Now the concept is evolving, and brands are catching on. The same grocery shopping wall is currently being tested on a smaller scale in several bus stops throughout Seoul, and household needs giant Procter & Gamble executed a wall in four major subway stations in Prague featuring razors, laundry detergent and the like at the end of 2011. Just weeks ago, consumers in New York were treated to a shoppable apothecary wall by Conde Nast’s Glamour magazine, and Chicago’s own O’Hare airport is currently sporting a wall by Sears with popular toys for boys and girls (seen in the photo above). Business traveling parents take note—if you forgot to grab little Susie or Bobby a souvenir from your trip, this wall could be your saving grace on the way to baggage claim. Just a few clicks and the latest Elmo-doll sensation could be yours!

While many of the executions noted are using the more widely recognized QR codes for scanning purposes, SpyderLink’s Snap Tags are also starting to make appearances in the world of (literal) window shopping.

With brands on the lookout for new ways to target consumers, technology takes center stage with virtual walls providing a seamless, simplified shopping experience.

Our latest Potty Posting is here! With a keen eye for changing food cultures and the trends that follow them, we’ll take a look at why 2012 is shaping up to be a delicious year.

The New Nostalgia.
Yes, it’s a food trends report, but it won’t be the run-of-the-mill, snobby kind (sorry to everyone who’s into that). In fact, it won’t even give you a lot of foods that’ll be trending at all (maybe just a couple: keep your eye out for bibimbap and yuzu).

It’s more of a food culture trends report. See, it’s pretty much impossible to separate the two, so it would be a little silly to talk about food trends in 2012 without the accompanying trends in culture. Culture isn’t static. It changes with the times, demographics and generations. These are the same reasons that food culture isn’t static. We’re too young, too diverse, and too adventurous to let our food be constrained to one flavor, one ethnicity, or one state of mind. Let’s celebrate it.

The Old Nostalgia
The sensory experience we get from food is a powerful one. We turn to food when we feel stressed or anxious, it’s always present when we celebrate or mourn, and it’s nearly impossible to deny a strong craving (don’t pretend like walking by a movie theatre doesn’t instantly transform you into a ravenous, insatiable, buttered popcorn-fueled monster).

But in 2011, we turned to food for its nostalgia. We hadn’t seen much progress in terms of the economy, our jobs were still in danger, and our outstanding student loan debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time (“The economy is so bad…” “How bad is it, Jay?”). Our fear drove us to foods that remind us of a better time in our lives and in our communities. As a coping mechanism, we turned to (even upscale versions of) burgers, mac and cheese, and grilled cheese sandwiches – satiating, not-too-expensive reminders of childhood in pre-recession America.

Food items themselves were not the only trends that revealed our nostalgic patriotism, or our attempt to bring back the good ol’ days by eating like them. We started gravitating toward ideas of “farm to table” and now-hackneyed “artisan” to show our frustration with Big Food Inc. and the ridiculous consequences of lobbying – like when pizza sauce was officially made a vegetable thanks to the lobbyists of the American Frozen Food Institute and the Coalition for Sustainable Meal Programs (which, surprise surprise, is funded in part by ConAgra). Before these phrases lost all meaning (Domino’s Artisan Pizzas? Molto bene!), their purpose was to support the small-scale American farmer and bring communities back together with locally-grown, sustainable food.

Something Old, Something New
Thankfully, some of that won’t be going away in 2012! We’re still going to see a focus on fresh, local food and small-scale, sustainable farming (it can’t all be bad, right guys? …Right?!). Right! We’re still enjoying that homemade comfort food, but we’re not doing it with so much fear anymore. The economy is picking up again, the outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry is way high, and, overall, it’s a great time for American food.

But while we’ll still want comfort food in 2012, what we consider “comfort food” has been changing pretty dramatically. We’ve all heard that America is a melting pot (of delicious fondue, of course), and Millennials are the most keenly aware of this than any other age group. Not only is Gen Y the most ethnically diverse age group, it’s also the most experimental when it comes to food. Since most Millennials have grown up in an environment where global cuisines are the norm, the definition of “comfort food” for them is a lot different than for previous generations, which vastly broadens the scope of food culture in 2012.

