Publishers Clearing House Taps Facebook Fans For Charity

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Today Publishers Clearing House launched a social charity program on Facebook called The Give Back which lets PCH Facebook fans vote for the charity they would like to see the company award $25,000. Second and third place charities will receive $2,500 each and, to encourage participation, one Facebook fan will receive a $5,000 prize.

The Give Back program is a two stage process. In the first stage, fans will vote on ten different causes, including Fight Disease, Save the Environment, Protect the Animals, Help the Homeless, Develop Communities, Improve Education, Enrich the Arts, Promote Sports, Provide Disaster Relief and Support the Troops. This stage will last approximately two weeks. The three causes with the most votes will move on to the next rounds.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-19-11    
Topic: Cause, Social



Let's Not Do Lunch. Let's Feed Starving Africans

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Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners has launched a social media fund raising effort called Let's Not Do Lunch which aims to capture money otherwise spent on lunch. The effort hopes to raise £1 million for famine relief in East Africa.

The Let's Not Do Lunch campaign is one of an intended 50 technology-based solutions that agency Made By Many is crowd-sourcing from agencies around the world with the goal of launching 50 projects in 50 days to raise funds for famine relief. The 50/50 project has nearly 40 global initiatives and launched October 17, World Hunger Day.

Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners Director of Strategy and Innovation Ed Cotton said, "Our idea was to create a social movement behind famine relief by tapping into social experiences we all enjoy, many of which are built around sharing a meal with a friend, colleague, business associate, even family. Through our Facebook application, 'Let's Not Do Lunch,' we are leveraging the social experience into a social action that can be shared and activated through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channels."

So, people, don't eat lunch today. Donate to the cause. You'll feel good. Trust us. You will.

by Steve Hall    Oct-19-11    
Topic: Cause, Social



This Just In! Only 32 Days Left to Crowd Fund Super Bowl Commercial

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This just in from the folks over at Kentucky For Kentucky hoping to raise enough money to get an ad in the Super Bowl.

"We've got 31 days left in our quest to crowd fund, produce, and air a epic Super Bowl commercial marketing the Commonwealth of Kentucky. A project fueled by Kentucky pride showcasing to the world all of the amazing people, cultural influences, destinations, and products that make Kentucky the greatest state ever. So far we've got $67,604 pledged of the $3.5 million goal. The party is just getting started and we're still confident we'll hit our goal and make history.

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 7-11    
Topic: Campaigns, Social, Sponsorship, Super Bowl 2012



Daily Deals May Hinder A Company's Reputation

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Last month, a study conducted by Boston University researchers John Byers and Georgia Zervas and Harvard University researcher Michael Mitzenmacher found that while Groupon and LivingSocial deals can increase the number Yelp reviews, they can also reduce Yelp scores by ten percent. Yelp reviews that mentioned the words "Groupon" or "coupon" lowered star ratings by ten percent. Reviews that mentioned both words showed a 20 percent drop.

The researchers examined 16,692 Groupon offers and 2,609 LivingSocial offers in 20 cities and 56,000 Yelp reviews for 2,332 merchants that ran 2,496 deals.

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 6-11    
Topic: Brands, Research, Social



Twitter, Sex, Books, TED, JWT, MySpace in the News

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- An infographic of Twitter's history.

- Check out this PSA for sexual harassment. It will make you think.

- New book offers three secrets to "going guerrilla" with marketing.

- The parents of Morgan Dana Harrington, the girl who was killed at a Metallica concert in 2009, are out with an ad campaign that hopes to find the killer and urge young women to be cautious.

- TED has opened its call for this year's Ads Worth Spreading.

- Last night, JWT's Jam With Toast won the Say Media Battle of the Bands at the Highline Ballroom. Boy do we miss More Fucking Cowbell.

- Funny. MySpace is trying to resurrect itself but, sadly, all it could muster during Advertising Week was a screen that fell during its Amp's Up party Monday night.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 5-11    
Topic: Agencies, Cause, Industry Events, Social



Social Reward Survey Offering Delivers Brands Consumer Insight

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Today, social media sponsorship company IZEA announced WeReward Insights, a new survey feature for its WeReward mobile rewards application that helps consumers earn money from brands by performing brick and mortar-related actions with their mobile devices.

