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July 16, 2008 | Sara Litton: Going for the interactive gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will not just be about sports, they will be about sponsors trying to create a super-brand using online marketing. These Olympic Games are expected to be unlike any other, and it still remains to be seen whether the standout will be for “Brand China” or for the sponsors’ brand campaigns.

July 14, 2008 | Sara Litton: Companies Going Green are Seeing More Green

“Going green” seems to be one of the biggest trends in consumer marketing right now, and some retailers are going beyond just making their business practices more environmentally friendly. In fact, more than 300 retailers – including Kraft, Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS, Starbucks and even Petco—have joined RecycleBank to market to environmentally conscious consumers.

July 11, 2008 | Greg Ness: The Brand Gap

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The Brand Gap is a helpful presentation (and book) from Marty Neumeier, president of brand consultancy Neutron. It explores the five disciplines you need to build your brand:

1) Differentiate
2) Collaborate
3) Innovate
4) Validate
5) Cultivate

July 02, 2008 | Sara Litton: Rhapsody vs. iTunes: Who will be left standing?

Online music service Rhapsody this week threw a couple of punches at Apple’s iTunes by announcing a host of new features and offerings that will certainly heat up the online music download arena.

June 25, 2008 | Greg Ness: Survival of The Fittest: The Evolution of Brands

Joe Crump, VP Strategy & Planning at Avenue A | Razorfish delivered an interesting presentation Monday at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in France. The topic was attributes good brands need to survive in the digital era. Below I’ve embedded the same presentation that he also gave to a group about a month ago:

Also, here is a link to the slide deck.

June 12, 2008 | Greg Ness: Ready, Fire, Aim

There is a considerable amount of marketing money wasted each year because of ready, fire, aim. That’s marketing without first establishing a clear brand identity and personality. Even worse, some companies struggle along hoping marketing or advertising will define their brand. Marketing, advertising and other communications activities should clearly convey and enhance the brand identity and personality, but it is usually an ineffectual, expensive and backward process to let marketing try to create the brand.

May 31, 2008 | Greg Ness: URLs in Magazine Ads Dramatically Increase Website Traffic

I would have thought by now that every company puts their URL in their magazine ads. Apparently not. A study sponsored by the Magazine Publishers of America demonstrates that including a URL in ads can boost traffic to a company’s website by up to 186% over ads that don’t feature the company’s web address.

Including a URL just seems like a no-brainer. I picked up a number of magazines around the house and started checking for URLs in the ads. Whoa…I was surprised to find many ads that didn’t have a URL displayed. And most of the companies that were advertising in these publications (without the URLs) would have definitely benefited by building more brand engagement through additional website traffic.

May 16, 2008 | Greg Ness: Brian Haven From Forrester Talks Brand Engagement

Brian Haven, a Senior Analyst at Forrester, had a short (4 minutes), but enlightening interview about brand engagement with Marketing Voices at the Forrester Marketing Forum in Los Angeles this week. Brian says Forrester defines brand engagement as the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence that a person has with a brand over time.

May 12, 2008 | Greg Ness: Brand and Celebrity Tags

Noah Brier has come up with an interesting way to explore word associations for several popular brands. He calls them brand tags. You can contribute to the brand cloud by adding your own input.

Since celebrities, in essence, are strong personal brands, he is using the same concept in that category, too. Check out celeb tags.

March 24, 2008 | Greg Ness: More on the Future of Marketing and Advertising

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Last week I posted about a YouTube video on the future of advertising from Ben Hourahine at Leo Burnett, London (see below). The Slideshare deck above provides another great overview on that same subject. It’s from Paul Isakson.

There are some prescient quotes in this deck from some of the people on the front lines of the digital marketing frontier, as well as some powerful slides on branding and insights. Thanks to David Armano for the point on this one.

March 04, 2008 | Sarah VanNevel: Mexican Import Bellies Up to the Web to Introduce “Activitdades de Pacificos”

While most companies these days have learned to take advantage of marketing opportunities on the World Wide Web, there aren’t many that are bold enough to leave traditional TV spots behind entirely to pursue a relatively low-budget magazine, billboard, and web campaign. Meet Pacifico, a Mexican import beer that has done just that.

A recent New York Times article highlighted the small beer company’s marketing tactics. Based in the Western United States, Pacifico has been looking to branch out for a while now. The company has a small market share (less than 1% of domestic giant Bud Light), but is growing rapidly. Sales volume has increased at a compound annual rate of 14.8%, and the brand is continuing to gain popularity across the nation.

February 20, 2008 | Ron Lee: Starbucks to serve up free Wi-Fi with its lattes

Starbucks reported last week on its ambitious plan to provide free Wi-Fi at more than 7,000 company-owned locations across the nation beginning this spring. That means you can get your fill of a double-tall non-fat no-whip half-the-mocha mocha plus a serving of free broadband to boot.