For a 93-year-old airline, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is pretty savvy when it comes to social marketing. In its latest social tie-in with its travel services, Dutch airline KLM is giving consumers a chance to experience the rush of running an international airline.

As announced at the Corporate Social Media Summit today in New York, on June 27th KLM will launch Aviation Empire, a Sims-like simulation game for mobile devices.Continue reading...

Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC, began as expected with a keynote from CEO Tim Cook that reflected upon the brand's hometown inspiration, as well as a thorough run-down of Apple's latest user statistics.

Notably, the afternoon event introduced a new operating system—Mavericks— for Mac, ending the company's cat-themed era. Brand executives also unveiled a new, cylindrical MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air with an 11-hour battery, and a near-complete overhaul of its iOS interface, introducing iOS 7. 

Top of mind, though, were the swirling rumors about a supposed music streaming service. Not long into the presentation, execs confirmed the new iTunes Radio service, which will be built into the music app.Continue reading...

In its latest collaboration with BuzzFeed, GE’s Wonderground allows users to explore five US cities via virtual tours, offering up bites of interesting trivia along the way. The multi-platform game avaialble via iOS or online makes use of the media site's photo content pages in order to immerse users in an eye-opening look through science, design and industrial technology. 

The game lets users explore New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in which fun facts like "LAX is the 3rd busiest airport in the United States,” and “the Getty Museum hires goats each spring to eat away at brush around the hills of the building,” which are featured in the L.A. video, voiced by BuzzFeed’s EVP Video, Ze Frank, with the headline, "See what others miss."Continue reading...

Domino's Pizza is thanking its U.S. digital customers for passing the $1 billion mark in digital sales between April 2011 to April 2012 — that's one billion dollars in digital sales in one year, folks — with 50% off all pizzas ordered online at menu price. The deal is available through Dominos.com and mobile.dominos.com, and iPhone and Android apps through Sunday, June 17 (conveniently, also Father's Day).

"We love our online customers, and have learned so much from them during the past five years about how we can continue to deliver the best online ordering experience in the industry," said Russell Weiner, Domino's CMO, in a press release. "Reaching $1 billion in online sales during a one year time period is a major milestone, and we hope offering this amazing deal for an entire week lets our fans and customers know how much we appreciate them."Continue reading...

Google is continuing its campaign to increase transparency around its targeted advertising and privacy practices.

The latest volley: "How we make ads better," a video that highlights its staffers policing scam advertisers (which didn't help avert the recent Valentine's Day florist AdWords fiasco). The pitch: "Did you know that hundreds of Googlers work around the clock to make sure the ads you see on Google are safe? David Baker, Engineering Director at Google, explains more about our fight against scam ads and our process for keeping you safe."

Google's past around display ad scammers and consumer privacy is a thorny one, to be sure.Continue reading...