• Our #1 hit of 2010 was our celebration of the innovative marketing efforts of… a car company? An American car company?? Yep, Ford has Facebook all figured out, especially with their live launch of their 2011 Explorer. No other marketer demonstrated such a nuanced approach to engaging with consumers via Facebook. It’s the perfect case study for seamlessly applying all the features that Facebook has to offer, and giving consumers what they actually want from a brand on social media. (It’s also one of the reasons we wholeheartedly agree with Ad Age naming Ford marketer of the year for 2010.)
• Part of the impetus for naming Cause with Effect as a 2011 trend came from watching the shifts in cause marketing over the course of 2010. Pepsi Refresh was clearly the game changer in this category, but we put Levi’s “Ready to Work” campaign under the microscope because it really drove home the depth-over-breadth approach that we expect to become a bigger focus in 2011. Likewise, one of the few bright spots that came out of the Haitian disaster was discovering that enormous sums of charitable money could be generated by aggregating millions of small (mobile) donations. If only this breast cancer awareness gag could have tapped that tactic!
• Anyone could’ve told you that food trucks are poised to upend the restaurant world in 2011, but readers were enthusiastic about our coverage of non-food applications for the food truck fad.
• It’s not everyday that our readers get jazzed about billboards, but these outdoor spectacles changed that perception pretty quickly. Likewise, we think this might be the only time a conversation about sustainable packaging has ever been so damn sexy.

Head this way for Part 2!

Just in time for the holiday season, Gap tapped the folks at Cool Hunting to create an undeniably cool pop-up shop in New York City. Better yet, the shop took our Hometown’s Hero trend literally. New York City’s  innovators are most certainly the heroes of this particular pop-up, as the shop features NYC-produced artisan goods ranging from hats to gourmet pickles (featured to the right).

Clearly, Gap’s got the cool kid in them somewhere. Or at least, they’ve figured out where to turn to get some help. And while NYC is perhaps an easy spot to draw together artisanal products, what’s keeping Gap from pulling off this same concept in smaller, emerging hipster havens across the country? If Gap is trying to build a new relationship with today’s younger shoppers, these acts of Hometown Heroism are bound to send a much more inspiring message than, say, a logo redesign. We hope this is just the beginning.

When we’ve talked about telling the “story” of your brand, we’ve often found that online video provides a compelling medium for doing so, even if the topic isn’t inherently sexy. Case in point: consider the juxtaposition of these two videos that view the world through the eyes of Google Street View and Facebook.

Both are extremely compelling (and really well-done), but seeing them side-by-side is shorthand for how each company is generally perceived. Google (shown above) brings the entire world’s information to your fingertips, allowing explorations that would be unfathomable only a few years ago.

Then again, the Google video doesn’t focus much on people. For that, you’ll have to turn to Facebook (shown below), as you follow the trajectory of one user’s life. No site captures the essence of modern relationships quite like Facebook, and as the video shows, that includes the best and worst parts of living in public. (And just like in real life, there are a few cuss words, so don’t watch the video if a couple of f-bombs will ruin your day.)

Enjoy these videos for what they are, but when you’re done, ask yourself: if your brand’s worldview was portrayed in a video, what would it look like? Are you happy with the result?

[Update: Well, the original video got pulled because of a copyright violation for using the song "Paint it Black," so we'll have to use this music-less version instead. Kinda loses some of the impact, but you could always just sync up the song yourself, right?]

[Update #2: Since the Stones' label so rudely ruined the Facebook video above, we felt we owed you another piece of good content. Thanks to Jaclyn Gordyan, we've got a behind-the-curtain peek at the Google Street View video from the top of this post. Enjoy!]

