Social Shopper pioneer Collective Bias has iterated marketing messaging to new heights with a community of 1,400 influencers doing the heavy-lifting for brands.

“We believe that social shopper marketing is the evolution of shopper media, and supplants tired traditional media like FSI’s, retail circulars and digital display advertising,” said John Andrews, co-founder and CEO of Collective Bias. The company, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Arkansas, just received $10.5 million in funding led by Updata Partners to grow its platform where brands such as Tyson, Nestle and Smart & Final pay for their products to be covered by relevant bloggers who push that content across social media. 

Named one of America's Most Promising Companies in 2013 by Forbes, their proprietary Social Fabric community of shopping-centric influencers has an aggregate reach of over 50 million, as the company claims its bloggers have an average reach of 40,000.Continue reading...

It seems we just can’t enough of Facebook, either reviling the world’s largest social network or checking in on it—14 times a day—according to research by IDC, which was sponsored by Facebook. 

It’s a perfect social media storm for the latest FB feature that lets brands target users for status updates that don't appear on their brand pages. The units, called "posts," are actually links to a brand's homepage or Facebook Page that run in the News Feed. Testing is underway for behavioral-targeting-based Facebook Exchange ads to run there as well—center-page real estate previously off limits.

“For example, a sporting goods brand could run a post appealing to basketball fans. While the post wouldn't appear on the brand's Page, it would run in the News Feed of fans who have an affinity for the sport,” explains Mashable. “The unit can be used for A/B testing of ads. In other words, a marketer can run two or more different messages and then see which ones do the best.”Continue reading...

China is the second largest economy in the world, and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse!); but who's got the time?! A weekly potpourri of quick reads that will make you look like a keen China observer during any conversation about China.

This week: Elmo speaks Chinese. Apple's iPhone vs China's Millet phone. Team China hits London, and more... Continue reading...

China is the second latest economy in the world, every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse!); but who's got the time?! Check out our weekly hotpot of reads that will make you look like a keen China observer during any conversation about China. Above, a 2012 Comic-Con promo for DC Comics' three-part series, Batman in Shanghai, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises Aug. 30 opening in China. And below: the iPad makes a quiet arrival, Adidas no longer "Made in China," the NBA, "House Slaves," robots (ROBOTS!) and more.Continue reading...

In a clear signal that strong global brands can grab the hearts and minds of consumers anywhere, brands that are not homegrown are doing very well in the latest iteration of "Asia's Top 1000 Brands," published by Campaign Asia-Pacific with data from Nielsen. Two of the top five brands in the ranking  — Apple and Nestle — are not of Asian origin, although the Korean brand Samsung placed first among all brands in the ninth year of the study.

Asia's Top 1000 Brands is based on Nielsen's analysis of consumer brand preference in 12 key regional markets across Asia-Pacific: Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Interestingly, the study revealed that even Chinese and Indian brands seem to be facing challenges in gaining consumer recognition within their home markets. While last year's survey results placed eight Chinese brands within the top 20 brands ranked within China, this year's results had only three local brands. Only three local brands made it into the top 20 in India as well.

Homegrown brands continue to do well in certain markets. In South Korea and Japan, for example, Samsung, LG, Sony, and Panasonic have retained their dominance. But in such areas as luxury goods, global brands are winning the brand war.Continue reading...

For the past eight years, fifteen brands have ranked at the top of their category in the Harris Poll EquiTrend Study, a survey of over 1,500 brands across more than 127 product categories.

"These 15 top brands have consistently found a way to remain relevant and valuable to the consumer," said Aron Galonsky, SVP for Harris Interactive's Brand and Communication Consulting group. "It's not surprising why these perennial leaders continue to stay on top. They continually deliver a consistent and balanced brand experience, year after year, that really resonates with the consumer."

Check them out below, along with more from Harris about why they made the 2012 list.Continue reading...

In America, everything remains political, and that includes brand preference. According to YouGov BrandIndex, Republicans and Democrats (surprise!) do not completely see eye to eye on brand trustworthiness.

But there is hope that our nation's partisan divide will be healed… with Cheerios.Continue reading...

Missouri television station KOMU was the first dog to the bowl when it became the first television station to start up a Google+ account. Of course, that was because the social-networking site isn’t allowing businesses to start accounts just yet.

Lost Remote reports that KOMU’s site on Google+ has been shut down. “In lieu of flowers, please send your topic ideas for my next recorded Hangout,” KOMU anchor Sarah Hill wrote in an obituary of the page on Google+.

KOMU New Media Director Jen Reeves “points out that Google’s enforcement of the ‘no brand’ policy is random and perhaps even unfair,” the site notes. After all, a KOMU competitor, KRCG, also has a page that hasn’t been shut down.

Meanwhile, Google+ is still working with Ford and other major companies to ready itself for the launch of branded pages of Google+. Ford, like KOMU, was an early adopter and went right ahead and hacked a branded page into the site, Ad Age reports.

The upshot: just as Google is trying to establish a new brand with Google+, one that could take on (or enhance) Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and other social platforms, the delay in branded Google+ accounts has become a branding challenge for Google itself.Continue reading...