more importantly, a reason to share it with others (Facebook posts were flooded with people bragging what they scored). Ultimately, it built equity for both the Target and Living Social brands. And, most importantly, doing what promotions do best—motivate behavior.

Social media is hyperactive word of mouth, only there are so many mouths talking you need a way to know how your brand is influencing and who it is reaching. It’s not new news that brands want to connect with consumers. What is new to the speed at which they can track and affect their influence digitally. This media channel is a main conduit for brands to express their voice, promote new products and even tell a larger brand story. It’s not hard to see why and how social media efforts have become the most valuable back-channel way to communicate and build a following. (If your brand isn’t into it, work on that.)

So how do you track all your social media efforts? Who’s talking? How do we keep them talking? With Klout, the current leader in the “social analytics” provider, it all boils down to engagement based on click-throughs, comments, likes, retweets or how often your message is passed along. The number of services they track for you is growing (it now includes the top 10 digital forums, with 3 more coming soon).

Recently celebrities have been using Klout for PR pushes and testing. Brands are also reaching into the system to understand how their audience is listening or if they’re listening at all. They’re taking notes on what topics resonate and using that information to build a stronger brand presence and gaining followers as well as traction in the marketplace as a resource, leader or otherwise. Klout’s easy-to-digest “social analytics” has potential to build smarter partnerships, promotions and more believable categories of influence. Plus, you’ve got to love the dynamic nature of the data. In my opinion, “instant” is the new “ASAP.”

Don’t forget the perks for having influence. Klout Perks are great place for brands to highlight and use those influential talkers directly. It’s kinda like a social media pat on the back from brands to their fans. I’m on board—are you?

Who’s Talking?

Someone needs to spread the message. Called connectors, accelerators and influencers, they have deep and wide social networks and pass along information they care about to others. The key is to tap into the right people for your specific product or service. Here are three types of “go-to” people:

Enthusiast. The stereotypical brand advocate who serves as a passionate brand ambassador.
Local Expert. The know-all about a specific category—car or gadget nut, knows about new restaurants or TV shows.
Jack-of-All-Interest. An interesting know-a-lot vs. an annoying know-it-all.

What Are They Talking About?

First of all, forget everything you learned about traditional brand management. If this process starts by trying to convert a well-crafted brand statement into a word-of-mouth campaign, it won’t be successful. The product or service must be looked at through a different lens.

It’s not what you want to say about your product or service, but what consumers find talkable about it. Finding the relevance in a product or service is crucial. If it’s relevant, the more likely it will be deemed worth sharing. Once something is worth sharing, it has value. High-involvement categories tend to increase information value. The collision of talkability and relevancy becomes the social currency in the message.

Dig deep to understand the consumer. Think about what people like to talk about, why they like to talk, and how an actual conversation might transpire. Remember the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray? It’s quite appropriate when creating word-of-mouth messages.

When developing word-of-mouth messages directed toward men, think in terms of Guysmanship. Male word-of-mouth triggers tend to be competitive, fact-based and opinionated. Men talk to “show that they know” or “be first.” Look at ESPN or read the sports page—facts and opinions are expressed in sound bites.

For women, it’s all about Fempathy. Female triggers are more empathetic or deal with community building and emotional outreach. They talk “to help” and “to be heard.” And far from sound bites, their conversations are centered on shared experiences and expressed as complete stories. It’s Oprah and Lifetime and their stories of women facing their challenges, from the life-changing to the day-to-day.

So Get to It.

Find the right people to spread the word. Craft the right message that’s talkable and relevant. Activate it using the tactics most appropriate for the topic. There’s a world of technological options; be sure to find the tools that will best seed or spark the conversation. And remember, the true magic lies in the social currency of the idea—it’s what keeps the idea moving to others.

This doesn’t need to be the case.
B2B does not have to be one completely expected, borderline cheesy execution after another. In fact, I would argue B2B could be one of the most creatively innovative spaces in marketing. It offers everything you could want to deliver great creative. A well-defined target. An informed consumer (yes, IBM does not buy something from 3M, a person buys something from another person). Something to sell that is inherently necessary to the audience. And a lot of freedom since no one is really paying attention.

