Sony recently launched running a pretty cool Facebook campaign featuring Justin Timberlake. Media Monster Wars is a social media app that utilizes the content on your Facebook-wall to build an unbeatable monster. The more photos, videos, comments and likes you have, the stronger your monster will become. You can battle against friends and, if your monster is strong enough, it’s possible to challenge Justin Timberlake himself.

Besides good beverages and food Starbucks wants to offer a way of life. An increasing part of the customers of the famous coffee company drink their green tea crème frappuccino or espresso macchiato while surfing their notebooks, tablets or smartphones. Starbucks stimulates this trend with the introduction of free Wi-Fi last July. From this fall they are going to use this new service as an instrument for brand activation with the introduction of the Starbucks Digital Network. In cooperation Yahoo! and a growing list of content partners, including the Wall Street Journal, Apple and Zagat, the network should enrich the coffeehouse experience with interesting news and exclusive entertainment. Check this article for more information.

Sony Vaio lanceert met Media Monster Wars een van de leukste Facebook-campagnes van de laatste tijd. Het doel van de social media game is een zo sterk mogelijk digitaal monster te creëren op basis van de content op je Facebook-pagina. Hoe meer foto’s, berichten, video’s en likes erop je pagina verschijnen, hoe krachtiger je monster wordt. Vervolgens kun je tegen vrienden battelen en - zodra je sterk genoeg bent- het opnemen tegen het gezicht van de campagne: Justin Timberlake.

Will Swyping be the digital hype of 2010? Samsung sure hopes so. They integrated the patented technology that provides a faster way to input text on touch-screens in their new Galaxy S model. To prove the advantages of Swyping Samsung Netherlands launched the SuperSwypers campaign. SuperSwypers are a group of young journalists that you can send out to an event of your own choice. Their reports are gathered on an action site and it’s possible to follow the SuperSwypers live on the Dutch friends network feest.je. The journalists also use Foursquare, Facebook, Mobypicture and Twitter. Social media to the max!
 

Giveaways have proofed to be a great marketing tool for many years. In most promotional competitions involving giveaways, consumers must reach out to the company to claim their prize. The Brazilian promotion agency Bullet developed a concept to bring prizes to consumers at home. For the Try Something New with Omo campaign they put a GPS tracker in 50 detergent boxes throughout Brazil. Each device gets activated when the box is removed from the supermarket shelf, causing Bullet to send a promotional team to the consumer's home. Winners receive a video camera and an invitation for a day of outdoor fun. Check this link for the case study.

With the Airdrop marketing campaign Red Bull involves students in an interactive experience. Instead of hiring hot girls to give out free samples the company placed crates of Red Bull that looked if they were air dropped at various college campuses in America. The idea was to create a situation that would disrupt the daily flow of student life. The result? Check out this movie.
 

In these times where social networking sometimes seems to be a religion Diesel presents a campaign that shows the ridiculousness of spending so much time online. The fashion brand came up with Facepark. On this live social event people created an analog version of Facebook, simulating pretty much everything you can do on the world's largest social network sites. Visitors walked around with cardboard profiles and tagged each other with stickers. According to Diesel Facepark is ‘A stupid idea that can change the world. But it probably will not.’ As long as stupid is this cool we have no problem with stupid.
 

Every marketeer knows that blogs and social media are important sources for consumer insights around a brand. Gatorade makes serious business of social media monitoring. In its Chicago headquarters they built a custom made system called Mission Control. With this system the marketing department can keep track of buzz around the brand in the social media landscape. It measures blog conversations and Tweets and shows how hot those conversations are. Read more on Gatorade’s Mission Control in this article.

A billboard that can actually stand out in Times Square must be using some kind of digital magic. That’s certainly the case with this one from the fashion brand Forever 21. With clever use of augmented reality they did get noticed by hundreds of people on the vibrant New York square. The campaign also became the talk of the day on well-known advertising blogs. Because augmented reality billboarding is in rapid development we can look forward to lots of cool things in the future.

The secret of persuading people to donate for a good cause is that a story should go straight to your heart. That’s exactly what the Mahindra Foundation does with A Girl Story. In this campaign the nonprofit organization combines emotion with an innovative way of recruiting new donators. A Girl Story learns us about the life of Tarla, a fictional six year old girl that has to work all day to survive. She wants to go to school to better her life. Whether she succeeds, is up to us, as her story will progress only via audience donations unlocking new chapters in a series animated films. Those who do donate will receive updates on Tarla's journey. For those who don’t her story ends. Just like in real life.