The Digital Back Scratch: How Brands are Rewarding Users for Sharing
No matter how clever the creative or efficient the execution, the best brand managers understand that no marketing campaign can equal the return on investment of consumer-driven, word-of-mouth marketing. Traditionally grassroots marketing was required to grow organically, as consumers who have been surprised and delighted by a product or brand were compelled to share their [...]
Dan Marino Plays Quarterback for Samsung’s “Team Up for Autism” Social Media Campaign
Within 72 hours, Samsung, with the help of Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Marino, helped raise over 100K for the Dan Marino Foundation, which helps fund autism research and supports initiatives aimed at helping the autistic lead normal, fulfilling lives. The social media campaign “Team Up for Autism” asked people to tweet a message about the [...]
Can the Ad be the Product? – AXE Releases New, Interactive iAd
Masculine. Playful. Irreverent. Sexy. Clever. Unilever’s ability to bring these adjectives to life has made their Axe brand and its collection of grooming products for boys and men in the 15-35 year old demographic into one of the most successful brands in the overly saturated CPG market. While brand managers often scoff at the insidious [...]
Nashville Originals Promotes Restaurant Week with Online Photo Contest
Ahhh, its that time of year where Nashvillians dismiss our belt notches and new year’s resolutions and indulge in Restaurant Week, a time when Nashville’s best locales offer great discounts and specials to anyone and everyone looking to tantalize their taste buds. As a way to build excitement for Restaurant Week, Nashville Originals, the community of restauranteurs [...]
Volvo Teams with Big East Basketball for Social Media Contest Promotion
In the world of sports, there are few moments that can rival that of the heart-pounding, nail-biting, do-or-die atmosphere of a NCAA tournament game in the midst of college basketball’s “March Madness.” Volvo, now the “official car of the Big East,” is trying to bottle some of that lightning in a new viral social media campaign to promote [...]
Fox Promotes New Show Bob’s Burgers with Geo-Social Technology Loopt
For those of us who’ve ever dreamed of quenching your appetite for entertainment by taking a swig of a Big Gulp or taking a giant bite of a Krusty Burger, you might need to go ahead and make reservations at Bob’s Burgers, Fox’s new primetime animated series.
Sharpy Award Winner: Reeder for iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Although not nearly as coveted as the prestigious Dundies, Sharp Dressed Brand has now established its very own awards for the best of the best in tech design, both in functionality and aesthetics. This week’s winning brand is Reeder and its collection of products, including Reeder for iPhone, iPad, and ReederApp.com, the promotional website for [...]
Sunglass Hut Uses Online Contest to Find Fashion Blogger
With the economies of scale and global reach that companies can now achieve online, why waste hundreds of dollars seeking out creative professionals by posting job opportunities on Monster, CareerBuilder, or any of the other online job boards when you can leverage your search into a creative marketing campaign that can solicit free, professional content [...]
FourSquare Continues to Show Innovation Dominance with New Marketing Campaign from Gap
FourSquare, the geo-social tool and tech-community darling that was ultimately the precursor to Facebook Places, has teamed up with Gap to offer holiday discounts that integrate directly with FourSquare’s location technology. Gap has replaced their once static banner ads with a handful of interactive display ads that feature a “Add to FourSquare” button, which, when [...]
Rihanna Runs Promotion for New Album on Groupon – Wait, Seriously?
In the wake of uber hits like “Umbrella” and “Disturbia,” it’s likely that you’ve not only tapped your toes and hummed along with a Rihanna tune or two, but I’d expect you’ve experienced your own personal American Idol style vehicular sing-along with one of the many hits from this Barbadian beauty. On November 16th, the [...]
Girl Talk Breaks The Internet With a Free Release of His New Album
Girl Talk, the mash-em-up, mix-em-down star of your last late night fraternity party, “silently” released his new album “All Day” as a free download from his record label’s website earlier this week. After only a few hours, the site’s web servers had crashed from the immense amounts of traffic that the free download had generated, [...]
The Beatles are Finally on iTunes – Is the Album Officially Dead?
Earlier today Apple announced that The Beatles’ entire studio album discography will now be available on iTunes, and while a part of me is excited that a new generation of digital-first consumers will be exposed to the musical perfectness that was John, Paul, George and Ringo, I can’t help but rid myself of the bittersweet understanding [...]