Because Gen Y’s palates are getting more adventurous, we have a good chance of seeing a trend of picking and choosing global ingredients from different cuisines to build optimal dishes. It won’t be a surprise to see kimchee on the same plate as bacalao (“You’ve probably never heard of it,” says the Source’s inner hipster), or fusion sandwiches made with ingredients that might actually clash – but expanding our taste horizons is exactly the point. We saw this with the explosion of Korean tacos, which got their fame a) because of the “cool factor” of the food trucks that carried them and b) because to us, especially Gen Y, tacos are a safe, household staple we’ve come to know and love, and experimenting with putting different things in that crunchy shell is really intriguing. In addition, don’t be surprised to see global substitutes for familiar ingredients, like bao instead of biscuits and different meats/parts of the animal in sandwiches, like oxtail, goat, and innards (don’t cringe, it’s not like I told you to blend ‘em up as a substitute for smoothies).

The Kitchen Sink
So, how can marketers tap into this culinary globalism? Think Gen Y. They’re not super wealthy, they’re bold, and they aren’t afraid to try new things. This leaves marketers with a ton of room to play around, especially when it comes to food. Don’t assume that one ethnicity will be closed to another’s cuisine, or that mixing and matching is out of the question. Keep an eye out for innovative new food pairings, or new experiences you can offer consumers with a meal — can you put a twist on a dish they thought they knew by using an ingredient they never would have considered? Can you pique their interest in an ingredient by using it in place of a similar, familiar one? Food may bring nostalgia for the past, but with some playful ideas and global thinking, you can inspire action and keep consumers excited about the culinary future.

But, what is a brand? We use the word all the time, but what do we mean by “brand”? How do we define a brand when thinking of brand promotions?

At Upshot, we define a brand as a promise. What’s great about thinking this way is that it puts it in a context of human terms—it’s easy to understand get your consumers to invest in. And the deeper you get into this notion, the more it brings out the emotion, the human connection inherent in consumers’ relationship with brands, which is vital as social media becomes more and more central to people’s lives.

Go deeper and a brand is not only a promise, but a promise from seller to buyer, built on understanding and rooted in emotion and trust.

A brand is a promise from a seller to a buyer
The brand is the “mark” a seller gives of this promise to the buyer. It’s an interaction with a mutual benefit—yes, the buyer has a need the seller is fulfilling, but the buyer isn’t expecting it to be met with altruism and recognizes the seller also gets something of equal value.

A brand is built on understanding
Branding begins with engaging with people constantly blurring their life experiences. From workplace to home, with friends and with family, people are continually shifting their perspectives and expectations. Essentially, people are ever-changing. Understanding these ever-changing people is the first building block of branding. You’d never be able to make a meaningful promise to someone unless you really knew that person and the different perspectives they enact throughout their day.

A brand is rooted in emotion and trust
Great brands appeal both to the head and to the heart. Emotion is another critical piece of branding.  People must feel comfortable about your brand, that it delivers what you are promising. That it reflects you and your personality it the best way possible. And that takes trust—a quality that takes time to win and can be lost in a second. Let’s keep it personal. A promise from someone you don’t trust is worthless.

So, why care about the brand now?
Three powerful business trends in today’s marketplace are making brands and brand marketing a priority.

Product differentiation. Any aisle in any store contains a mind-numbing array of choices, regardless of what you’re looking for.  Every major brand offers every permutation of a given product so consumers are left with little to no product differentiation. That leaves only brand differentiation to base decisions on—something a well thought out brand articulation and/or promotion can bring to life.  Without it, which brand to purchase could be boiled down to whether blue or red goes better in the kitchen. Or worse, which is cheaper.

Shorter product life cycles. The time between category adoption and brand preference has collapsed. The obvious example is the electronics category, where new technology drives life cycles, but this happens across virtually all consumer categories. You need to get your brand entrenched in consumer minds before you’re outnumbered and surrounded.

Growth of private label. The combination of better quality, consumer acceptance, and economic climate has set up private label to grow, and grow impressively, at the expense of accepted brands. They span basics to premium, and more and more consumers not only purchasing them but embracing them as their “go-to” choice. With space at such a premium, both at the literal shelf and in consumers’ minds, having a brand grounded in emotion, understanding and trust is more important than ever to ensure consumer preference over overtly rational private label products.

