Isolation and loneliness may seem like an odd foundation for a Coca-Cola campaign, but in China, the brand is aiming to bring the smile associated with Coke to a generation afflicted with such attributes as they try to find their way in suddenly booming metropolises.

Coca-Cola's "Friendship Experiment" aims to capture moments of "happiness creation" by inviting "complete strangers to come together and share a moment of connection." It's an effort by Chinese photographer Kurt Tang to combat what he saw as the "dispiriting sense of isolation and loneliness" found today in China's cities.

"We even date through virtual social networks instead of more intimate, human close-in-person communications," Kurt Tang, the photographer and 'Happiness Creator' of the Friendship Experiment, told brandchannel. Tang's photo and video collection, a project that used Coke to bring urbanites together, recently showed at the Fei Gallery in that same city. Notably, the photo exhibition does not contain Coke bottles or products, although some of the videos do.Continue reading...

Socialbakers claims it's #1 source for global Facebook data (other than Facebook, of course) with more than 10 million Facebook pages and places indexed.

The social media analytics company just launched its AnalyticsPRO product designed to enhance social media performance through competitive insights, engagement and influencer identification.

The proprietary technology tracks Facebook and Twitter campaigns for any company, enterprise to small business, while monitoring industry competitors. It’s currently the most utilized social media analytics platform in Europe, with 250,000 users across 75 countries.Continue reading...

Augmented Reality is hot among brand marketers, and American Express was inspired to test a seasonal spin on AR.

AmEx card holders in Australia were sent a Talking Tag to include with gifts for prank-playing partners, naughty friends, nice siblings, and wolf-crying colleagues. The tags direct recipients to an augmented reality experience customized just for them.Continue reading...

When it comes to China, they all look the same. Celebrity endorsements, that is.

That's the findings of a new report from Millward Brown with Ogilvy China, titled "Middle Kingdom’s Celebrities-to-be: Faceless People and Unsung Heroes – Imperatives for Celebrity Advertising in China."

It seems that the celebrity endorsement has become so popular in China that overlapping shilling is causing mass confusion.Continue reading...

Brand marketers, take note: There's a new family segment called "Tech Fast Forward" (TFF) that represents new opportunities for the future.

According to a just-released study by Ogilvy & Mather in partnership with Communispace, this emerging demographic is a household that uses more sophisticated technology than the average person and includes children ages 3 to 12.Continue reading...

Two events have turned the US auto industry on its head, or at least quite a bit cockeyed: the rise of $4-a-gallon gasoline, and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Small cars are enjoying a combination of rising demand and tight supply because of those two still-unfolding developments.

And they are two big reasons why Ford was able to post a robust, $2.6-billion first-quarter profit on Tuesday, even though the US auto market is still operating at volumes several million units below annual sales of just a few years ago.

There were two other contributors as well to quarterly results that had Ford CFO Lewis W.K. Booth “feeling pretty good” on Tuesday.Continue reading...

Allstate sues Citi, Deutsche Bank over mortgages.

BP execs feel oil spill victims are receiving too much.

BSkyB and MTV protest British House of Lords move to limit commercial time.

Facebook's new status options applauded by gay community.

IBM claims in suit it was overbilled by Ogilvy. 

US military sponsorship of NASCAR challenged.

Toyota's new campaign introduces "#1 for a Reason" tagline.

In the most populous country in the world, Johnnie Walker is launching a massive digital and social media campaign focusing on individuality and celebrating modern-day pioneers in China.

The campaign, which ties into the whisky’s “Keep Walking” theme, is called “Yulu” (“Words of a Journey”) and features mini documentaries on leaders in business and the arts, from Zhou YunPeng, a blind folk singer and poet, to Xiao Peng, entrepreneur and founder of 1rest.com.

The subjects of these high-quality documentaries are certainly not shilling Johnnie Walker – the whisky isn’t mentioned at all by them – but rather, they are part of building a brand associated with following one’s dreams.Continue reading...