Clear your mind and forget the formula that seems to exist.
Don’t think, “Oh crap, it’s B2B!” Think, “Damn. This could be cool.” Even if there is an assignment you are supposed to answer (print ad, email, website, whatever), ignore it for a moment and think about what you might really want to use as communication vehicles. Too often, marketers want to apply the same things that work for consumer marketing to B2B, with the exception of television, but all this does is continue to nail the box shut.

Do you really think the way to sell a multi-million dollar jet to a Fortune 500 company is with a print ad? Do you really think the subject line of an email will convince Publix to purchase your shelving system? Of course not. But the better question is, what will? B2B is dying for that answer because usually, the products being sold and the contracts being signed are for millions of dollars and multiple years. These are big decisions. Way bigger than which color lipstick should I buy? And creative, innovative and inspiring ideas, brilliantly executed will make those decisions a little easier to make.

Remember, this is an informed audience, regardless of the product. People who purchase real estate for corporations, for example, are not neophytes. They are single minded already. You don’t need to get them into the ‘real estate’ aisle. You need to engage them in your real estate option. You need to engage a person, not a company. Ultimately, you need to motivate that person and I’m pretty sure another trade rag ad with a gleaming high rise and smiling agent is not going to do it. But something different would. Something smarter and more creative would.

B2B marketing only has to suck if you let it. And currently, most people do.

For starters, both Dennis Crowley (co-founder of foursquare) and Josh Williams (founder of Gowalla) think their core features are… well, kinda boring. In their respective panels, each described “location” and “check-ins” as inherently uninteresting. And they’re right. The fact that you are at a venue is horribly uninteresting without some additional context about what’s happening there, who you’re with, or why you’re really there. Locations become relevant and significant to the consumer only when they’re combined with the emotions, memories, and experiences associated with that place. This sentiment was summed up nicely by Crowley: “It’s good that we have a large places database; it’s better that we have an interesting places database.” But even with that additional context, that single data point still isn’t as interesting as a collection of your check-ins over time. In other words, when the context around your location is aggregated and archived over the long run, your check-ins start to tell a story. And speakers across SXSW agreed that for LBSs to grow beyond the geeks and reach the masses, they must make these stories more compelling. To paraphrase Williams, it’s the challenge of making a check-in at Starbucks as exciting as a check-in at the Golden Gate Bridge. Boy, we’ve got some work to do.

Fortunately, the key players have plenty of ideas about how to make this work. Gowalla seems to be planning a service that will help their users easily compile a virtual scrapbook of their memories after going on vacation. If you check in at your home airport, a different airport, then your home airport again, Gowalla might automatically bundle all of your check-ins, updates, and photos that occurred between your departure and return, providing you with a turnkey way to share these memories on sites like Facebook. (Uh, Disney Vacation Club team? This is where you should be paying attention.) Storytelling is even more important for brands that aren’t logically tied to a place, since the only way these brands can interact in the location space is by being a lens that focuses on what’s relevant to their consumers in physical locations. For instance, Crowley gave a hypothetical example in which Pampers could help new parents find playgrounds and parks in their immediate vicinities.

Aside from the hypotheticals, each day seems to bring a new service that is using location to provide enormous utility for consumers. Cabulous is an app (and mobile website) that provides users with a real-time map of available cabs near their current location. As shown in the image at the top of this post, all they need to do is tap on the cab that’s nearest, and the driver will be hailed and provided with the user’s location. There’s also the “Don’t Eat At” app, which foursquare users can add-on if they want to be immediately notified when they’ve checked-in to a restaurant that’s at risk of being shut down for repeated health violations. The more you know… can be a little gross.