The latter is part of Levi’s “Ready to Work” campaign, which bluntly addresses the current struggles of the American worker. Not exactly a small problem with an easy solution, right? As a whole, the issue is overwhelming; even a significant contribution would likely have little effect on the problem at large. Instead, Levi’s focused on making legitimate, comprehensive improvements to a single community. Following the logic of Hometown Heroism, Levi’s forges an undeniable connection to the residents of Braddock, distinguishing the brand as one that’s willing to act rather than just talk. By building community centers, urban farms, and libraries, the campaign is making tangible, long-term improvements to the region.

Of course, calling attention to a brand’s charitable efforts always runs the risk of making the CSR campaign seem inauthentic. But, “Ready to Work” doesn’t feel that way; even the comments on the Youtube videos are uncharacteristically supportive. Why is this campaign connecting with consumers without coming off as a cheap stunt? We think there are a few explanations.

For one, the campaign is daringly innovative. How many brands would have the courage to take on the daunting task of reviving a depleted community? As articulated in a post from Ed Cotton, this campaign communicates a good foundational idea in an interesting, compelling manner. By collaborating with IFC and the Sundance Channel to document the in a video series, Levi’s ends up telling the story of grassroots community revitalization instead of running around yelling “Hey, look at what a nice company we are! No really, look!”

Moreover, consumers want brands to be more socially responsible, and seem to be more comfortable with marketers publicizing these campaigns as long as the efforts themselves are authentic. Even the most cynical critic has to acknowledge that Levi’s efforts are making a legitimate, measurable difference in Braddock, so publicizing these contributions is accepted (if not encouraged). The central idea of the campaign is more than a hollow marketing ploy; it is coming to life for real people.

And, these real results bring us back to the idea of “small” cause marketing. In our opinion, the third factor that explains the embrace of this campaign is the motivational power of getting something done. As we stated above, reviving post-industrial communities is a gargantuan task, but bringing just one to life is a feasible possibility, as demonstrated by this campaign. Levi’s is forging a blueprint for how this process could work, but also showing that these efforts do work, and are thus worth pursuing in the first place. And that’s why people who have no connection to Braddock specifically can relate to this campaign at large. It’s an example of a brand delivering on a series of small promises, and achieving big results in the process.

Would a handful of location-based music videos do the trick? Of course they would.

Since television’s so-called “music” channels stopped broadcasting anything remotely musical many years ago, the music video has largely been relegated to the web. This ended up being a blessing in disguise for a number of reasons, including the ability to make music videos far more interactive (as we’ve demonstrated on multiple occasions) than traditional offerings. Now, with location data becoming integrated into web and mobile experiences, clever artists are using this information to personalize their music videos based on a viewer’s location. This added context creates a unique, and more deeply relevant, experience for the fan than a televised video could ever provide.

For starters, let’s take a look at the singer-songwriter Lissie’s new music video that responds to the current weather conditions in your location. (As you can imagine, the above image of the band donning sunglasses and summer dresses is based on Texas, not Chicago.) The various versions of the video do a great job of encouraging both viewer engagement and rewatchability, as visitors are likely to be curious about the band’s responses to the different weather conditions.

While Lissie’s video uses weather to provide context to her video, an interactive set of videos from the band Editors uses the city of London as the context for an entire album. Based on a clever mash-up of Google Maps, visitors are encouraged to virtually wander in and around London using Google’s Street View, with certain locations triggering specific songs from the In This Light and On This Evening album. (The band is even caught hanging out at one particular location.)

The virtual tour of London certainly adds an additional dimension to the music video experience, but the Arcade Fire takes it one step further with a heavy helping of personalized nostalgia. Their interactive video for The Wilderness Downtown asks for the address of your childhood home, and then integrates the Street View of that location into their video. (Warning, the video has a LOT going on, so it’s recommended that you close your other browser windows before watching).

Sure, the integration of location-based data in these videos benefits from a bit of novelty, but none of them are content with being a mere shiny object. In each case, the location information is used to make these videos more relevant, personalized, and emotionally-resonant for the viewer. And, frankly, these are the reasons why location matters. Whether your brand is trying to connect to a location-based service, or considering a mobile tour, or simply trying to create a more engaging web experience, these music videos demonstrate the way location-based data can create a more immersive experience for the consumer. And, that’s why we have high hopes for the Year of Location.

