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 out what to make of Facebook Places, Gowalla continues to be the best LBS alternative [...]

With Facebook recently unveiling their own location-based service, the press has itself in a tizzy trying to wrap its head around the impending arrival of the year of location. Y’know, the one we called out back in March. But no worries, we’re glad you’re all coming around. In fact, we’re going to spend the next [...]

Just as we were making the argument that live streaming video offers compelling opportunities for brands (but remains largely overlooked), the company behind Mafia Wars went ahead and notched 2 million live views for a recent live campaign (setting a Ustream record in the process). And what was this cinematic masterpiece that riveted an audience [...]

In our lengthy coverage of QR codes and barcode marketing in general, we’ve repeatedly referenced Stickybits without ever diving into how the platform actually works. There’s a reason for that – a couple, actually. But, with Doritos, Pepsi, Ben & Jerry’s, and other CPG giants flirting with the service, we certainly owe them a glance [...]

After last year’s SXSW Interactive conference, when our heads were still spinning with augmented reality apps and location-based social networks and gesture based technologies, we came to an unexpected conclusion: many of the most engaging consumer interactions were being delivered via plain ol’ streaming videos. Part of this success was attributable to steadily-improving content, but [...]

Ford certainly captured the attention of the ad industry by choosing to forgo the Detroit Auto Show for the unveiling of their 2011 Explorer. Instead, Ford opted to become the first major car manufacturer to reveal a new model on a Facebook page, claiming that the car had been so dramatically reinvented that it deserved [...]

You can’t just go around throwing plasma bolts in the middle of a busy Hollywood intersection – you’ll poke somebody’s eye out! Unless it’s just an interactive window display from InWindow Outdoor. In yet another example of the movie industry’s willingness to embrace Immersive Sensory Experiences, the above display is part of an OOH campaign [...]

Old Spice sure has a hit on their hands with their “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” People clearly love the eccentric spots (sort of a surreal twist on Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man”), and have generated plenty of conversations about the budding star of these videos, Isaiah Mustafa. We’ve talked about a variety [...]

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 monitoring and responding is proactively influencing these conversations. To do this, you could follow the [...]

When we introduced the idea of Down-to-Earth-ism in our 10 Trends for 2010, we described this trend as an evolution of the New Austerity. We argued that consumers were stressed, strained, and suspicious, and that pie-in-the-sky promises seemed inconsistent with what consumers really wanted: real, reliable solutions from brands. We weren’t being literal about the [...]