Category Archives: Branded Utility

Patronage That’s Focused on the Details

Once marketers buy into Brand Patronage, there’s an understandable temptation to go after the biggest stars on the biggest stages. From a PR perspective, you’re pretty much guaranteed a big splash if you grab yourself a Lady Gaga or Black … Continue reading

An Epic Mix of 2011 Trends

What’s better than spending an epic day carving up fresh powder on the mountainside? How about turning that mountainside into a networked, interactive, social playground? And what’s better than nailing one of our 2011 trends? How about showing how four … Continue reading

A Little Teamwork, A Lot of Savings

There are plenty of marketing lessons to be learned from the explosive success of Groupon. The fact that a Groupon only kicks in after a certain number of buyers commit definitely creates a bit of urgency, but also highlights the … Continue reading

Rise of the Machines

Since we mentioned vending machines in our latest Potty Posting, it struck us as a good time to catch up on what’s pending in the world of vending. Believe it or not, it’s quite the happening place to be. Part … Continue reading

Slam, Let the Droids Be Toys!

“Technology is awesome. Learning about it isn’t.” That’s a simple idea, isn’t it? And leave it to Google to solve this with a brilliant activation, just the way we like ‘em here at Upshot. The newly-launched Demo Slam encourages users … Continue reading

There’s Lots to Like about QR Codes

If two of our Smartshot webinars – on Facebook Like and QR code marketing – got together and had a baby, we think that’d end up begetting some good looking offspring. (Not to mention, the process would only take 15 … Continue reading

Hometown Heroism, One Town At A Time

Over the course of this year, we’ve talked a lot about “small” cause marketing, where brands are increasingly focusing their CSR efforts on more narrow, local, well-defined problems. We’ve viewed this as the intersection of two trends that we called … Continue reading

Checking-in without foursquare

Having caught you up on all things foursquare, you’ve now got a pretty good handle on how marketers are handling the rise of this location-based social network. Of course, foursquare’s not the only game in town. While the world figures … Continue reading

This Mood Lighting Is a Bit Much

Back when we introduced the idea of After the App, we suggested that with every brand under the sun jumping on the app bandwagon, smartphone owners were sure to start suffering from app overload. And, when these users eventually started … Continue reading

Why the iPad Might Put Your Concierge out of Work

In last week’s look at how Consumer Controlled Conversations are impacting the hospitality industry, we mentioned that it’s a great idea to monitor and respond to the social media conversations of current guests. Of course, the only thing better than … Continue reading