Happy Employees Make the Best Brand Ambassadors

AS MARKETERS TRY TO  BUILD WORD-OF-MOUTH BUZZ a few have realized the ultimate influencers may already be on their payrolls. McDonald’s Hewlett-Packard and Amtrak have found that engaging employees as brand ambassadors gives them credibility...

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Using Buzz Metrics

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...

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Activating Multiple Platforms

The best event programs take one sponsorship event or message and activate it on multiple platforms in a variety of ways. The approach is used for a number of reasons: to create additional buzz off...

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Coke Zero Capitalizes On March Madness

Coke Zero hired four NCAA fans to blog about March Madness for three weeks as part of its Coke Zero Ultimate Dream Job contest. The four fans were selected from a number of nationwide entries...

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Targeting B-to-B Influencers

Rob Cross an associate professor in the management department of University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and co-author of the book The Hidden Power of Social Networks says “Traditionally the tools for finding key...

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The Price Is Right: And Alltel Makes the Right Call

SINCE LAUNCHING ITS MY CIRCLE CAMPAIGN  in 2006 Alltel  Wireless has executed nine My Circle-themed consumer sweepstakes programs and has given away more than $1 million in prize packages. The brand’s eighth contest—the My Circle...

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Dell Promotes Tour With Giant Beach Towel

To get consumers psyched about its Summer Rocks Festival Tour Dell recently blanketed popular recreational spots across the country with a giant beach towel. Made up of individual soft bamboo material towels the 35-by-60-foot giant...

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Unconventional Wisdom

For most cubicle dwellers it’s merely a question of Apple or PC. But for IT decision-makers database administrators cios and those tasked with keeping their companies’ multi-million dollar information systems running as efficiently as their...

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Bumbershoot: An Underground Fave Spawns Innovation

The independent spirit spawned nearly 20 years ago by Seattle’s grunge movement still lives on at Bumbershoot—one of the nation’s largest arts and music festivals. In the shadow of the Space Needle sponsoring brands set...

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