Brands and branding are central to the entire marketing spectrum
In an Integrated Marketing world, it’s important to keep in mind that brands and branding are central to all the work done across the entire spectrum of marketing—that’s above, below, through and all around the line. In fact, the “line” gets more and more irrelevant every day. And consumers don’t distinguish between the marketing they see that’s above or below this “line”. Keep the brand at the center of all their efforts to not only ensure its integration, but also consumer acceptance, receptivity to the message and overall engagement beyond mere purchase.

Remember that any brand-based efforts require both rational and emotional motivators. Relevant consumer insights must be tapped to ensure an emotional connection to the brand. Simple ideas need to be expertly executed across all tactics and touch points. Finally, all constituents (manufacturer, retailers, agency partners) need to collaborate as one.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As the Internet evolved, suddenly the dictionary was online, and while Prince was reminding us to Party like it was 1999, Urban Dictionary came onto the scene and allowed users to start writing their own dictionary—complete with definitions for terms such as “tooth sweater” (you know, that feeling you get after not brushing for a day and it feels like there’s little fuzzy sweaters on your teeth? Yeah, I don’t know the feeling either. Go brush your nasty teeth, and floss and rinse while you’re at it). Urban Dictionary gave users a freedom that isn’t unheard of now (what with sites like Wikipedia and their raging popularity), but the lack of real information in addition to user-provided data left something to be desired.

Enter Wordnik, a community-focused and -run word world that takes the idea of an online dictionary to a completely new level, largely based on the idea that words are best learned and understood when seen in real-life contexts. Wordnik pulls definitions on millions of words from several reputable dictionaries, as well as less typical sources such as news articles and Twitter—AND lets users add their own words, definitions, examples, visuals, comments and the like. Think online dictionary meets Wikipedia and has a love affair with a social networking site. Besides providing all of the typical dictionary-esque material like meanings and synonyms, Wordnik lets users “Love” a word, add it to a list of favorites, discuss it with others, tweet it, or add the Word of the Day widget directly to their own site. Basically—anything you’ve ever wanted to do with a word, Wordnik will let you do.

Just launched in 2009, it’s safe to assume the features and community with Wordnik will continue to grow as a popular tool for anyone looking for wordy inspiration. Why look up a word in the dictionary for a boring definition when you can instead look it up on Wordnik, see what others are saying about it and with it, read where it’s come up in the news or strike up a discussion forum about it?!

Sara
What I’m reading: “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins
Why I’m reading it: I was inspired by an article I just read in the New Yorker about Wilkie Collins and the creation of the detective novel genre.
On deck: I don’t know yet what’s on deck. The beauty of owning a Kindle is being able to decide what I’m reading next while I’m on my commute in to work.

Paul
What I’m reading:“I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59” by Douglas Edwards
Why I’m reading it: It’s the inside scoop on Google’s first director of marketing and brand management complete with the evolution of the company’s famously nonhierarchical structure and the many ideas that never came to pass. I’m anxious to see if it ends with him cashing out as a kabillionaire.
On deck: “21: The Story of Roberto Clemente” by Wilfred Santiago

Stacie
What I’m reading: “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” by Stieg Larsson
Why I’m reading it: I started reading the series because pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has raved about it so I was interested in seeing what all the hype was about. TGWKTHN is the last in the series and now I just want to know what happens!
On deck: “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger

Leah
What I’m reading: “Lit: A Memoir” by Mary Karr
Why I’m reading it: I’m a sucker for a sad/true story. In this one, Mary Karr recounts the desperation of trying to be a mother and wife while battling alcoholism and mental illness.
On deck: “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand and “The Hunger Games” (Series) by Suzanne Collins

Adam
What I’m reading: “The Lost City of Z” by David Grann
Why I’m reading it: It’s about the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett who went missing in 1925 while trying to find a “lost city of gold.” With our lives surrounded by technology, it’s fascinating to read a true story about an adventurer that explored mosquito-filled jungles without a GPS (or a decent pair of boots).
On deck: “Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers” by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo

Mary
What I’m reading: “Embers” by Sándor Márai
Why I’m reading it: NPR profiled another one of Márai’s books earlier this year, which I read and loved. “Embers” is supposed to be even better.
On deck: “IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea” by Sara Harrison (From the Source collection!)

