GEN WOW: The Latest In Digital Marketing, from the Author of BRANDING UNBOUND, and THE ON-DEMAND BRAND

Pepsi, Ford Fuel New Social-Media Hulu Show From 'American Idol' Creator Simon Fuller

"If I Can Dream," so can Ford and Pepsi.

"American Idol" creator Simon Fuller is creating a new online show called "If I Can Dream,"  which will follow five young aspiring entertainers who are trying to make it in Hollywood in a kind of Survivor Meets Social Media. Here, the the action is Hulu based, and will allow consumers to use MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, to interact with the show's five stars.

Pepsi will push its social media-based "Refresh Project," while Ford will build on its "Fiesta Movement" initiative.

This fundamentally is not much different than a regular TV show doing the same thing. But with reality TV shows costing so little, you do have say "why not?"t to trying it online - and pocketing the sponsorship dollars yourself.

Fuller does it again.

Read more, here.

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'Chuck' It Out: NBC Launches New Social Media Game

It's called "Mission: Chuck Me Out." And it's designed to track users who mention the the show - NBC's "Chuck" on social media. And every mention earns the mentioner one point toward having his or her picture shown during one of Chuck's mental flashes.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, never mind. To fans of the show - which returns January 10 (a fact that I'm a bit torn about, as I thought the Season 2 finale would have been the perfect way to end the series), its yet another way they can use soc-nets to support what is undeniably one of the most entertaining show nobody's watching.

Last year, an expansive online soc-net based campaign convinced Subway to sponsor the show, and for NBC to keep it alive for one more season.

Now, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace will once again be brought to bear for the Intersect.

And if you don't know what that means, either, go home. Or read more, here.

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Study: Female Shoppers Influenced By Social Networking

Most women in the united states now use social networking sites - and 50% of them say this involvement influences their shopping habits, according to the SheSpeaks Second Annual Media Study.

Facebook appears to be the most popular of the sites for women, while MySpace has plummeted in popularity - down 33% in one year. Twitter..exists..with 38% participation, v. a full 95% for Facebook.

Apparently, 50% of female social media users say they have purchased products based on reviews and information on soc-nets, and 40% say they have used coupon codes found there. 

Put it all together and you understand why gift retailer 1-800-Flowers has flocked to Facebook, is now plunging into actual e-commerce via soc-nets, instead of relying on links directly to its website.

Get the full scoop from MarketingVox, here.

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (April 2010, AMACOM BOOKS), I look at some of these dynamics, and how they've driven soc-net based offerings from the likes of Sephora. Check it out, here.

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Lonely Planet Enters Augmented Reality

Travel brand Lonely Planet has teamed with Mobilizy to bring augmented reality to, well, augment, content in the Lonely Planet Compass guides. Now useful information about your surroundings, nearby landmarks and other points of interest will overlay the view in your Android camera phone, according to reports in Wired.

That means an all new way to experience cities like Boston, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and more. 

Sure, as AD AGE points out to day, augmented reality is getting seriously over-hyped. It usually involves a download (lame!), is usually pretty glitchy, and even the most widely touted experiences (Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue) are underwhelming.

But that doesn't mean AR isn't going to be big. And the right ways to use it - in my view, mostly mobile - could open up all new opportunities for marketers.

Read more about the Lonely Planet initiative, here.

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Coke Zero Reveals Early Results for 'Facial Profiler' Facebook App

Just got word from Coca-Cola about early results for the Coke Zero Facial Profiler Facebook app. Yes, it's creepy and cool at the same time. And so far, it seems like the perfect match for Coke Zero's demo.

According to 360i, one of the companies behind the app, the stats so far: (a reader informs me that that it's actually Coke Zero agency Crispin that's behind the app):

• The app launched last week doubling the number of users in the first two days alone!

• Over 100,000 new images have been uploaded; over 100,000 votes have been cast

• The photos have an average accuracy at 58.78% and will only improve here by incorporating voter feedback

Try it yourself, here.

(I personally have been afraid to try!)

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Justin Timberlake's 901 Silver Tequila Announces Winner of The Big Idea Contest

Here's a toast to Malachi Rempen, the aspiring filmmaker and Albuquerque native who has won 901 Silver's Big Idea Contest.

