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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.

Television has Nielsen ratings. Print ads circulation numbers. Even billboards in the middle of South Dakota can look to traffic patterns to help illustrate their value. None of these tracking units are a perfect science of course. (No matter what they tell you.) But based on sheer market maturity these disciplines have historically enjoyed more perceived measurability—and therefore more dedicated budgets—than word-of-mouth and experiential marketing programs. That is until now.

State school sporting events have long been the venues of choice for marketers looking to make connections with coveted college student populations local fans and tightly-knit alumni networks. But the Big Ten is hardly the only game in town. This month we take a look at alternative student networks—accredited U.S. colleges often overlooked by marketers but jam-packed with demographically unique target groups.