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 to foursquare. While both services have much in common, one dramatic difference is Gowalla’s disinterest in rewarding users for checking-in repeatedly at a single venue (i.e. foursquare’s “mayors”). Instead, Gowalla tends to reward users for checking-in at a variety of venues. In some cases, these are part of coordinated “trips” that are produced by Gowalla users and brand partners. (National Geographic‘s robust collection of trips is a particularly good example of brand-building via LBS.) For any brand looking to connect on a regional level, this Gowalla feature allows you to creating a walking tour of, say, bars in a given city with Negra Modelo on tap.

A new addition called Highlights promises to add another layer of personalization to this content, with users being able to label spots as the best nighttime views, best guilty pleasure, or best kept secret (I think I’ve found a flaw in that last one). Assuming that Gowalla has plans to integrate marketers into these Highlights, there’s plenty of room for partnerships – I’m sure a number of bridal products would love to get a piece of the “Hitched” highlights.

But, Gowalla perks work at individual locations as well. Gowalla users often receive virtual items for checking-in at certain locations (which can subsequently be dropped or swapped at other locations). For instance, you might receive a metal robot when you check-in at a toy store, or you might receive free tickets to an NBA game by checking-in to sportsbars and basketball courts. Huh, wha? Yes, the New Jersey Nets hid 250 pairs of virtual (but redeemable) tickets at various Gowalla locations in the area for their last game of the season! Our “athletically challenged” colleagues here at Upshot might be more interested in a similar giveaway from Adobe, in which virtual items redeemable for a dozen free copies of Creative Suite 5 were distributed across various Gowalla spots nationwide. (A summertime campaign from Eye-Fi spruced up this model by including a random sweepstakes for anyone checking-in at Apple Stores.)

The aforementioned Nets promotion brought up a particularly compelling way for brands to deal with unused inventory (a problem that the Nets had ample opportunities to consider – heyyo!). The same article that described the Nets campaign suggested that hotels could offer unsold rooms in a similar fashion, in the hopes that the winners would make additional purchases via room service or on-site bars and restaurants. (The same mentality could be applied to movie theaters and amusement parks.) Of course, the other benefit is that a LBS-user is almost certainly going to be an active participant in social media, so they are more likely to start conversations about your brand than a traditional contest winner. Why not focus your rewards on someone who’s likely to be a vocal brand advocate?

Before moving on to the next topic, we should add that, um, we’re still not done here. In fact, our coverage of marketers on foursquare and Gowalla is still overlooking brands who are doing great work on other LBSs. Before you get completely exasperated, yes, the slew of services is a problem, and yes, we’ll be addressing this at a later time. But no, this won’t undermine the impending “Year of Location” – in fact, it should help. That’s a whole ‘nother post, though. In the meantime, we’d like to call your attention to Red Bull’s work with Whrrl, simply because it’s a stellar example of a Niche Network in action. When people join the Red Bull Society on Whrrl, they’re privy to exclusive deals (including drink discounts at select bars and clubs) and access to Red Bull events (such as tickets to the Red Bull Air Race in NYC). When our previous post asked “what’s the point of checking-in?” this is about as good an answer as you can give: being part of an exclusive community with tangible benefits, organized around a set of common [and local] interests. We hope other brands continue to do the same. But if they don’t, you can always garner attention with wacky offers like free Virgin America airline tickets for checking-in to taco trucks on Loopt. Wait, wha?

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 couple of posts sorting out the marketing implications these recent announcements, because we’re just that nice.

The reigning mayor of the location-based space continues to be foursquare, which recently hit its 3 millionth user. foursquare has maintained their lead over other location-based players largely because of their willingness to partner with broad range of marketers, who often end up promoting the service in their own ad campaigns (such as VH1′s foursquare commercial). To get us in the mood for tackling this location-mania, left break down a few foursquare marketing applications from the past few months.

