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"How can brands do a better job of fostering these relationships so that they're at the forefront of consumer's minds? 1. Develop a great product. Not to resuscitate the Mac vs. PC argument, but there's a reason many people aren't hesitant to recommend their MacBook or iPhone to a friend. 2. Facilitate social sharing. Brands need to be engaged with consumers via social media, and brands need product sites and marketing programs that facilitate seamless social sharing. 3. Create sampling programs to reach digital consumers. Many influential digital consumers are eager to discuss their love of specific products and brands. Marketers need to reach and engage them in innovative ways, such as via sampling programs, contests, coupons. 4. Get game. Brand can introduce game element through badges, achievements, and prizes to turn their consumers to brand ambassadors and engage them in a fun way."

"Like seemingly every startup currently exploring an ad-supported business model, Waze has gone native for its ad platform. Typically startups wade into advertising by working directly with brands then erecting a self-serve platform down the road. Waze sped things up. The company began testing ads in its U.S. app over the summer, working directly with Zipcar, Best Buy and a number of fuel brands and convenience store chains; at launch it has added Procter & Gamble, Dunkin' Donuts, Wyndham Hotels, Whole Foods, Jamba Juice, CircleK and Kum & Go to its advertiser roster. The direct sales channel continues, but Waze has also set up a self-serve platform for its most basic ad units. The self-serve platform operates on an auction model with floor prices set at $1 per thousand impressions. In addition to a branded search result, marketers can pay to plot branded pins at their locations on the Waze map. When users click on these branded pins, they can click a link to the company's website, a number to call the location or-borrowing the idea of drive-to advertising popularized by driving navigation company Telenav-a button that would navigate them to the location."

"But before they can become global media brands, venture-backed video content providers need to earn revenue. Dublin-based BalconyTV, which showcases up-and-coming music artists, has nearly 32 million views but is exploring advertising, sponsorships and brand partnerships to capitalize on its massive following. "We'll probably bring a brand on board and advertisers in the short-term," said BalconyTV Chief Executive Stephen O'Regan.  "We need to get a lot of things right before we can reach our goal of becoming a large music brand globally." AwesomenessTV, meanwhile, is currently relying on advertising revenue it shares with Google but Terbeek said the earnings were "material" so far. But he added that larger opportunities including licensing content to third parties and big media brands exist down the road, not to mention potentially lucrative exit opportunities."

Only 1 in 3 shoppers visit brand websites nowadays, compared to 3 in 4 visiting retailer websites.*63% of shoppers visit a retailer's or brand's website to make a purchase compared with just 6% through social media.*The main reason for shoppers wanting to reach out to and connect with a company through social media is to find out something new (32%). They were equally as likely to want brand/retailers to connect with them (23%) as they were to want brand/retailers to sell to them (24%). Interestingly 12% also wanted the brands/retailers to help them have more fun.*Just over a third (38%) of 16-24 year olds admitted to already following brands/retailers on social media. This figure reduces as the age groups climb in number to: 29% of 25-34 year olds, 18% of 35-44 year olds, 8% of 45-54 year olds and respondents aged 55+ years said they weren't following any. 56% of the 55+ age group added that they just didn't see the point in doing it.

The video, entitled 'What's a VIDEO worth?' is designed to show just how big online video has become, how big it is expected to grow and why brands would be remiss not to hop on the online video bandwagon.  Just a few of the statistics that companies and brands will find hard to ignore in the video are as follows: 68% of viewers share video links (and sharing means more promotion for your brand!) More than 50% of the videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community (which means a brand new way to engage with your customers!) Having a video on the landing page of your website makes it 53% more likely to show up on the first page of a Google search (and who doesn't like higher ranking in search results?) The average user's visit to a text and image-based website lasts only 43 seconds; for a website with video, the average visit lasts 5 minutes and 50 seconds (ding! ding! ding!) Customers that watch videos of products or services are 85% more likely to make a purchase (ka-ching!)

"Of the 30 brands that have signed on thus far, only five will be running campaigns in the U.S. Twentieth Century Fox, one of two global launch advertisers, will promote its upcoming film Life of Pi with ads in the Xbox Video app, Xbox companion mobile and tablet app SmartGlass app and the Casual Games app, which spans Xbox and Microsoft's desktop and mobile operating systems. And next month the other global launch advertiser, Nissan, will run ads in the Bing and Xbox Music apps. Though it seems the in-app ads are initially only slated to run within Microsoft's own apps, the company said several publishers-such as The Associated Press, Bonnier Corporation, Photobucket, Slacker Radio and The Tribune Company-have agreed to run the units. In announcing the roster of initial advertisers, Microsoft also put out some stats regarding consumer perception of the ad units. The most encouraging stat found that the ads scored a 92 percent in ad recall, but the other numbers suggest brands may prefer consumers forget their ads. Only 39 percent of respondents said they're happy to see advertising within Windows 8, and only 33 percent agreed that advertising on Windows 8 improved their opinion of a brand."