Justin Timberlake's popular tequila brand just sent me the announcement to Rempen's win, which means he'll get:

"A VIP trip to Las Vegas, including round trip airfare for two, hotel stay, two tickets to the Justin and friends concert, and VIP access to any and every party, an annual salary of $0 with a one time bonus of $25,000, the opportunity to get coffee for the other 901 employees and of course, bragging rights about being the Executive Vice President of Big Ideas for 901 Silver Tequila."

Rempen's entry, "Only One Way Your Night Should Begin," apparently wowed the judges.

"'Only one way your night should begin' demonstrated Malachi Rempen's understanding of the 901 Silver brand and the concept resonated with our panel of judges," said Kevin Ruder, 901 Silver President, in a statement.  "Anyone launching a new brand understands how challenging it is to get a product to resonate with consumers and we've enjoyed creating a forum for dialog with our target audience as well as an opportunity for our loyal consumers to demonstrate their creative abilities."

I'm actually not clear on how this is bringing a big idea to the brand - it was pitched as a way to present an idea for a new way to market the brad, v. just a user-generated TV-style commercial, but whatever. It's fun.

View the winning entry, here.

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Discovery's Australian 'Shark Week' Promo Has Bite

With apologies, to paraphrase an old beer commercial, "Shark" is Australian for fear.

While the US version of Shark Week hit in August with its popular "Frenzied Waters" advergame, summertime is just getting going in Australia.

And Discovery Network has decided to kick things off with this Australian Coastal Watch site featuring alarming satellite link showing sharks swimming right next to bathers at Bondi Beach (via Adverblog).

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Coke Zero Facial Profiler Launches - To Some Unexpectedly Hilarious Results

I've been so busy the last few days that I'm only now catching up with my email - which included a note from 360i about the official launch of the Coke Zero Facial Profiler that I posted about a few weeks ago, which finds people who look like you based on their Facebook photos. 

As 360i tells it, here's how the profiler works:

Using the industry’s most advanced facial profiling software, Facial Profiler will match you against the vast database of faces collected by Coke Zero (there are already over 105,000) to find your look-a-likes. Results will be delivered soon after, and you can then discover the details about your doppelgangers based on the privacy settings for their Facebook profiles.

Also, there is a fun feature called the “Match Bank,” where users will be able to rate which matches they think are the best. By combining human feedback into the Facial Profiler equation, this will help improve the accuracy of future matches.

I've posted in some of their matches here. As you can see, the technology seems to do a pretty good job.

But you'll find some hilarious (reportedly actual) matches here (I won't show it as some of the people will no doubt be embarrassed). 

On its face, some very interesting technology - and a fun social experience from Coke Zero.

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Hit Print: Sending Email Or Placing Transactions Direct From Magazine Pages

This sounds pretty cool. Livescribe CEO Jim Marggraff, on the Pulse SmartPen.

I've seen them around the office here, but since I do everything on my laptop - and I can't even read my own handwriting anymore - it hasn't seemed useful to me personally.

But in this video, you'll hear about how the same technology could one day enable you to touch an ad in a magazine (I'm not even sure it'd require the SmartPen - I think he's talking about the kind of paper the magazine could use) and write "buy" to place a transaction.

Now that's something to write home about. 

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'Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore': 80's Band REO Speedwagon Rolls Out Advergame

80's rockers REO Speedwagon have teamed up with Curious Sense to roll out a new online video game to promote the band's new album, "Not So Silent Night: Christmas with REO Speedwagon."

Go ahead and re-read the title of that album and then we'll move on.

The game comes out today, and is titled "REO Speedwagon: Find Your Way Home." As longtime GEN WOW readers know, that in and of itself is nothing new. What's interesting here is the business and promotional model. As the New York Times reports, game buyers receive coupon codes for 25% off the holiday album. And this is indeed a paid game. It costs $8 each time you play the game, and each session can last as long as 10 hours (the first hour is free.)

“We build digital experiences beyond a typical Web site, which offer long, interactive times between the content and the consumer,” Adam Blumenthal, president and chief executive at Curious Sense in Durham, N.C., tells the Times.

