Oh, believe me, we’ll get to location. But, like yesterday’s post on touch and touchless, we’ve got some smaller fish to fry first.
In the meantime, let’s check in on our Hometown’s Hero trend (and regional marketing in general). We’ve spoken at length about the opportunity for brands to help consumers learn more about their communities, [...]

But you might need a little guidance.
Lucky for you, Upshot’s own QR code will help you find which bands are playing nearby during Interactive Week!
(When we told you that QR codes would be an interesting SXSWi subplot, we may have known a thing or two.)
If you’ll be in Austin this week, keep [...]

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 Project from [...]

A quick question: With all the talk about the resurgence of 3D, why is it taking so long for 3D glasses to catch up stylistically?
In fact, this pair of aviator glasses (shared on PSFK) is one of the few pairs that doesn’t make the wearer look like a cross between Ray Charles and Geordi La [...]

Is there any segment of the population more vocal than the sports fan?
It seems like anyone who is even minimally interested in a given sport will inevitably claim that they could do a better job of coaching the team, managing the franchise, running the league, or broadcasting the games.
About that last one: it’s time to [...]

In last week’s post about Copenhagen’s cycling railings, we casually mentioned Apple’s renovation of a Chicago subway station and KFC’s offer to repair potholes. As local governments continue to struggle (no really, Chicago, it’s not like any of us take the bus or train to work – keep slashing those routes!), brands have a rare [...]

There’s a reason we’re so damn proud of our 10 Trends for 2010.
Simply put, they’re right on.
Let’s take Trend #9, Immersive Sensory Experiences. In a nutshell, consumers are accustomed to (and thus expecting) ever more immersive sensory experiences in all forms of media, entertainment, and advertising. “Breaking through the clutter” not only requires an especially [...]

In our 10 Trends for 2010 analysis, our fourth trend (Niche Networks and Micro Communities) claims that we should expect an explosion of smaller communities built around shared passion points in the next 12 months. From a marketing standpoint, this trend provides brands with ample opportunities to build exceptional relationships with smaller consumer groups through [...]

Admittedly, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good press for Yahoo! of late. Even the normally even-tempered coverage on Ad Age sounds more like something from Adrants when dissing Yahoo’s new Y!ou campaign and homepage design.
Yet, Ad Age’s recent coverage of Yahoo!’s holiday marketing stunt is appropriately balanced, and calls out a number of [...]

What’s a retailer to do when, as an act of political resistance, a bunch of pesky artists start squatting in one of their stores?
Embrace it, of course.
At least, that’s the approach taken by an Ikea store in Hamburg. Gentrification of the area has eliminated many of the homes and workplaces for artists and designers in the region, [...]