The FASTForward Blog: Dove (Unilever) is taking social networking to a whole new dimension as it relates to campaign development: they’re letting customers not only create ads (which they did last year) but vote on them and then announce the winner at the Oscars. Someone has looked at every angle of cross-integration for this (including mobile voting).

I can’t even feel comfortable calling it either a promotion or an event — it’s both and more. It’s synthesis in a decidedly different way that is a mashup of sorts, but focused on reframing and repurposing existing methods in unexpected ways. It introduces an interesting leap from incidental product positioning in productions (actor drinks well-displayed Coke during scene) to intentional co-event creation.

What’s also interesting is how significant a role the metrics played to reinforce additional investment this year.

“…last year’s campaign leading up to the Oscars resulted in over 1.5 million people visiting the official entry site at dovecreamoil.com, and the company got more than 1,200 ad submissions.”

Advertising + Social Networking = New Equation by Paula Thornton [The FASTForward Blog]

Influx Insights: Companies are increasingly coming to terms with the idea that the workspace, is an under-utilized brand asset. There are a couple of interesting recent examples:

Marketing services companies are notoriously bad at marketing themselves and most of the big companies house their employees in cubicle ridden offices that look like insurance companies, but not the strangely named Fahrenheit 212 ( A unit of Saatchi), whose workspace has become the brand.

The Fahrenheit 212 logo and the bold signature palette of white, gray and an orange as bright as goldfish are ubiquitous in the 5,030-square-foot, eighth-floor offices, executed by David Howell, principal of David Howell Design.

Workspace as brand [Influx Insights]

NY times: Over the last few years, though, Mr. Fluevog hasn't just been presenting ideas about shoes and style to customers; he has also been soliciting ideas from them — encouraging brand enthusiasts to submit their own sketches for leather boots, high-heeled dress shoes, even sneakers with flair. He posts the submissions on his company's Web site, invites visitors to vote for their favorites and manufactures and sells the most promising designs. He calls it all "open source footwear."

"Customers want to express themselves, to be involved with the brand," Mr. Fluevog said in an interview at the John Fluevog Shoes boutique on Newbury Street in Boston. "For so long, people would hand me a drawing of their personal design for a shoe or ask if I had considered an idea they liked. This program is a natural outgrowth of that desire for connection."

To date, the company has chosen nearly 300 finalists from the flow of sketches into Vancouver — and introduced 10 shoes based on customer designs.

To Charge Up Customers, Put Customers in Charge [NY times]

Trendwatching: So let's start with a slew of what can now be considered ‘traditional’ pop-up BRAND SPACES, many of them of the fast-fashion type, eager to surprise either random passers-by or those select few who were in the know. Here’s a long list of spottings over the last 6 months or so (ammunition!), just copy and paste into your brand presentation you'll give to your boss or, if you yourself are the boss, to your team:

Sapphire Inspired | Last November, Surface Magazine and Bombay Sapphire launched the week long “Sapphire Inspired” pop-up store at the Bathhouse Studios in New York. On sale were limited edition items like a Sapphire inspired martini glass entitled "Broken Martini" by emerging designer Dror Benshetrit, an Ice Chandelier by designer Eva Menz, stunning wallpaper from fashion designer Jonathan Saunders and lounge furniture created by Luisa Ruge. More than 1,000 people visited the store.

Brand Spaces [Trendwatching]

PSFK: You see some pretty girls pulling their designer-label bags down the plane's aisle these days and you just assume that they must be a fake. The bags, not the girls. Probably.

The world is flooded with fakes and we know that it's all but impossible to tell a real item from the fake. But now, Dutch design boutique Mind What You Wear is calling a fake a fake with this new series of Fake bags.

Founder Bea Correa's perspective extends beyond the simple hand bag:

Despite all efforts to eradicate counterfeits goods, we receive thousands of e-mails every day advertising anything from luxury labelreplicas to phony life-saving medicines. Every city has a crowded black market. And ‘Fake’ is not merely limited to b-grade products: how many times have you seen a beautiful woman and wondered which parts were authentic? 'Fake’ has become one of the defining keywords of the current age, and Mind What You Wear is embracing the trend.