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (AMACOM, April 2010), I talk to Tim Zuckert, head of Shift Control Media, which has created online games like Coca-Cola's "Happiness Factory," who tells me that consumers will spend an average of 12 minutes with a branded game - far longer than they'll spend with just about any other form of marketing communications.

In REO Speedwagon's case, here's an advertisement that consumers don't just endure - they actually pay for the pleasure of spending up to 10 hours with the brand every time they play.

Which means that beyond the unlikely holiday album, the band is getting an early Christmas present.

Read more, here.

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'Iron Man 2' Gets Facebook, Game Action - Along With New Movie Poster

Marvel's "Iron Man 2" doesn't hit theaters until May, but the poster and other fanboy maneuvers are already taking the web by storm.

The Hollywood Reporter released the poster peak today (shown here)(I think that's War Machine behind the hero). And as I posted last summer, games related to the release are already big hits.

But what's really interesting is that while the movie's official site is feature sparse, the action over at the movie's Facebook fan page is hitting a fever pitch. With most brands sporting only 10 to 10,000 followers, and mostly big brands topping 1 million fans, the film's fan page has a respectable 436,540 fans.

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Secret To Successful Facebook Fan Pages? Pre-Existing Popularity

Flying in the face of regular-joe-makes-good-with-social-networking mythos, E-Consultancy is reporting that well-known, established brands get the most out of venues like Facebook, not upstarts.

Just look at The Big Money's Facebook 50 ranking from the other day. According to analytics firm Sysomos, the vast bulk of branded fan pages have between 10 and 1,000 fans. Only 4% of fan pages have more than 10,000 fans, and less than 1/20th of a percent have more than a million fans - and they're brands like Coca-Cola and Starbucks. 

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (Amacom/McGraw-Hill, Spring 2010), I posit that this dynamic holds sway in most forms of digital media, by the way. Viral videos rarely go viral on their own. The biggest sensations usually (not always, but usually) stem from established affinities or are promoted heavily in other media - especially traditional media. Ditto for social networking, branded games, augmented reality and more.

Read more about the book here.

And read the E-Consultancy piece here.

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Cyber Monday Sales Jump 20%; Mobile Payment In-Store Jumps 650%

The lowdown:

According to MSNBC, sales for Cyber Monday (otherwise known as "the first day back at your desk at work after Thanksgiving) surged 20% year of year.

This comes amid word that physical store sales burped up 0.9% - which, all things considered, is a sigh of relief.

Among the more interesting data points: Mobile payment in physical stores surged 650%.

Key takeaway: Smart retailers are going to bridge the digital-physical world gap. And if you want to get a sneak peak at how they're doing that, check out my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (Spring 2010, Amacom/McGraw-Hill).

Read more on Cyber Monday sales, here.

And read more about mobile payments on Black Friday, here.

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Muppets 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Viral Sensation: 7 Million Views In First Week

Not sure there's much to say here - except how amazing it is that the Muppets and a 30-year-old song can become relevant again so fast. Just one of those things that catches fire. 

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HP Sends Celebs Scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro to Raise Funds For Global Clean Water Crisis

HP's hoping to reach new heights with an ambitious, star-studded initiative designed to raise awareness and funds to fight the global clean water crisis.

Summit on the Summit is a project that will send music star Kenna, Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Dole and other celebrities, activists and notables climbing the 19,340 feet of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Along the expedition, the team will use HP computers to blog, tweet and post video about the ascent, all of which users can follow at the summitonthesummit.com website.

You'll want to check out the site, from Goodby and Number 9. It scales the height of Kilimanjaro to nice effect. During the climb, which begins January 7, users will be able to scale the mountain with the team, and check out video posts and other content based on the team's actual position.

Users can also buy gear and sponsor a foot of the climb to raise money to get clean drinking water to those in need. (Full disclosure: Our agency is working on facets of this campaign.)

Check it all out, here.

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MasterCard & Amazon: Peyton Manning & Alyson Hannigan Help Launch 'Priceless Gift Finder'

I'm mostly just surprised this isn't an iPhone app.

Stealing a page from Target's Holiday Gift Globe, MasterCard and Amazon have teamed up to launch The Priceless GiftFinder.