Jaclyn
What I’m reading: “The Interwebz” by Al Gore, a robot or two, you & me
Why I’m reading it: To be smarter, learn what’s up and laugh.
On deck: I don’t think I’ll ever stop reading it. Sooo tmrw’s pixels, probably.

Neil
What I’m reading: “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson
Why I’m reading it: The story of Lincoln’s assassination turns out to be surprisingly interesting. The modern equivalent would be like if George Clooney killed the president and escaped into the woods for two weeks. Bizarre.
On deck: “In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin” by Erik Larson

Liz
What I’m reading: “Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body” by Jennifer Ackerman
Why I’m reading it: I’ve become a science junkie over the past few years. My intellectual crushes now include Atul Gawande and Jonah Lehrer. Swoon!
On deck: “Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It,” a collection of short stories by Maile Meloy

Kelly
What I’m reading: “The Hunger Games Trilogy” by Suzanne Collins
Why I’m reading it: Kind of got sucked into it. My tween cousins raved about it so I figured I was too old. Then I slowly heard chatter at work, so I caved, got ridiculously sucked in, and read all 3 books in a week. They’re perfect, mostly-mindless, quick reads that were so good I tuned out all the background noise on the train—not an easy feat!
On deck: A fellow Upshotter suggestion: “Girl in Translation” by Jean Kwok.

Taylor
What I’m reading: “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson
Why I’m reading it: I loved “Devil in the White City” and wanted to check out what else Larson had written. Plus, non-fiction in the guise of a novel is truly wonderful.
On deck: a collection of short stories

Julie
What I’m reading: “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer
Why I’m reading it: Always been curious how I (and we) make decisions and the mechanics of the process. Some decisions are quick, some are right, some are wrong and some just take too long! Why is that?
On deck: I can’t decide, ha. (Get it?) No really, it’s a toss-up between “The Bedwetter” by Sara Silverman and “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.

Go ahead and share what you’re reading in the comments.

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.

Recently Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound elevated brand/band pairing with the release of “When Fish Ride Bicycles,” a new full-length from Chicago hip-hop group the Cool Kids. What’s different than other brands playing in this space? Unlike Starbucks Hear Music—which is essentially a music publishing house and not necessarily a full-blown label—Green Label Sound is behaving like the real-deal: signing artists, handling distribution, PR, partnerships (read: iTunes) paid media, etc.

What can Green Label offer that traditional labels can’t? The better way to ask that question is to put it in reverse. With the state of the music industry going through its biggest shift in well, ever, record labels have become less effective at helping artists distribute their work, build fan followings, and evolve. Marketing is a major component of artist success, and Green Label relies on Cornerstone, a NY/LA based promotions agency to help run the label. By tapping into this agency resource, and genuinely committing to the artists they bring on board (imagine the bad PR if a brand-backed label treated artists poorly) Green Label Sound gives other labels a run for their money—especially considering their primary focus likely isn’t money—by promoting artists who in turn elevate the brand’s street cred.

In other words, it’s a perfect manifestation of our Brand Patronage trend for 2011. While consumer brands have played in nearly every area of media for nearly a century, I suspect we’re at the dawn of many deciding to go beyond sponsorships and carve out dedicated business units to support the creation, distribution and marketing of entertainment: whether that’s music, games, movies, apps, or books. Undoubtedly they’ll be no shortage of artists and agencies waiting to sign-up to help.

Today’s post is by Jaclyn Gordyan. Senior Art Director and perpetually curious mind, discover more about her at Upshot’s main site. Follow Jaclyn on Twitter @JGordyan.

All the Peeps, Jelly Bellys and Cadbury Creme Eggs have been eaten. So what’s one to do during the afternoon Easter lull? Kick it on the couch with the NBA playoffs and hit Facebook. Yup. Wait a minute, what’s this in my Facebook news feed- Bonobos is having an online Easter Egg hunt? For cash? I’m so game.

Bonobos (a high end online menswear store) offered Easter themed promotional codes, but you had to find them first. The promotion leveraged the idea of a digital Easter egg hunt but by making you work for the codes, it became a game. An addicting one. Oh look at that, it plays beautifully into our 2011 ‘Game On! trend’. Their promo codes were distributed in an unexpected way that effectively sparked their consumers’ curiosity. It was almost too effective, as the grand prize was found just 15 minutes after the promotion went live. Lesson for those launching a game- prepare for quick wins.