Fake Designer Bags For Real [PSFK]

Brandchannel.com: We've heard of bible thumping, but brand thumping? That can't be kosher.

"There's not a church in the world that doesn't market itself," says Richard Reising. "Some do it well, some do it badly. But when you don't do it consistently and effectively, then you say clearly to the community that you don't know who you are; you're not professional, and you don't take time to think about what you are about."

Reising is president of Artistry Marketing Concepts, one of a growing number of consultancies that work with churches and Christian ministries to develop their marketing activities. Reising, however, likes to take things beyond logos, letterheads and leaflets: he helps churches to brand themselves too. "A branded church is a church that understands who they are and who they are trying to reach, and they communicate that effectively through integrated marketing communications," he says.

Churches Put Their Faith in Branding [BrandChannel.com]

BusinessWeek: From the recent Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards to the upcoming Grammys and Oscars, award-show season is upon us. And for a handful of specialty companies, it's time to take their own stroll down the red carpet. Over the past several years, a cottage industry of professional gifters has capitalized on the union between award shows, product placement, and celebrities, giving birth to an enormous and growing marketing opportunity for brands big and small.

These days, no affair is complete without a bag bulging with the latest beauty products, cell phones, resort vouchers, and fragrances. "It's an integral part of the event world right now," says Samantha Haft, co-founder of New York-based On 3 Productions, which has produced gift bags for the Tonys and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Shmoozing Celebs Is a Whole New Bag [BusinessWeek]

PSFK: Call it lifestyle marketing. It's not enough for a company to just sell you a product any more. The goal, today, is for you to live the lifestyle any given product is supposed to represent - and for that company to create and cater to that lifestyle. The Toronto Star says,

"It's a major shift from designing advertising campaigns and expecting consumers to adapt their own interests and lifestyles to fit a product or brand. That condescending approach is no longer how marketing is done."

Social Life Of Brands [PSFK]

BusinessWeek: How do you convince teens to buy your highly caffeinated, $2-a-can soft drink, when hundreds of other brands are jockeying for shelf space? Skip normal TV ads, for starters. In a field continually littered with new entries, each trying to out-extreme the other, small energy-drink companies are pursuing increasingly audacious marketing tactics.

Bridge jumping, a rocket launch, and even skydiving without parachutes have become the norm in this guerrilla-marketing street fight -- all in the attempt to garner attention and enough of a following to dominate a niche within a niche. A game of one-upmanship has broken out, which extends even to the brand names (Go Fast! recently lost its exclamatory supremacy to newcomer Crunk!!!).

Energy Drinks Build Their Buzz [BusinessWeek]

Via Trylon Communications, Inc.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Soon, that Starbucks latte in your hand won't just be a cup of coffee. It will be a talking point, the latest Starbucks idea coming to a corner near you.

Starbucks will begin printing quotes from various contributors -- be they actors, economists, philosophers or kings -- on all of its coffee cups in North America, beginning early next year.

The company said it hopes to generate discussions among its customers and baristas with the comment-bearing coffee cups.

The mega-coffee retailer declined to specify the kinds of statements it will run, or give examples, except to say that they will be on "life topics" that are "non-controversial" and will "delight and inspire" its customers.

It's hard to be relevant without being controversial these days, but Starbucks thinks it has the right formula to strike a balance.

Starbucks hopes to generate conversation with quote-spewing cups [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

According to the Adverblog, interactive agency Zugara has created a new site for Reebok. RBK Streets is a cool site where users can hang around, interact with the environment to discover Reebok's shoes and an impressive range of goodies. Adverblog thinks that this branding initiative is positive:

The site works for branding, since it ties in sport, lifestyle and music under the RBK banner. It also presents a promotion featuring 50 Cent and a contest where you can create your own mix, upload it, and 50 Cent will judge it. Furthermore, there is a loyalty-type program for RBK. As the user plays the games and interacts with the site, he/she earns 'street cred'. There is a contest each month where the person with the highest street cred amount wins. Additional cred is earned the more a person plays either the DJ game in the 40/40 Club (S. Carter area) or in the Alley-Opp game at the Above the Rim Court.

Read: Discover the RBK Streets [Adverblog]