Almost 60 percent of people worldwide say they expect brands to respond to social media comments regarding service at least most of the time. Nearly 60 percent of people globally have posted either a positive or negative social media comment about a brand regarding a service experience, said Arnold. Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of the respondents from China stated that they have posted comments regarding a service experience with a brand. Brazilian respondents were just behind China with 68 percent. U.S. and U.K. respondents both fell in with less than half saying they posted comments to social media platforms at 48 percent and 45 percent respectively.

A recent study from marketing firm Performics shows that 33 percent of people are most likely to respond to brand offers when they are reposted by a friend. The study states that 27 percent will do so on the brand's page, 26 percent from the newsfeed, and 20 percent from a social ad. The study also touched on some valuable information about branded content engagement. Consumers are most likely to engage with branded content containing images (44 percent). A close 40 percent of people said they are likely to engage with Status Updates and 37 percent with videos.

The Brand Creative Fund allows for marketers the ability to be connected with creative filmmakers that are part of the Vimeo's network. It also gives the brand better access to Vimeo's more than 100 million unique visitors a mont

"Specifically, the mobile video ad resulted in 79% general recall, 58% brand recall, 48% message recall, 24% ad favorability and 15% purchase intent. Here's how those figures compared to online and TV across the same five metrics:   General Ad Recall: Mobile video was 2.7 times higher than online; 1.6 times higher than TV. Brand Recall: 4.8 times/online; 5.8 times/TV. Message Recall: 5.6 times/online; 7.5 times/TV. Brand Favorability: 3.4 times higher than both online and TV. Purchase Intent: 2.5 times/online; 3.8 times/TV."

" The strategies and tools come out of our Brand Blueprint process, which literally involves mapping the brand in great detail across all of its possible consumer touchpoints. The goal of blueprinting is to create a highly effective brand ecosystem that aims to meet the behaviors of today's highly engaged audience."

"OrderGroove, a startup that allows brands to create subscription and membership commerce, has raised $7 million from Fung Capital USA, with additional investment from Lerer Ventures, Legend and SWaN Ventures, Allegro Venture Partners, Bee Partners, as well as former Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez and NEW Corporation's Chairman Fred Schaufeld. Brands turn to OrderGroove to add subscription commerce models to their e-commerce sites. For example, L'Oreal uses OrderGroove's SaaS to offer a monthly box of skincare products."

"The researcher found that having more likes doesn't necessarily mean having more engagement. In fact, the more Facebook fans a brand has, the lower the percentage of engaged fans tends to be. For example, brands with between 900,000 to 1 million fans had 60% less engagement than brands with 500,000-600,000 fans."

Brands are ten a penny on Facebook and Twitter, but with Instagram and Tumblr continuing to welcome more users, brands are broadening their social horizons. Coke, Levi's, Tiffany & Co and Aldo are all amongst brands that have new projects underway.

"To address these [technology] forces, our vision is to build our brands through lifelong, one-to-one relationships in real time with every person in the world," Pritchard said. "The power of everyday people is driving monumental change and people power favors brands like ours. We have trusted brands that are part of everyday life. We genuinely care about serving people with superior benefits and doing good."

The over-saturation of advertising, and an ever-increasing distrust of ads has led to a decline in the effectiveness of paid media. Conversely, earned media is gaining ground. Check out this whitepaper from Zuberance, previously offered last month, to see why earned media is so powerful and to learn how you can put it to use for your brand. In this report, you will learn: 1. Earned media is the most trusted and credible form on content for a brand 2. Social media has amplified the sheer quantity and reach of earned media 3. Conversion rates are higher and ROI is larger 4. Earned media lasts 5. Earned media is measurable

The demographic is more likely to remember brands advertised on portable devices and is motivated to visit brand sites and/or retail stores as a result of digital advertising and social posts, Terra found.   In fact, 38% of Hispanics agree that they are more likely to visit branded sites and retail stores, compared to just 24% of non-Hispanics.

Nike's Jordan brand will try to own those real-time conversations through a program of promoted tweets designed to blend into the ongoing social discourse on Twitter. Nike is not an official sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics, July 27 through August 12, but it is seeking to capitalize on the Games indirectly. When the Team USA men's basketball team is playing, the Jordan brand will include spontaneous real-time comments about the game in its promoted tweets. These Twitter ads will also contain pre-planned brand content and links.

"The good news about hashtags on Facebook, from analytics company Simply Measured, is that 20 percent of posts by Interbrand 100 brands, or the top 100 global brands, are using them. The bad news: Simply Measured saw no "measurable change" in the performance of posts with hashtags and those without."

"Location-based services need brands more than brands need them." - One of the more sober approaches to LBS I've heard recently. The rest of the article discusses the shortcomings of location-based advertising and the spammy nature of geofencing.