Virtual currency company gWallet is launching an extension of its service called the Brand Bar, a new way for brands and developers to monetize social games. The bar will appear at the top of the screen on all games it’s installed on, allowing players an opportunity to earn virtual currency which can be used in-game.

To access similar offers in the past, users would have to pause and exit the game, or go through a series of steps that significantly detracted from game play (only two to four percent were willing to do this, according to company estimates). Another difference is that gWallet works directly with brands – as opposed to adopting an affiliate leads model – to create branded video campaigns.Continue reading...

In an effort to modernize their brands and attract tourism dollars, many cities are adopting "green" campaigns aimed at reducing pollution, promoting health, and demonstrating concern for the environment.

Mexico City recently launched an official public bike-sharing program, which will initially include 85 stations and over 1,000 bikes. Participation costs 300 pesos ($23) a year, and bikes can be taken for 30 minutes a ride. After only a few days, over 1,000 people have already signed up.

The program is similar to those that have successfully launched in Washington D.C. and Barcelona. The first city to try anything of the sort was Portland, Oregon, which provided hundreds of used bikes to its inhabitants, which were scattered all over the downtown area. Riders could simply use the bikes when they wanted, then leave them for others to use. A similar attempt was made in New York City, but within a few days all the bikes were stolen.Continue reading...

Similar to how dollar and discount stores are thriving in the ongoing recessionary climate, people are drinking just as much as ever – if not more – only, they’re selecting cheaper varieties.

And these varieties are not limited to domestic sources. Foreigners are actually drinking more Chilean wine than ever, with shipments up nearly 18 percent in 2009, as opposed to California wineries, whose 2009 shipments dropped by 4 million cases, according to consulting firm Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates.

The problem is that people are choosing cheaper vintages, preventing Chile's wine brands from being able to "break out of the $10- to $20-per-bottle price point," said Bill Crowley, professor emeritus at Sonoma State University.Continue reading...

If you can’t make it to the 2010 Winter Olympics, which start this Friday in Vancouver, Google has given you the next best thing.

Following in the vein of their Street View Car (which was essentially a 360 degree camera mounted on top of a car), and their Trike (the same thing but on a tricycle), the brand has now launched the Google Street View Snowmobile.

Created by Daniel Ratner, who also engineered the Trike, the snowmobile will be driven all around the Games, so anyone at home can experience high-quality images from several event locations. So far it has captured the peaks where the alpine skiing events begin, the top of the “7th Heaven” chairlift, and runs on the Whistler Blackcomb Mountains.

With the company’s road/off-road/snow trifecta, Google has proven that it can take a camera anywhere.

What’s next, a sand buggy through the Sahara? A Zamboni across Antarctica?

With this brand, nothing is out of the question.

Before the big game on Sunday, most people associated the Dove brand with the words “soap,” “beauty” and “deodorant.” However, a day after the Saints win, these associations changed to “Super Bowl,” “ad” and “men," at least according to Zeta Interactive, who studied consumer response to Sunday’s ads.

According to Unilever research, Dove’s parent company, three quarters of men over 30 believe that advertising does not reflect their real lives. The Dove ad is a conscious effort to address these concerns, the goal being to celebrate “real men, their lives and their journey to become comfortable in their own skin.”Continue reading...

The year 2009 was a bad year for the international art market, with sales at Christie’s down a whopping 29 percent. Hardest hit were contemporary artists, with sales down 59 percent, as collectors instead flocked to “old masters” and 20th-century classics.

However, the demand for such works has never been greater, and while newer and less established artists are continuing to show declines, classic pieces are garnering record sums, instilling much needed funds – not to mention lifeblood - into an industry that just a year ago was seen as dead in the water.

This past week, Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man I" sold at Sotheby's for $104.3 million, the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction (it had been predicted to fetch $20 million).Continue reading...

If you’re Virgin, you build an airplane that flies underwater just because you can.

To augment their already voluminous list of products and services – Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Megastores, Virgin Cola, Virgin Galactic – Sir Richard Branson has added the strangely named “Necker Nymph,” a three-person “aero-submarine,” designed to mimic the flight patterns of an airplane below the water’s surface. Yet another feather in Virgin's eclectic, cutting-edge, and adventurous branding cap.

How, you ask, is Virgin's submarine different than a traditional submarine? Instead of using ballasts to sink into the water, it utilizes downward “lift” on the wings, enabling it to “fly” down to depths of up to 36,000 feet. How deep is that you ask? Deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. Dives can last up to two hours, and the open cockpit affords 360-degree views.Continue reading...

Have you seen those Philip Morris ads that try and get you to quit smoking? What about the Shell gasoline ads that show flowers coming out of smokestacks, or the human brain filled with pictures of renewable and alternative energy sources? Both companies have gotten flack for their mixed-messages, and Shell has even had to pull some of their adverts, most notably one that described a Canadian oil project as both “environmentally friendly” and “sustainable."

However, the company looks like it’s finally putting its money where its mouth is.Continue reading...