Back to the hunt. They don’t even sell women’s clothes, but had you better believe I was in it to win it. A ‘friendly’ competition between myself and friends heated up to find any code, but mainly the $500 egg. We happily (and feverously) surfed their site, fast becoming intimate with the product lines, and site navigation. This obviously added value to their brand by giving us a welcome distraction from the holiday afternoon lull. Alas, I lost*. The anecdote is just a small example of how consumers are willing to ‘play the game’ and engage with brands. So where was the ‘Golden Egg’? [SPOILER ALERT] It was right under our noses… err… fingers in the HTML code. You heard me correctly. A picture of a goose laying a golden egg with the promo code below it was created in simple text (see below). 

The only hiccup in this hunt was smart phone or tablet users were at a disadvantage having to jump through bigger hoops to see the goose in HTML code. But that’s what the other hidden $25-$100 promo codes were for. The brand still won with an inevitable lift in page hits and fans. Brilliant.

A few candy companies such as M&M, and Cadbury held online Easter egg hunts in years past, but their executions were obviously targeting different demographics.

*Note: My friend wasn’t the official winner as someone had already found & used the Golden Egg promo code. But he can still hold bragging rights over my head. Sigh.

By far, the number one activity on smartphones is mobile gaming. Games are the most downloaded apps in both free and paid categories in Apple’s App Store. Recently, adMob (a leading mobile ad network owned by Google) released the results of a survey that revealed games are also the most popular activity on tablet devices (think iPad), beating out email, search, social and shopping.

With games being all the rage, why aren’t more brands taking advantage?

One could argue, “sure, there’s a market for games, but what can a game really do for our brand? It isn’t selling products. Also, aren’t the app stores flooded with games?”

Consider:

1. The Audi Driving Challenge, a game developed for the iPhone and later for the iPad, has driven more traffic to the Audi website and more real-world test drives than any other digital marketing tactic*.
2. Barclaycard’s Waterslide Game was downloaded 2 million times in its first week of release, and has since been downloaded 17 million times. Version 2 has been downloaded nearly 10 million times. This is from a financial services provider.
3. Cirque du Soleil’s official iPhone app (developed by Upshot) includes a game with an active leader board of tens of thousands of players. (By virtue of being on a leader board suggests players are playing the game more than once in an effort to beat their score and others.) Because the game is only part of the experience, each time it’s played, users are (potentially) exposed to Cirque content.

While a game may only passively be driving brand or product awareness, players have the potential to be exposed to a brand anywhere from a few minutes to hours depending on how much they enjoy the game. If the game is designed to be social (I.E. inviting friends to play) it can go viral.

Also consider that on average, only 25% of a mobile user’s apps are paid for (vs. free downloads). If a brand offers a free game, most consumers aren’t going to make their decision to download based on whether or not it’s branded. The choice becomes simple: it’s free, and it’s fun to play.

Branded games also enjoy the long-tail effect. After a 30-second spot has long faded into the ether, a game can live on for months or even years. Sure, it might not enjoy the popularity of its initial release, but will continue to be downloaded indefinitely, costing the brand nothing to keep it alive in the app store.

Lastly, there’s a reason developers keep cranking out new games: gamers are always on the lookout for the next challenge. Sure, one might get stuck on Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies for longer than they care to admit, but eventually they look for other stuff.

What’s the rule for creating a great branded game? Simple: make it awesome. It’s no secret brands are taking advantage of gaming mechanisms in numerous forms of marketing (highlighted in our 2011 Game On! trend), but I suspect lots of brands tried online games before mobile games rose in popularity, only to conclude, “we tried games, but they didn’t go so well.” Sure, but were they fun? You don’t have push the envelope of 3D graphics for mobile or use cutting edge augmented reality. It simply has to be fun (nice graphics help, but are secondary to game play). Give players that little rush we all get when we get lost in a game—even if that rush only lasts for a minute, and they’ll play it again and again, and tell their friends too. Once your game is awesome, then consider clever ways to push your brand message—unlock product discounts when players reach certain levels, give away virtual representations of your products as achievement badges, or use brand elements as part of the game itself such as locations, characters, products or settings.

Has your brand had success with branded games, mobile or otherwise? Please share your comments.

*Taken from the session, “Behind the Curtain: Secrets of Mobile Application Wizardry” at SXSWi 2011.