So, the stories are coming along, the utility is there, and the base of users is tiptoeing towards critical mass. LBS growth has nowhere to go but up, as long as there’s not a gigantic elephant in the room that could possibly derail their adoption, right? Oh, wait, we almost forgot: the process of checking-in still kinda sucks. Fortunately, everyone in the LBS space is well aware of the problem. Gowalla’s Williams describes check-ins as a band-aid that’s been necessary to get past initial privacy concerns and to generate enough data the make these services relevant. (With foursquare touting half a billion check-ins in the past year, we’d say that’s working.) But even with check-ins being a pain in the butt, users have been trained to understand that check-ins contribute to something useful in the long run, even if there’s not an immediate reward. And if they haven’t understood that before, they understand it now, thanks to the new foursquare interface that we covered pre-SXSW. In addition to helping you explore new places that coincide with your check-in history, check-ins are now accompanied by information like “you haven’t been here in ten months,” or “you just checked in with Kiki – that’s the first time you saw him since you checked-in together at Dark Lord Day,” and other tidbits of information that help you construct your own stories of exploration.

So, if the check-in is only a temporary solution, what’s next? It’s hard to say, but there are some telling signs. The American Express partnership we discussed pre-SXSW is certainly interesting, as it makes this process completely seamless for both consumers and participating marketers. (By the way, if you missed this morning’s update, we’ve got some interesting new information about that partnership.) It’s also becoming increasingly clear that many phones in the next year or two will include NFC capabilities, which could significantly simplify the check-in process. For instance, if foursquare provided venues with “tap here” stickers that included embedded NFC tags, users could check-in just by tapping their phone against that sticker when entering. And if it gets that much simpler to become part of the story of location, we think this space is bound to get a whole lot more interesting.

In Part 1 of our SXSWrapup, we noted that despite the annual hype-fest and prognostications for every SXSW, there really wasn’t “a killer app” coming out of this year’s conference. To give that statement some context, think about the two services that are universally hailed as the most “killer apps” to ever come out of SXSW: Twitter and foursquare. Twitter fundamentally changed the way we communicate online (by imposing length limits), the speed at which these conversations take place, and the ability to build further services right on top of this data (through an aggressively open API). Likewise, foursquare fundamentally changed the way we think about the relationship between social networking and location, invented a brand new data point (the check-in), and legitimized gaming mechanisms on an enormous scale.

In other words, the bar is pretty high to be a “killer app.” That’s why it’s okay that this year’s big story – the emergence of the Group Texting category of apps – isn’t really blowing anyone away. These are undoubtedly useful, they address an important consumer need, and, in the end, they may have the potential to be more widely adopted than Twitter or foursquare. So, “killer” or not, let’s take a closer look.

Group texting is exactly what it sounds like: a service that functions much like a “reply all” for text messaging. Users choose the peers that need to text each other about given topic, and add those people to a central list. When invited users send texts, pictures, or similar content to that list, that information gets dispersed to the whole group. For instance, if you have a group of friends that like to play pickup soccer games, you could create a list and shoot out messages when you’re in the mood to organize a quick game. If you’re trying to coordinate your group of friends at Lollapalooza-sized festivals, it sure helps to shoot out one update instead of contacting everyone individually. And if you were to attend, say, a Hilton developers conference (hint hint, Hilton team), attendees would find it very useful to opt-in to group texting lists for networking purposes, conference updates, and discussions that are pertinent to their industry. Better yet, these lists can be as permanent or as ephemeral as needed. Some services choose to build-in this expiration date up front (as seen in the image of GroupMe above), while others can be canceled as soon as the list’s usefulness has run its course.

As always, we STRONGLY encourage you to download these apps and try them on your own. No explanation on our end can compete with trying these services yourself, even if you delete them after a week. There are already lots of options in this space, and they are sure to undergo significant changes over the next few months (especially Beluga, which was recently acquired by Facebook), but we can make some initial judgments based on their current configurations. We’ve been using Beluga with our team here at SXSW, and it’s definitely been helpful for improving productivity and coordination. SXSW attendees who are more focused on the “extra-curricular activities” have also been advocating Fast Society.