Gap Creates a Unique Shopping Experience with Its Innovative iPad App
Soon after its recent logo redesign disaster that knocked the fashion juggernaut back on its heels (no pun intended), Gap quickly rebounded by releasing a beautifully simple and refreshingly innovative iPad app that gives the brand the digital street cred to “shake its little toosh on the cat walk.”
eBay Uses Holiday Web Design to Establish Itself as a Must-Stop-Shop for Christmas
We all know eBay is a great consumer-powered marketplace to buy new and used items. Not only did eBay introduce most of the world to both buying and selling online in the early 90′s, their brand has now become a household name, as synonymous with e-commerce as McDonald’s is to fast food. Although eBay now handles billions of [...]
Kings of Leon Release New Website – Come Around Sundown, Stick Around Consumer
In support of the release of their critically-acclaimed new album “Come Around Sundown,” The Kings of Leon have updated and enhanced their website to effectively “harmonize” with the new album’s vibe and surprisingly “coastal-southern
The Happy Envelope – A Case Study in Fashion, Technology, and Paper
The stationery design company The Happy Envelope, specializing in everything from wedding invitations to holiday cards, has just released their new website, designed by Blue Gill Media Group. The interactive site is equipped with a variety of great design and powerful shopping customization, and the exercise is a case study in the ways that technology is rewriting the rules while leveling the playing field.
Conan’s 24 Hour Live Coco Cam – Viral Video to Viral Reality
I know you were as excited as I was, sitting at your computer desk counting down the hours until the the “Coco Cam” went live on TeamCoco.com, Conan O’Brien’s website dedicated to promoting his new show “CONAN” debuting on TBS in a few weeks. It’s no surprise anymore that O’Brien’s genius goes well beyond comedy, [...]
GAP Drops New Logo After Backlash on Social Media
Wow, that didn’t take long. Shortly after releasing a redesign of their corporate logo, GAP has changed course, deciding to ditch their new minimalist take on the iconic “blue box” and restore one of the most recognizable logos in mainstream fashion. The likely millions of dollars spent on creative development and market testing seemingly couldn’t [...]
Yahoo! Sportacular Offers Check-Ins for Sports, Fantasy Football
If you’ve tasted the sacred honey from the forbidden tree of Fantasy Football, then you probably spend your Sundays and Monday nights like me, laid out on your couch watching live games on TV while simultaneously tracking player statistics of the other 16 games going on throughout the day. Well, along with my Yahoo! Sports [...]
Conan O’Brien and His Big Orange Blimp
If you’ve been watching the MLB Playoffs, you might have seen a giant orange eyesore hovering high above Citizens Bank Park as the Philadelphia Phillies took on the Cincinnati Reds during their first of seven games. The “Conan Blimp,” routed to fly all over the Northeast for the entire month of October, is a new [...]
SHOUT OUT – The Social Network is This Year’s Must See Movie
For all of you social media geeks out there who were checking in at your local movie theater and tweeting throughout the show (myself included), I felt it was only right for Sharp Dressed Brand to give a well-deserved “Shout Out” to the new movie The Social Network.
Ochocinco Brings His MoJo to the iPad
Bengals fans probably wish their star wide receiver Chad Ochocinco would spend less time tweeting his memoirs and shooting reality shows and more time focusing on bringing winning seasons back to Cincinnati, but after all his relentless showmanship and other ridiculousness that comes with being #85, its undeniable that “The Receiver Formerly Known As Chad [...]
Banana Republic Experiments with Email Design
Starting a couple of weeks ago, Banana Republic has started experimenting with their email design, allowing their marketing team the freedom to do some interesting things with animated GIF’s.
Arcade Fire and Google Chrome Launch Experimental HTML5 Masterpiece
If you’re like me, you’re probably totally satisfied with your browsing experience through FireFox and Safari, as they are both fast and functional browsers that pretty much do it all, and thus you have yet to download and use Google Chrome. Well, Arcade Fire just gave you a reason. I’ll go ahead and say that it is a necessity that you go watch their interactive, HTML5 web experience just launched at Chrome Experiments (Note that you will need to download and install Google Chrome for the video to work).