Skeptics of location-based services always start with the same question: what’s the point of checking-in? Of course, the answer depends on a number of things, including whether the venue is offering a particularly compelling incentive. For retailers, rewarding check-ins and mayorships are clearly the low hanging fruit for LBS involvement. Radio Shack started providing 10% off of purchases for anyone who checks-in, and 20% off for each store’s mayor. In return, the chain essentially gets free advertising in the form of a peer recommendation. Likewise, Chili’s restaurants figured out that free chips & salsa are a small price to pay for getting their guests to broadcast each visit to their social networks. But, Kona Grill took this one step further with their Swarm Parties, playing off the badge that foursquare users earn when they check-in to events with 50 or more attendees. Kona encouraged these swarms to hit their restaurants by offering special items during the gatherings, and of course, provided them free of charge for the current foursquare mayor. Again, the free advertising angle is a pretty sweet deal for the restaurant: if they get 50+ diners broadcasting their attendance to their social networks at the same time, the potential reach is certainly worth the price of giving away a few meals (not to mention getting 50+ customers in the door!).

The Six Flags theme parks are also pretty darn good at getting people to check-in, thanks to a wide variety of promotions and incentives. For instance, whoever is still holding the mayorship of each park on September 7th will win a season pass (looks like you’d better take work off for the next week!), while anyone who checks in 10+ times will get a virtual badge and an entry in a sweepstakes for a 2011 front-of-each-line pass. We like the fact that Six Flags has staggered these promotions to appeal to different levels of foursquare users. After all, only one person gets to be the mayor, but anyone with a season pass has a shot at 10 check-ins. Six Flags also uses the often-ignored “tips” section for each park to communicate additional deals (e.g. bring a Coke can for 2-for-1 weekday admission) and tips to improve the visitor’s experience (e.g. where to find bathrooms with short lines).

Speaking of fun stuff on foursquare, we’re a bit perplexed why more brands haven’t used foursquare to provide a digital twist on the ol’ scavenger hunt. One of the few examples we’ve seen was Jimmy Choo using the service to give away shoes as part of an entertaining treasure hunt. Jimmy Choo shoes would “check in” at various foursquare locations, and anyone following the brand could hustle down to the spot to try to locate the pair first. Finders, keepers!

Checking-in at live events is nothing new – or at least, it isn’t new for readers ’round here. Heck, if you can get a variety of badges for checking-in at the Today show’s live concerts, shouldn’t every event offer this simple form of recognition? Why yes, yes they should. But, we like the fact that the Today show is introducing the concept of location-based check-ins to a different demographic than, say, the folks attending the Banksy movie. For these services to continue to grow, an introduction via trusted names like Today will make the transition much smoother for new users.

Phew. Consider yourself checked-in to foursquare. Of course, we’ve overlooked plenty of examples, too. If you’ve seen some fancy foursquare integrations that aren’t listed here, please share them in the comments below!

As part of Pacifico’s sponsorship of the US Open of Surfing, we rolled out a program via QR code for the event’s attendees. Better yet, we made sure we were delivering compelling content according to the recommendations from our QR code Smartshot webinar, in which we advised that QR codes should deliver convenience, entertainment, or exclusivity.

Fortunately, the Pacifico code nails all three at once.

On the convenience side, the code offers a Pacifico tap finder for USOS attendees, enabling them to map out their route to the nearest bars (which, presumably, will also quickly lead to entertainment). Speaking of entertainment, the mobile site also offers a calendar of events surrounding the USOS (viewable to the right), so that attendees can catch concerts and parties after the day’s work is done (and, yes, this doubles as convenience as well). Finally, the mobile site offers exclusivity by also directing users to Pacifico events during the USOS, providing access and benefits that are unavailable to people who haven’t scanned the codes.