But the service that’s most captured our attention is GroupMe. We like the fact that when you create a group, that group is assigned a phone number that, with a push of a button, can generate an instant conference call for all of the list’s members. We like the fact that users can choose to share their real-time location, so that group members can find each other even if they’re in an unfamiliar region. Then again, many of these features are available from other group texting apps.

In fact, the thing we like most about GroupMe’s is something that runs counter to the idea of being SXSW’s “killer” app – the fact that you can participate in the service without using an app. While there are apps available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry users, list members can also interact via text messaging. (Yes, that’s right: someone at SXSW created a service that also includes people who don’t have smartphones.) We love that element for its inclusiveness, especially since the kind of networking applications we’re envisioning can’t afford to be compromised by incompatible devices or different levels of tech-adoption between participants. Better yet, this also means that when the smartphone users run into areas with poor data coverage, they won’t lose touch either (GroupMe actually prompts users to drop down to SMS functionality when it detects poor data coverage.) And while GroupMe is only currently available in the US, the SMS/text option certainly suggests that they’re well-positioned to expand their service internationally in the near future. And for many of our clients, we think that’d be “killer.”

Be sure to check in tomorrow for Part 3 of our SXSWrapup!

[UPDATE: For more information on the foursquare / American Express partnership mentioned at the bottom of this post, click here.]

SXSW Interactive starts tomorrow, which means the battle for blogosphere buzz will be starting shortly… ah, hell, it’s already been going on for a couple of days.

Category-wise, the big buzz is focused on group texting apps, which are pretty much what they sound like: services that enable users to identify groups of peers (often temporary) with whom they want to swap texts, images, videos, events, real-time locations, and more. With hordes of trend-setters and trend-trackers (us included!) heading down to Austin for a week or two, these services are sure to help coordinate meetups, idea swaps, networking, and more during the time when everyone’s in town. There are some obvious implications here for our travel and B2B clients, as these services could be used to coordinate everything from networking professionals to families vacationing together. We’ll be tracking how these services fare over the course of the conference, how (or whether) they differentiate themselves, and what unexpected implications will emerge. For now, we’ll encourage you to peruse a brief posting on Mashable if you’d like to see where the frenzy stands.

As for specific services, the first one to land a big blow has been… foursquare? Again? Clearly, these guys know how to capture the attention of the tech crowd, and they’ve managed to do so with a lengthy blog post about the release of foursquare 3.0. While they’ve got a lot to say, let’s focus on what’s most relevant to us folks in the marketing world.

We’ll start with the fact that foursquare has grown to 7.5 million users who have checked-in 500 million times over the past year. Man, that’s a whole lot of data. If only someone could apply that information in a relevant way to encourage exploration. That someone turns out to be foursquare themselves, and the biggest piece of their big upgrade is the Explore tab. In addition to their classic approach of highlighting the closest venues to your real-time location, the Explore function enables users to also filter by a variety of more refined factors. This is partially enabled by venue tagging (looking for places with fireplaces? got a thing for wings?), but that’s something that’s basically becoming a cost-of-entry to the location-based services’ space. Now, here’s where those aforementioned 500 million check-ins come into play. If you combine venue tags with the aggregate information about your check-ins (and those of your friends) – such as the types of venues you patronize, how loyal you are to those spots, etc. – you suddenly have the ability to receive some extremely relevant recommendations. As we mentioned in our earlier discussion of foursquare’s Pepsi/Safeway partnership, check-ins are increasingly becoming a valuable proxy for aggregate behavioral data that smart marketers can manipulate to provide extremely relevant offers. For instance, foursquare can identify your “areas of expertise” in this new version; if you attend a lot of burlesque shows, you’re probably an expert on the art of tasteful teasing & tassels. If your friends are considering a dive into that world, isn’t your check-in history a valuable asset? Damn right it is.

