Innovation is the lifeblood of any company, of course. And it has been even more important to Procter & Gamble over the last decade than to other companies. Former CEO A.G. Lafley recharged the company by emphasizing innovation during his tenure, and current CEO Bob McDonald has been struggling in part because the Cincinnati-based CPG giant has lost a bit of ground to rivals on the innovation front.

As P&G tries to regain its innovation mojo, the company is highlighting the benefits of what it's already created, in the third year of an online marketing campaign aimed at increasing appreciation of "the everyday innovation" behind brands including Bounty, Always/Tampax and Febreze.Continue reading...

It's been a month (since July 10th, to be exact) when a social youthquake tremor rumbled under the tweets and Facebook posts of the olds when Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters social network opened its doors to the public.

A raucous riot of visual updates from Gaga's legions of fans — with shades of Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr and Facebook thrown in for good measure — the highly anticipated site defines the next iteration of fan-based social networking. Two weeks after launch, on July 25th, the site passed a quarter of a million users.

Powered by the Backplane, it was engineered by Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, who's also a cofounder of Backplane. “The goal of Little Monsters and Backplane is to unite people around affinities, interests and movements,” said Matt Michelsen, co-founder and CEO. And to keep out all those aforementioned old-timers cluttering up Facebook and Twitter and ruining the party for fishnetizens who worship at the altar of Gaga and nonconformity.Continue reading...

The Australian Advertising Standards Board (an arm of the country's Advertising Standards Bureau) has ruled that Facebook is an advertising medium, and as such, company pages must comply with pertinent codes and laws, vetting all public posts to ensure they are not sexist, racist or factually inaccurate.

“In a move that could change the nature of the social networking site forever, companies could be fined or publicly shamed for the comments that appear on their Facebook ''brand'' pages,” writes the Sydney Morning Herald.

The case involved a complaint to the ASB about Smirnoff vodka's Australian Facebook page, “accused of violating standards with sexist, obscene Facebook content that also promoted underage drinking." The ruling is tantamount to, in the words of Web Pro News, “If you can’t say it on TV or the radio, Facebook users can’t say it on your brand page.”  

The ruling "rocked" Foster's and Smirnoff's parent company Diageo, according to Beverage Daily. Diageo reportedly “argued that Smirnoff's Facebook page is a networking tool for communication between company and customer rather than a medium for advertising.”Continue reading...

Many small businesses steer clear of anything controversial or political so as not to offend any potential customers. After all, the customer is always right, even if they are saying exactly the opposite thing from what the last customer said.

Brooklyn Industries, a 14-store outfit that's based in (where else?) Brooklyn, NY, and sells hipster-licious clothing, bags, and small household goods, is not afraid. Its store windows are provoking conversations about subjects that not everybody wants to talk about, necessarily, when all they want is to grab a t-shirt.

The retailer explained the thinking behind its thought-provoking window displays: "Inspired by Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever, we wanted to take a closer look at race in Brooklyn. We asked local residents about their lives and experiences growing up here."Continue reading...

Lady Gaga is now officially the mother of all Little Monsters, launching her social network, LittleMonsters.com this summer, as her fame catapults to 25 million followers on Twitter — the first user to hit that milestone.

"#25milliontweetymonsters wow! I'm officially feeling like the luckiest girl in the world today. Last sold out show in Singapore in 2 hrs!" she tweeted right before the show was cancelled and she delivered a "Special Message for Indonesian Little Monsters" on YouTube.

The special greeting that all Little Monsters, as Gaga calls her fans, are waiting for is coming soon, when her social network swings open its doors and gets out of private beta.Continue reading...

Giving back is proving is good business and good for morale at Starbucks. The brand just named a new corporate community officer, and reported the results of its second annual Global Month of Service, in April. The global commitment to "30 days of inspiring service" yielded 700,000 individual acts of service in 34 countries, covering cities from Beijing to Berlin to Nashville, with local volunteer efforts including:

• 400 Starbucks partners and families across China gathered in Beijing to restore local community parks and teach residents of the Hujialou North community how to be more environmentally aware and incorporate “green living” tips in their every day lives.Continue reading...

As part of McDonald's cross-USA "listening tour" to discuss nutrition, health, sustainability and its menu and marketing (especially to kids), the fast-food brand recently sent Julia Braun, Director of Nutrition, and Jessica Droste-Yagan, Director of Sustainable Supply, to meet with Duke University students and professors to discuss nutrition and sustainable food practices. Listen in above, and check out earlier discussions on the tour that were held in March and August.

Klout is wooing marketers and brand fans with the launch of Brand Squads, the social media site's equivalent of brand topic pages. The concept, a bid to engage fans around branded hubs, is now in beta with Red Bull as the launch partner.Continue reading...