Size doesn't matter. Not when it comes to social media marketing at least. The tiny town - hamlet, really - of Obermutten, Switzerland, proved that with an unusual and extremely viral marketing effort in 2011 that generated tremendous Facebook and real-world interaction. Obermutten is a small town with a population of about 79. It's part of the canton of Graubnden, and the agency Jung von Matt/Limmat in Zurich handles the advertising and brand management for the region's tourism. As part of the overall brand promotion for the area last fall, Obermutten promised to print out every Facebook fan's profile picture …

Simultaneously creepy and cool, Intel's Museum of Me is the Facebook app that showed you how much you actually shared with the general public, but presented it in such a way that you couldn't help but think you were special. The Facebook application, which spread across the world virally during the summer of 2011, was born in Asia, the brainchild of Intel's Hong Kong marketing team and Projector, a boutique agency in Japan. The brief was to create an execution that brought the company's tagline for its second-generation Core processors, "Visually Smart," to life in an emotional way. "More and …

When King Arthur Flour sold its first bag of flour to its first baker customer, George Washington was president. But it's learned how to do business and grow globally, using digital tools. "Our approach is to listen, hear what people are saying about us and our brand, and respond," says Halley Silver, director of online services for King Arthur Flour. And when the brand does respond, no matter what the form, it gives what Silver quite accurately terms "an honest, personal answer." In short, the brand's digital personas act the way you would expect (or at least hope) a 220-year-old …

Sure, you can send a get-well card to a sick friend. And, yes, you could bring soup. But what if you could send both at the same time? When Heinz and We Are Social asked this question, the result was Heinz's uk-only "Get Well" effort on Facebook. Heinz and We Are Social had built a following for Heinz on Facebook through promotions such as rewarding fans with the opportunity to purchase limited edition and exclusive products such as balsamic ketchup (yeah, must be a British thing), and wanted to continue its momentum. Fortuitously (or not, depending on your point of …

Consider the crowd. Brands have spent a considerable amount of time and effort doing just that, but they are still often way off. Social media platforms seem to all follow a similar trajectory, whether they are email lists, influencer-marketing programs or Facebook itself. The platform begins in a collection phase, growing an audience to critical mass. Then, as with a poorly planned party, there are a bunch of people looking around at each other waiting for the beer and the DJ to arrive (or, in marketing speak, they're ready to be "activated"). Brands know what they want, for the most …

As sponsorship opportunities go, the Olympics are a strange animal. Every four years, for two weeks, they're the biggest thing on the planet. Then they virtually disappear for another four years. For companies looking to get value out of their sponsorship dollars, it can be a challenge. For the 2012 London Games, Samsung is trying something different. Through a social media experiment called the "Olympic Genome," Samsung will endeavor to link athletes and fans, based on the information and interests they share on Facebook. The goal, according to the company, is to create connections for fans and athletes alike. Using …

When something makes you smile, you immediately want to share it with someone else. When the Serenading Unicorn makes you smile, the marketers at Juicy Fruit want you to share it with everyone else. In 2011, the Wrigley brand's viral video campaign was all about the sharing - and digital agency Evolution Bureau made sure that its star, a one-horned, lip-synching puppet, was as social as a mythical figure could be. evb faced an enviable challenge with the campaign's second iteration: continuing its early success without being repetitive. The new round of videos had to be different and diverse. They …

At this point, it's hard to overestimate the amount of hand-wringing there's been on the meanness on teenage girls, from cutesy Lindsay Lohan films to bleak, bullied-to-suicide headlines. For Procter & Gamble, the problem provided an opportunity for Secret, a brand whose purpose is to make women more fearless. Working with imc, it moved from armpits to activism with a program called Mean Stinks. The Facebook-based program has girls, 13 to 17, as its primary target. But it also reaches out to women 18 and older, their role models, in an effort to encourage an end to girl-to-girl meanness. The …

While it might seem like the hot CrossFit brand emerged out of nowhere, it began back in the 1970s when former gymnast Greg Glassman created a scalable strength and conditioning program suitable for people at any fitness level. Today, the CrossFit training methodology is in use at more than 3,500 affiliate gyms worldwide. The CrossFit Games, which began in 2007 with less than 100 participants, are now televised live on ESPN3, with thousands taking part in the competition billed as the ultimate proving ground for the world's fittest athletes. CrossFit's growth is impressive given that the company didn't engage in …

Marketing anything across cultural and geographic borders has always been tricky, providing room for more gaffes than just about anything we can think of. (Our favorites of recent memory are probably the promotional tour for Cowboys and Aliens in which the actress promised to speak "in Swiss," or Puma designing a shoe in the colors of the United Arab Emirates' flag to celebrate the country's anniversary, before realizing Emiratis think their flag is important, and that shoes are dirty.)