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Driving the Competition (BrandWeek)
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Posted: 06/19/2009
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With 1.2 million members worldwide and more than 145,904 fans on Facebook, brand behemoth Harley-Davidson is now driving their brand power home online with social media and mobile marketing. Proud of its powerful offline impact, according to Randy Sprenger manager of electronic advertising and direct promotions, online campaigns and mobile marketing are helping the company get in touch with what people are saying outside the walls of Harley. Sprenger claims the brand’s strength can be attributed to the personal connection established between company and rider. “We are actually riders. We participate in events as riders. I think one of the greatest strengths is the passion and enthusiasm here at the motor company for our riders. We always want to be out, talking to them.”
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Art Meets Internet Commerce, Reality TV, Social Media (Promo Magazine)
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Posted: 06/05/2009
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Continuing the surge of story-based marketing, Coca-Cola brand Sprite is launching a new European campaign that boldly unites art with multi-channeled commerce. A young, unknown British singer headlines the ongoing YouTube series that follows as she hits the New York music scene. With the prequel getting upwards of 60,000 views on YouTube, the show is also linked to Facebook Connect, creating the first interaction of its kind between YouTube and Facebook.
“With this show, Sprite shifts from creating the perfect branded content to content that perfects the brand,” Coca-Cola head of European digital marketing Stafford Green said in a release. “Instead of repeating single messages in traditional media, Sprite supports these new experiences and deep storytelling to communicate our core brand values over time. It’s a fresh advertising model, and everyone wins: the artist, the brands and especially the audience—getting free on-demand, truly interactive content without commercial interruption.”
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Connecting with a Hispanic Market (BusinessWeek)
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Posted: 06/05/2009
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The Hispanic population is the fastest growing segment in the United States, meaning some marketers are missing more than 40 million new customers. Savvy companies like Procter and Gamble, Verizon and General Mills are funneling more marketing dollars into the Hispanic market, a segment proven to purchase products and services from brands advertised on TV. "Hispanic consumers appreciate when you speak to them in their own language," says Edward Gold, advertising director at State Farm Insurance. The approach is paying huge dividends for companies like General Mills, which has seen double-digit sales gains. Taking product integration to the next level, Telemundo and Vidal Partnerships (Client include Home Depot, Kraft Foods and Wendy’s) have formed a strategic alliance to promote an online contest in which viewers will choose the ending for one of the networks telenovelas.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America,
South-Central America
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Finding Common Ground: Insights on Engineering and Design (BusinessWeek)
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Posted: 06/05/2009
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Microsoft Research Principal Scientist Bill Buxton is calling for engineers and user-experience designers to find some common ground. Faced with ongoing questions from well-intentioned engineers regarding design, Buxton acknowledges the answers are more complicated than becoming a designer themselves or simply learning to “do” design as many engineers suggest. First, Buxton counsels that professional competence equal to the task must be added to your team. While the UX and engineering tasks certainly go hand-in-hand, expert proficiency is difficult to come by for each discipline, making it often impossible to jump seamlessly between the two. Buxton advises a four-layered approach: Design awareness, Design literacy, Design thinking, and Design practice to achieve results and solutions worthy of your customers.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Microsoft Vine: A New Twist on Social Marketing (CNN Money)
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Posted: 06/05/2009
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In an effort to untangle a new path toward social networking prosperity, Microsoft Vine is branching out into unchartered territory: charging subscription fees. Hailed as the 911 for the 21st Century, the new platform will focus on climbing the social networking ladder into the public safety and emergency information arenas by limiting activity to two actions: alerts and reports. Users can customize profiles and bunch their friends and family into groups, creating a virtual safety net to keep informed about events as major as hurricanes or national crises, or as minor as a snow day. The testing phase offers the opportunity to discover how city emergency management agencies across the country might implement this new communication tool. While the basic service will be free, premium services like smartphone access will come with a price tag.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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