The next big change worth noting: foursquare’s bringing the “social” back to location-based social networking. While the battles for venue mayorships have certainly been effective for frequent users, these check-in frenzies tend to exclude the service’s more casual users from reaping the benefits of foursquare specials. That’s about to change with foursquare’s new types of specials (shown in the image at right), including deals that target groups of friends checking-in together, first-time visitors, or swarms (i.e. certain thresholds of users checking-in all at the same time). For brands that are looking for innovative promotional mechanisms, foursquare just armed you with a pretty powerful tool.

Oh, our coverage of the foursquare frenzy wouldn’t be complete without their biggest PR coup: landing a partnership with American Express. The gist of the deal is that users who link their foursquare accounts to their AmEx accounts can get receive exclusive deals just by using their card (starting with a variety of “spend $5, save $5″ deals). Interestingly enough, these deals don’t require a foursquare check-in to be redeemed, nor do the purchases automatically check you into venues. Instead, the deal is being touted for its seamlessness – consumers automatically receive the rewards thanks to foursquare’s work on the backend, while the participating businesses benefit because their salespeople don’t need to handle the redemptions. (Our hunch: foursquare benefits too by growing their user base beyond the 7.5 million mentioned earlier.)

[UPDATE: For more information on the foursquare / American Express partnership, click here.]

We’ll be keeping an eye on these developments, as well as the deluge of information that’s about to spill out of Austin, over the next week right here on The Awesome Blog. Let us make sense of the madness for you – be sure to follow us on Twitter and/or subscribe via email through the link at the top right of this page.

All of our conversations about Primitive Simplicity essentially come back to a single sentiment: the growing suspicion that our fancy-pants societal progress generates its fair share of unintended, negative consequences. As such, more consumers are starting to believe that the answers to our most pervasive problems aren’t right in front of us – in fact, they’re behind us, chronologically speaking. While there are certainly environmental and social drivers behind this trend, at it’s core, Primitive Simplicity is really a byproduct of concerns about personal health. As consumers continue to draw connections between simplicity and health, we’re expecting to see a boatload of brands following this prescription and discovering that there’s money to be made from investing in the simple life. A new study from Siegel + Gale claims that U.S. consumers are willing to pay a 4-6% premium for brands that deliver on various forms of simplicity , ranging from increased convenience and greater transparency to enabling easier lifestyles.

Some of these messages will come from unexpected places, such as the “Vacation Daze” campaign from Royal Caribbean (shown in the clip above). In the spot, there’s not a ship to be seen, or a smiling family cavorting on a beach, or even an attractive couple lounging poolside sipping cocktails. Instead, the campaign focuses squarely on Americans’ squandered vacation days, and harps on the fact that relaxation is a crucial element to vitality and longevity. In an industry almost cartoonishly obsessed with the idea that bigger is better, it’s pretty remarkable to see a travel brand positioning themselves as part of a healthy work-life balance, rather than an enabler of luxurious indulgence.

That’s not to say that luxurious indulgence and healthy simplicity can’t coexist, as evidenced by the buzz around products like the Sunlighten “smart sauna.” You’d expect a brand like this to highlight features like adjustable lighting and Blaupunkt sound systems, in order to help you feel superior to your neighbors and more effectively brag at your next high school reunion. But you might not even find those elements on their website, since the brand’s busy focusing on how these saunas help lower your blood pressure and improve your cell health. Pshaw, doesn’t this brand know that wasteful excess is way sexier than living longer, healthier lives? I mean, it’s as if Sunlighten doesn’t know that their promotional partners should be high-roller, high-status, luxury brands. As far as I know, the American Heart Association isn’t known for selling Swarovski toilets or gold-plated staples, but they’re on board as a promotional partner for Sunlighten’s “Healthy Hearts Sale.” These potentially strange bedfellows seem less bizarre when you recall the counter-intuitive idea buried within our Primitive Simplicity trend: sometimes, new technologies and devices are the simple solution, not the problem. As consumers continue to question the impacts of society’s sophisticated advancements, expect these unexpected answers to become more common.