Now here's something really special. I'm no soccer fan (excuse me, "futbol") but human emotions are human emotions no matter what country you're in. Guys are guys the world over, and they hate missing scheduled sporting events. What do guys who like sports also like? That's right, drinking beer. So in walks Heineken with a great idea that takes advantage of the target's emotional weak spot. The result? 1.5 million viewers saw user reaction on live TV, 5 million unique hits to the site, and bookoos of press. Watch and learn.

What were the top tweeted topics of 2009? I recently discovered a site called whatthetrend.com that logs daily/hourly trends for twitter, provides a platform for users to explain why the topics are important and interesting to people and provides an annual zeitgeist.  At the end of 2009, whatthetrend.com looked back at the top trends of the year. They collected the top 100 most active trends over the course of 2009, and the definition for each of them. This data is gathered by looking at Twitter's daily stats and calculating the relative popularity of the trends accordingly....read the rest of this post»

Did you know that you can put a price-tag on a brand’s value? In a recent study by Interbrand Design Forum, 50 retailers were ranked based on the value of their brands. Big box chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy came out on top.  Their estimated brand worth totaled nearly a shocking $200 billion.
 
 

Rankings were based on factors such as: financial forecasting, the percentage of sales and profit that can directly be attributed to branding and brand strength. These form a net present value, or the economic value of a brand.

The other contenders in the top ten were The Home Depot, Walgreens, CVS, Sam’s Club, Dell, Coach and Amazon.com....read the rest of this post»

Meet Sue. Sue is a marketer for a luxury brand, and is in charge of reaching out to the affluent audience with specific brand and product messages for her company. She has built a Facebook fan page for her brand, and she makes sure that the other marketing pieces have links for others to become a fan of her brand. After a few months of promoting the luxury brand's Facebook page, they check to see how many fans they have. Sue realizes that the fan numbers are low, but can't figure out what went wrong. Sound familiar? Keep reading to learn what may be causing this.

A recent eMarketer article states that there might be a good reason why Sue's Facebook fan base was low. Let's take a deeper look to see what really is happening among the affluent audience on social networks....read the rest of this post»

With the NBA playoffs right around the corner, this is a very realistic situation for companies in cities such as Chicago, Memphis, Houston and New Orleans. With production lead times for promotional and marketing materials, the franchises have to go ahead and plan as if they are going to make the playoffs, and this means they need commitments from their sponsors. So how, as a sponsor, do you prepare for a situation like this? Good question. Here are a few tips:

In an earlier blog post, I touched on how important it is for all cities to develop a sense of identity people can relate to - a brand - in order to compete for its share of consumers, businesses, travelers and capital. And with recent debate about how miserable the city of Memphis is (or isn't, I should say), this topic couldn't be more relevant.

As I mentioned before, identifying a brand for a city is not an easy process, as a city can appeal to a variety of different audiences for a number of reasons. Therefore, defining the objective of a brand - the strategy - is a critical element of city branding.

Look at the way CEOs for Cities' report "Branding Your City" puts it....read the rest of this post»

Picture this: You own a restaurant, and people literally compete to see who can spend the most time in your establishment. They are recommending your best menu items to friends, and telling the world via Twitter and Facebook every time they walk through your door.  And, you can track where they are coming from, where else they’ve been and what time of day they like to visit.

Dreaming? Nope. All of this and more is possible through Foursquare, just one of several geo-tagging applications that are attracting mobile users by the thousands, and filling bars, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops around the country.

So how do you tap into this community of potential customers for your business? First, let’s go over what Foursquare is.

What is Foursquare?...read the rest of this post»