The site apparently helps you find gifts for folks, and the sequences begin by asking questions about whether the gift is "for a Facebook friend" or "a real friend." Just kidding. "For a friend who isn't on Facebook." I assume the first option uses data from the friend's profile.

You can enter a price range, gender, age, relationship to the recipient and phrases that best fit the recipient, such as "The Do-It-Yourselfer," "The Sports Fanatic," "The Pet Obsessed" and more. 

I guess this is one way to go. I think an iPhone app would have been more useful for those of us who, you know, don't plan ahead when it comes to holiday shopping. Then again, it's probably harder for MasterCard and Amazon to place the transaction through an iPhone app.

But I'm not totally convinced (yet, it's still early in the season) that this app rises quite to MasterCard's usual level of "priceless."

Start shopping yourself, here.

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Coke Zero Mines Augmented Reality In 'Avatar' Cross Promotion

Coke Zero - they of the Coke Zero Facebook Facial Profiler app - are mining the augmented reality wave  with a new commercial tied to James Cameron's new movie Avatar, which opens next month (if it can be completed in time.). Not sure if this is from Crispin, and I'm not sure if there's an actual AR experience tied to it yet. But I hope there will be.

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (Amacom/McGraw Hill, Spring 2010), I look at AR as an increasingly popular way to create engaging brand experiences for consumers. Prinz Pinakatt, head of interactive for Coca-Cola Europe, has some particularly insightful things to say about the future of AR in branding. You definitely won't want to miss it.

Find out more, here.

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While Pepsi's 'Refreshing' Communities, Coke Seeks Happiness Through Social Networking

The soda wars have gone social.

While the Pepsi Refresh Project is pumping $20 million for projects people create and vote on to "refresh" their communities.

Now, Coca-Cola is launching its most expansive social networking campaign yet, with Expedition 206, which will send three 20-somethings - Toño, Kelly and Tony to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold. The kids will embark on a 275,000-mile tour stocked with laptops, video cameras, smartphones and other youthy gadgetry to document their search for happiness in these communities.

As AD AGE reports, the whole thing will be tracked at Expedition206.com, as well as through Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and on Twitter@x206.

Just looking at the two initiatives together, it seems the Choice of the New Generation is taking on the Me Generation. Or, looking at it another way, one campaign is about how to help others, the other seems to be about being inspired by others.

So far at least, IMHO, Pepsi's sounds more relevant and compelling - despite seeming like yet another Obama rip off.

Read more here.

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McCann Launches Web Response To 'Mad Men'

So Sterling Cooper is being sold to McCann Erickson. The folks at McCann New York is welcoming them with a video and print ads in industry publications proclaiming "Welcome, Sterling Cooper" and are signed "Your friends at McCann Erickson.

Considering the fact that the fictional acquisition would have happened in 1963, I guess 46 years late is better than never.

Read more here.

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Royal Navy Launches iPhone-Facebook Game To Recruit Engineers

One look at this and I knew it's got to be Glue.

The London-based agency, which has done Cannes Gold-winning work for the Royal Navy in terms of personalized video, has collaborated with Marvellous to create a new iPhone app designed to recruit marine engineers via an "Engineer Officer Challenge" social media game played across an iPhone app and a Facebook widget.

The details, according to the companies:

1. The Royal Navy Engineer Officer Challenge will put potential recruits through their paces with 5 interactive missions – each based on realistic Royal Navy training tasks. Utilising features including the iPhone’s touch screen interface and accelerometer, some challenges are set aboard HMS Deter, urgently needing repairs.

2. As the Lieutenant in charge, the player makes crucial decisions, as they would as an Engineering Officer - from fixing the engine or preparing for a simulated missile attack, to re-wiring the radar system.

3. After each challenge the player is presented with video footage revealing the impact of their decisions in the task. Once completed their score is submitted to a leaderboard where they can challenge a friend or simply visit the Royal Navy website for more in-depth career information, or join the Royal Navy Facebook group.

4. The Facebook widget replicates the iPhone app in allowing users to get the feel for a virtual “hands –on” engineering experience, as well as enabling people to share among friends and start a discussion.

5. The Royal Navy Engineer Officer Challenge is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch and can be accessed via the iTunes app store. The widget can be downloaded from the Royal Navy Recruitment Facebook page, or the applications section on Facebook.

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