Category Archives: Niche Networks / Micro Communities

2010 TREND: Consumers will seek out smaller communities (both online and in-real-life) that are built around their shared passion points.

Sociocultural Trends June 2, 2011

Upshot Smartshot #7: Twitterphobics Anonymous

Have no fear, help is here! No longer shall there be marketers who fear Twitter! The video above is the latest installment in our Upshot Smartshot webinar series, and complements our recent Potty Posting that introduced the concept of marketers … Continue reading →

Sociocultural Trends April 15, 2011

SXSWrapup (Part 8): Is Crowdsourcing the Problem or the Solution?

[Here's the latest installment in our continuing coverage of SXSW Interactive 2011.] Crowdsourcing’s been an understandably controversial topic over the past few years, leading to heated debates about whether the wisdom of the crowd is superior or inferior to the … Continue reading →

Sociocultural Trends April 6, 2011

Facebook has Questions, will your Friends and Fans have answers?

Today’s post comes from Celeste Crocker-Payne, Interactive Strategy Director at Upshot. Follow Celeste on Twitter @ccrockerpayne. Earlier this month, Facebook quietly unveiled Facebook Questions to individual users (and shortly thereafter, Brand/Page owners). Facebook Questions allows consumers (or brands) to easily … Continue reading →

Marketing March 21, 2011

Digging a Bit Deeper into AmEx + foursquare

Our SXSWrapup will continue momentarily, but we’ve got one piece of unfinished business to handle first. Before we headed out to SXSW Interactive, we tipped you off to foursquare’s new partnership with American Express (at the very bottom of that … Continue reading →

Sociocultural Trends March 15, 2011

SXSWrapup (Part 2): The (Sort-Of) Killer App

In Part 1 of our SXSWrapup, we noted that despite the annual hype-fest and prognostications for every SXSW, there really wasn’t “a killer app” coming out of this year’s conference. To give that statement some context, think about the two … Continue reading →

Marketing March 10, 2011

SXSWarmup

[UPDATE: For more information on the foursquare / American Express partnership mentioned at the bottom of this post, click here.] SXSW Interactive starts tomorrow, which means the battle for blogosphere buzz will be starting shortly… ah, hell, it’s already been … Continue reading →

Clients February 10, 2011

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 →

Sociocultural Trends February 8, 2011

Tools for Celebrity Stalkers and Life Savers

Since our Find Your Place trend depends on real-time location data, many of our conversations have featured services and devices that broadcast this information, ranging from check-in apps to RFID-tagged items. Still, there are times when location data needs a … Continue reading →

Marketing February 4, 2011

The Super Bowl’s Super Tweeters

I know, I know – many of our readers are still smarting, since their beloved Bears aren’t playing this weekend. Well, it probably won’t help to know that our neighbors to the North are already winning another battle: the ever-important … Continue reading →

Sociocultural Trends January 12, 2011

Can We Find A Place for Check-Ins? (And Should We?)

The check-in is dead. Long live the check-in. Is it a little bold to equate the check-in with being the “king” of emerging marketing trends? Perhaps. But now that the tweet has gained a (perhaps reluctant) legitimacy, that leaves the … Continue reading →