Social Rewards Brings Brand Loyalty Programs to Social Media

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Social Rewards, a new service for brands that want to add a social media element to their loyalty programs launched today during Connected Marketing Week in San Francisco. The company, which aims to blend together loyalty marketing and affiliate marketing with social media will allow brands to reward people for spreading brand messages across the social media universe.

Sanyo, The Venetian and The Palazzo are the first brands to launch with Social Rewards.

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by Steve Hall    Aug-19-10    
Topic: Social, Tools



Forget Mayorships and Badges, Earn Money With Your Check Ins

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IZEA has launched WeReward, a Foursquare-like check in application that awards redeemable points for completing tasks and checking in. It's like Foursquare but instead of a game, it's a revenue source. And that's a good thing. Because after a while collecting badges becomes tiresome. On the other hand, collecting money never does.

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by Steve Hall    Jun-23-10    
Topic: Good, Social, Tools



Why Consumer Transparency Falls Flat

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The social graph. Data portability. Privacy. Data control. Peerset CTO and Co-founder Amit Kanigsberg has a few things to share on these topics in this second post in a series on the use of personal data.

Pursuing Transparency is no Private Matter

What does transparency mean to you? In the online advertising industry it conjures one of two things: 1) For the advertiser, full insight into the ad serving stack (from agency to publisher) or 2) For the consumer, full insight into the targeting data ad networks and data providers collect (e.g., Google, Bluekai).

If your first thought was #1, you are forgiven. It is after all natural to follow the money. And there is plenty of it being strewn across that field. But I'll argue that you should be thinking about the consumer a bit more, the sleeping giant as it were. And if you jumped straight to #2, then I'd bet you felt that current efforts and lackluster hype around transparency seems a bit, well, lacking, slight, effervescent, wispy, ethereal - more translucent really.

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by Steve Hall    Jun-23-10    
Topic: Opinion, Research, Social, Tools, Trends and Culture



Privacy is a Red Herring, Personal Data A Goldmine for Consumers and Marketers

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The social graph. Data portability. Privacy. Data control. Peerset CTO and Co-founder Amit Kanigsberg has a few things to share on these topics in this second post in a series on the use of personal data.

Fish Anyone?

All of this hype surrounding online privacy is a red herring, especially as it regards Facebook. We learned this week that privacy is not the central concern for Facebook users. The "Quit Facebook Day" protest groups have barely gained membership. Quitfacebookday.com only managed to attract 35,000 members for their mass exodus yesterday. Next to Facebook's close to half a billion users, this just doesn't seem very significant (a good article considering this perspective).

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by Steve Hall    Jun- 4-10    
Topic: Opinion, Social, Tools, Trends and Culture



Islands Found, Books Shilled, Lebron Begged, Billboard Smelled

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- Need to find the best ferry to the Cape and Islands? Yea. There's an app for that.

- The Art Directors Club will host the ADC Young Guns 5+5 Thursday June 10 at the ADC Gallery. Five winners from ADC Young Guns 7 pick five creatives they admire, all 10 present their work Pecha Kucha-style: 20 slides + 20 seconds each = 400 seconds to tell their story.

- This billboard stinks. The billboard uses an attached fan to disperse charcoal and pepper fragrance from scented oil.

- Even more Amazon book review shilling.

- Bloomberg really wants Lebron James to come to New York.

- Rich media ads come to the iPad. Yawn.

- Deutsch is out with new work for Dr. Pepper featuring Michael Strahan.

- Watercooler Inc. has partnered with Fox Soccer to premiere EPIC GOAL, an all-new Facebook game that debuts today.

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by Steve Hall    Jun- 4-10    
Topic: Cause, Industry Events, Outdoor, Poster, Social, Tools



Ad Creation Tool to Make Mad Men Lazy...And Rich

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A New York Times story screams, "An Ad Engine to Put 'Mad Men' Out of business. it's a story about PlaceLocal, a program that creates an ad simply from a person entering the name and address. Then PlaceLocal spreads its tentacles and gathers images, video, hours of operation, phone number, blog commentary on the business and other information. Once that information is gathered, an ad magically appears, Yes, it's true. And it's impressive. But it's not going to put Mad Men out of business.

This sort of service is perfect for the local baker or car dealer or restaurant or any other small business that can't afford to pay for an agency or even a freelancer. Of course, it won't be long before agencies use this service for their pown clients, pass the work of as their own and then charge 20 times the actual cost.

Hmm. This really isn't a bad thing. Small business can make decent ads on their own. And lazy agencies can use it to up their revenue. What's not to love?

by Steve Hall    May-24-10    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Tools



Fiverr the New Playground for Cheap Marketers, Money-Hungry Agencies

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I will come up with a slogan for your website or product for $5. I will hold up a message on time square for $5. I will submit your site to all major search engines for $5. I will print screen your company logo on a t-shirt and wear it for a week for $5. I will consult your business on search marketing for 30 minutes for $5. I will design a custom web banner for your business for $5. I will write a memorable tagline for your business for $5. I will do a voiceover for your podcast/website/business for $5. I will design your Business Card for $5.

Well I won't but hundreds of fiverr members will. fiverr is a site on which people promise to to things for $5. And it's as simple as that. Browse. Click. Buy. If you need some simple, ad-related tasks done, this site is definitely worth a look.

And if you're an agency looking for the opportunity to wildly mark up costs to reap a ridiculous profit, this site is most definitely for you.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 1-10    
Topic: Social, Tools



Rapportive's Ad Hijacking Browser Extension A Boon For Brands

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Google's not going to be a fan of this one. Cambridge UK-based Rapportive just released a Firefox and Chrome extension that boots ads off a person's Gmail page and replaces them with Retagr-style social media links and bio info of the person whose email you are reading. It'll also pulls in their Twitter stream.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-10    
Topic: Social, Tools



Aquent Provides Website Building Blocks

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Ever wonder makes a great website? Well, Aquent, with help from Barbarian Group, thinks it has the answer. As you roll over particular elements of the site, The Internet Online Website provides tips on the importance of each element and hos you can use the tips to improve youur own website.

As Ryan mcMaus write on the Barbarian Blog, "InternetOnlineWebsite.com is a website ABOUT websites. It's been specially formulated to educate, enlighten, and delight those who are looking to add to their online presence and marketing initiatives."

We like. Simple. Informative. Helpful. Instructional.

by Steve Hall    Jan-22-10    
Topic: Online, Tools



Old Ads Browsed, Conferences Buzzed

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- Like old ads? Check out Vintage Ad Browser.

- Are you at CES this week? See who else is with this Fuel Industries-created buzz tracker which visualizes the conversations occurring at the conference.

- Into video advertising? Tremor Media has a collection of new products and ad formats.

- Another calendar-based advertising option: Shane Rich, a photographer in Boulder,CO has just launched a 365-day photographic marketing project at oncemany.com. He's booking each day in 2010 for one client to have their business or individual message endorsed through his photography. He'll work with each client to create their message, then utilize his blog and other means of social media to document and market the results to the masses.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-10    
Topic: Events, Tools