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Let’s play a game of Jeopardy. The answer: Barry Bonds Roger Clemens Michael Vick. The question: Name three athletes who aren’t swimming in endorsements right about now. And for good reason. Hindsight is 20/20 for sure but what happens to the brands that sponsor high-profile athletes who get into trouble? Companies often find losing money is the least of their worries. The brand reputation is tougher to build back. So as the cost of celebrity sponsorships increases right along with the risk many brands are looking elsewhere to build equity with sports fans.

Welcome to Generation Me! Whether it’s MySpace Facebook or any other social networking website consumers are sharing their lives with the rest of the world all over the web—especially with photos. For event marketers this picture couldn’t be more perfect. New web technologies are allowing companies to create photo activations that are more personal to the consumer where people can customize their photos and videos online. What’s the newest frontier? Doing it all in real time via mobile handheld devices.

Event marketers have long looked to their brands for inspiration—extracting their best attributes unearthing their hidden benefits and transforming their emotional touchpoints into hands-on product experiences that are fun relevant and bigger than life. But now brick and mortar brands are taking a cue from the event world by shaking up their retail stores and turning them into interactive and immersive brand experiences.

As a follow-up to our April 2008 special report on word-of-mouth marketing we offer these handy links to help you get started building your own branded Facebook and YouTube pages. Check back again for more expert insights. We’ll post ’em as we get ’em.