This campaign shows that checking off the boxes for convenient, entertaining, and exclusive content doesn’t have to be so complicated. In fact, it brings to life our mantra here at Upshot: simple ideas, brilliantly activated. Good marketing is just that easy.

If you haven’t already, please don’t forget to vote for our SXSW 2011 panel, accessible here. You’ll need to create an account to vote, but we promise that it takes less than a minute. Voting closes Friday, August 27th, and we appreciate every bit of help we can get!

Part of this success was attributable to steadily-improving content, but we also called attention to the rise of live streaming video sites, especially ustream.tv. Ustream not only offers an enormous range of videos streaming from sports and music events, but the site also surrounds these videos with a “social stream” chat box that ties these conversations to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. So, if Ustream can get a big star – like, say, NBA all-star Dwight Howard – to do a live streaming video, not only can viewers chat with Howard in real-time, but all of these conversations are pushed out to social networks, generating an explosion of word-of-mouth activity.

Of course, the Howard example was no accident. Gatorade has obviously recognized the power of live streaming video, and now offers all sorts of live content via their Ustream channel. As covered in a recent Forbes report, Gatorade used their athletic connections to offer truly compelling, exclusive content, such as live videos of athletes training in the Gatorade Performance Lab. Sure, there’s plenty of focus on how the product enhances the workout, but the fact that fans can have an honest interaction with the athletes makes the entire experience feel less like an ad and more like a peek behind the curtain.

Interestingly, though, the Forbes article finds that the big stars aren’t necessarily what’s bringing Gatorade the big ratings. In fact, Gatorade often gets higher traffic for nutrition and fitness Q&As with scientists from their Gatorade Sports Science Institute, as well as the brand’s annual awards lunch for high school athletes. These surprising results are probably the product of a few things done right. In the former case, providing truly useful, tailored, expert information offers consumers relevant information that might otherwise be difficult to find in the clutter of the web. On the other hand, the high school athletes luncheon touches on a few points at once: supporting youth sports, connecting with local communities (a.k.a. being a Hometown’s Hero), and allowing geographically-disparate viewers to experience an event as a group.

It’s this latter point which makes sites like Ustream so compelling for sports and music events, and is also the reason we shouldn’t stop at these two categories. For any event marketing execution, why wouldn’t you arm your brand ambassadors with a couple of video cameras and allow folks from all over to feel a connection to your event? Doing so provides you with all the benefits of targeted regional marketing and amplifies your campaign to your fans across the globe. Sure seems like a no-brainer to us.

Well, almost on cue, Pepsi took a giant step towards redemption. Under the umbrella of their Refresh project, Pepsi earmarked $1.3 million to specifically address the Gulf recovery project, and are currently considering over 250 ideas. This approach is pitch perfect, with the smart folks at PSFK summing it up best:

“Pepsi’s approach feels honest and sincere – it doesn’t try to hype Pepsi’s role in the cleanup, but rather empowers consumers to play that role – the brand simply pledges financial backing to execute the best ideas. Additionally, it’s not overly sentimental (no images of dead birds, or burning turtles) – just an actionable, empowered attitude to help fix a problem.”

That’s exactly right, and brands looking to score an authentic CSR victory should take note. But, in the context of our earlier discussion about the Reputation Economy, there’s another lesson worth noting. We mentioned that reputation is now a long-term process that requires continuous attention, and if done properly, will resonate with consumers on a deep emotional level (even in spite of an occasional misstep). Sure, the Pepsi nutritional blog was a dumb move, but rather than fighting the blog’s critics, Pepsi acknowledged their mistake, took down the ill-advised project, and doubled-down on a cause program that will make a legitimate, impactful difference in the lives of an entire region’s population. Put another way, the way they undid their bad was to do even more good. And that, folks, is why it’s called the Reputation Economy. Your brand is the sum of a mental calculation, a tradeoff between the trust you’ve inspired in your consumers (both directly and indirectly) and the impacts you’re making on the world. Authentic, effective good deeds will go a long way towards tipping the scales in your favor.