• Twitter Gets into Gift Giving
    Getting into the gift-guiding spirit last month, Twitter tested out a service that suggested present ideas based on users' recent tweet history. "Struggling to find the perfect gift?" Twitter asked. "Wish you could read people's minds to know what they truly want? Well, now you can."
  • The 12 Days of Tag
    Why support a charity when you can promote a new consumer technology, plug a rap album, and be charitable all at once? Equally enterprising in nature, that's what Microsoft, Diddy and social marketing firm Izea had in mind with Twelve Days of Tag. Over the holidays, the program encouraged consumers to download Microsoft Tag -- the software giant's mobile bar code reader -- so they could access bonus content from Diddy's latest masterpiece, "Last Train to Paris" and help decide which causes would receive donations totaling $50,000.
  • Buying a Virtual Plow with Points
    Sailing the Caribbean...skiing the Alps ... sampling Napa's finest - That's how one might imagine American Express cardholders redeeming their precious "reward points." Painting a more modest customer profile, however, AmEx recently added online gaming points to its rewards menu.
  • Writer Gets Inspired
    It wasn't difficult for me to get inspired to write this piece on Inspired. Fear is a strong source of inspiration for me and I was fearful of how annoyed my editor would be if I didn't turn in this article when it was due. I was also inspired to write by the inspirational nature of my subject, a book that finds authors Dorte Nielsen and Kiki Hartmann picking the brains of Europe's creative elite - we're talking fashion designers, architects, photographers and advertising agency creatives - to learn how they think, how they work and where they find inspiration.
  • Fake Hilfigers Wary of Social Media
    The latest Tommy Hilfiger campaign is trying to prove its classic, preppy image can still be "cool" in the Facebook era. But the work seems to have created more irony than the prep-school envy it wanted.
  • Where People Are Spending Their Time
    The average online consumer in the United States is now spending as much time on the Internet as he or she does watching TV offline. This is according to Forrester Research's annual study "Understanding the Changing Needs of the US Online Consumer." If this information, released last month, is indeed correct, it's a notable milestone. But is it true?
  • Creative Roundtable: A Jay-Z State of Mind
    Jay-Z isn't just a rapper -- or The New Sinatra as he boasts in Empire State of Mind, or The King of America, a title bestowed on him by Rolling Stone, He is also a successful businessman behind ventures ranging from Rocawear to the New Jersey Nets and he's known for his creative and innovative approaches to marketing his products: the artist created all sorts of buzz and excitement last October when he promoted his autobiography "Decoded" through a location-based scavenger hunt with Bing.
  • Market Focus: Vodka Stays in Style
    Vodka brands are tapping a diverse cast of endorsers as the industry fights to keep its lead as the most popular liquor sold in the United States. Pushed aside are old marketing pitches about a brand's proud Russian heritage and treasured traditions. Now it is about the party culture, fame and sharing.
  • Search: Searching New Frontiers
    Welcome to 2011 and say "hello" to predictive sentiment and social search on PC and mobile. Look for Google to not only add a sentiment layer on search results, but continue to add social signals and features on the engine that drives query rankings. Similar rankings will make their way into social networks.
  • Social: The Location-Based Gender Divide
    One of the most interesting aspects of the new wave of location-based social networks is the wide disparity in adoption rates by men and women: in November a survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that men outnumbered women 2-to-1 on location-based networks, with 6% of online men participating versus 3% of online women.
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