Through WeReward Insights, advertisers can offer surveys to segments of the WeReward app user base. WeReward has opt-in demographic data such as purchasing habits at stores and restaurants which can be analyzed and aggregated. That data can then be used by brands to get a real-time snapshot of their consumer's behavior.

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 4-11    
Topic: Social, Tools



Facebook Bid Management and Budget Allocation Get Automated

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Today at OMMA, Clickable CEO David S. Kidder introduced the company's Social ActEngine, a set of algorithms that automatically reallocate budgets and set bids for optimal performance in Facebook campaigns. The Social ActEngine also tests and prioritizes each ad within each campaign to ensure efficiency.

Clickable's Facebook Advertising Suite also introduces hourly syncing of all data with Facebook to enable real-time insights and optimization. The Facebook Advertising Suite is part of Clickable's flagship Pro tool, a technology for managing advertising performance across Google, Bing and Facebook.

Of the introduction, Kidder said, "Clickable continues to answer the call from advertisers and agencies seeking automation and intelligence to launch and manage more successful Facebook campaigns. Clickable will continue to invest aggressively in transformational tools to make serious Facebook marketers faster and more effective."

by Steve Hall    Oct- 4-11    
Topic: Industry Events, Social, Tools



Facebook Brand Engagement Gets Another Metric

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Social media marketing software company Wildfire, today, announced the release of new analytics that allow marketers to gain understanding of their brand's reach on Facebook, including how well brands are accessing the friends of their fans and how successfully they're creating brand advocates. Wildfire's new analytics will work with Facebook's new Insights metrics but are said to help brands to these metrics in aggregate across all their Facebook pages and tabs.

Of the new analytics, Wildfire Founder and CEO Victoria Ransom said, "Facebook Insights provide marketers with powerful social media measurement tools to better understand and influence the discussion between a brand and its audience. Partnering with Facebook allows us to deliver a fully-integrated analytics solution that builds upon the foundation provided by Facebook's platform. Our enhanced social marketing tools give Wildfire customers an advantage when it comes to brand engagement."

When used in combination with Facebook Insights, Wildfire's analytics will highlight engagement, a metric Mark Zuckerberg, at the recent f8 conference, said is becoming increasingly important.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 3-11    
Topic: Social, Tools



Why Facebook Privacy Concerns Will Not Hinder Growth

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Facebook, pure and simple, is a means for people to stay in touch with people. And these people, as we have historically seen, don't care all that much about privacy issues. Some have said Facebook will lose members over these and other privacy issues. I would disagree. Facebook is not going to lose any members. That is, perhaps, until the next best thing makes its debut. But it won't be privacy concerns that kill Facebook. Not in my opinion.

Some have been miffed by the recent changes Facebook made regarding the automatic sharing of what you read and it's a valid concern. But it won't be long before Facebook plugs that hole. Or at least offers a setting to control it. But even if they don't, I still stand by my opinion - and it is just that, an opinion - that Facebook will continue to grow.

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by Steve Hall    Sep-30-11    
Topic: Opinion, Social



Straight Girls Promise to Get Married Unless They Get Hired

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There's many ways to score a job in advertising. And there's many ways to save a friendship. Take both of those notions and you've got the story of Charli Hoffmann and Alex Otis, two straight girls and students from the Miami Ad School in Brooklyn who are planning a little stunt to insure they get work and get to stay together. Charli is German and on October 9th her visa will expire unless she gets hired or married. Alex is and American and doesn't want her partner to leave.

So to achieve gainful employment and keep Charli in America, the pair have launched Save the Dates, a Facebook effort to get themselves hired by October 7 so they don't have to get married to each other so they can stay together.

Aw, how nice. Come one everyone. Help a couple of lovebirds...uh...friends stay together.

by Steve Hall    Sep-27-11    
Topic: Social