MasterCard is transforming its corporate culture from B2B to a technology firm as it puts its finger on the pulse of social interactions to better understand consumers and clients.

A year ago, Master Card contracted NY media agency Prime Research to develop the Conversation Suite, a real-time, global insight, web analytics tool and engagement engine that shifted the company from merely monitoring media to purposeful listening. "Over the past six months, 125,000 people created unique content or commentary about MasterCard, stimulating 520,000 social media conversations, with a potential reach of 1.3 billion people. We're doing this everyday across 43 markets and 26 languages in real time,” said Marcy Cohen, VP and Senior Business Leader at MasterCard.

brandchannel spoke with Cohen, who played a large role in the implementation of the conversation suite. “In the early days of social media, listening was the practice but now, there are so many opportunities to engage, to track trends and offer insights and deliver them back with analytics to customers," she said. “It’s a real-time focus group. We track all mentions of MasterCard and any of our products, plus the competition, which really means the entire payments industry. The Suites have a dedicated worldwide communications staff of 60 people, all with password protected access, in a comfortable setting with a giant 40 ft. LED screen that updates every four minutes.”Continue reading...

As part of its "Better World" corporate citizenship commitment, Nike is working with some of America's brightest governmental minds on an initiative to create more sustainable materials. 

Founded in 2010, LAUNCH is a strategic collaboration between NASA, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US State Department and Nike to seek out visionaries whose ideas and technologies can create a more sustainable world. 

This week, Nike convened 150 materials specialists, designers, academics, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and NGOs in green manufacturing at the two-day LAUNCH 2020 Summit, part of a multi-year incubation process. 

“Innovation is most powerful when it’s activated by collaboration between unlikely partners, coupled with investment dollars, marketing know-how and determination.” said Nike President and CEO Mark Parker. “Now is the time for big, bold solutions. Incremental change won’t get us where we need to go fast enough or at a scale that makes a difference.”

To propel the innovation, Nike is sponsoring the LAUNCH Systems Innovation Challenge, which is an open call competition for innovative ideas and processes to transform the way fabrics are made. The challenge will result in 10 product innovations which will be matched up with a team of investors and marketers to aid in the manufacturing process.Continue reading...

Tide Pods seem to be very good for Procter & Gamble, but some observers believe they're killing the rest of the detergent industry.

Naturally, P&G seems quite happy with how the pre-measured Pods are gobbling up market share in the U.S. detergent business, with expected fiscal-year sales of $500 million this year meaning that Tide Pods are well on their way to becoming yet another of the dozens of $1-billion-plus brands in the CPG giant's portfolio.

Moreover, this is a segment that P&G invented, as AP has noted, taking "eight years, 450 product sketches, 6,000 consumer tests and hundreds of millions of dollars." Despite imitators, Tide essentially has the category all to itself so far, with a market share of about 75 percent of unit doses, drawing customers from rivals without the technology. No wonder P&G plans to take Pods to Europe in the coming months.Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble is redoubling efforts to tap into the emotions of consumers and the inventiveness of entrepreneurs as CEO Bob McDonald declares that he has brought the company through a rough patch and sees a brighter future.

The company has just launched a new front door for its vaunted open-innovation program, Connect + Develop. The new website aims to speed up and simplify external connections by linking would be innovators directly to top company needs, and P&G business leaders directly to external innovation submissions.

Connect + Develop, which the company describes as, "at the heart of how P&G innovates," has been responsible for a wide variety of game-changing innovations introduced by P&G over the last decade, ranging from Swiffer Dusters to Crest Whitestrips. The aim of the new site is to make the sorts of connections that lead to such innovations "easier and more effective," Laura Becker, general manager of Connect + Develop and of global business development for P&G, said in a press release. Continue reading...

Most start-ups would leap at the chance for investment and the opportunity to work with a global branding powerhouse to jumpstart their dreams. Now entrepreneurs in Brazil will have that very chance.

PepsiCo on Monday announced the next phase of its digital incubator program, which is setting up shop in Brazil with an open call for entrepreneurs and university students in the country to submit ideas for its PepsiCo10 program.

For the first time in the initiative's three-year history, it's looking to emerging markets for innovation and the big ideas in technology across four categories: business sustainability, entertainment, mobile and retail.Continue reading...

No matter how plain a brand is, if it does a job well and does it long enough, it will get its due.

That seems to be happening now with Solo, the brand name of the plastic red cups that have become stapes of any picnic, barbecue and party. Toby Keith, one of the most popular country music artists in America, just released a Solo red cup anthem. But Keith is late to a party that's been raging for years. Continue reading...

IBM's THINK Exhibit opened this weekend in New York at Lincoln Center. Featuring live data visualization, a first-of-a-kind immersive film across 40 screens and giant interactive stations, the exhibit explores how we can make the world work better. But what is it, exactly? The New York Times writes:

Partly, it is corporate public relations. We learn about IBM’s astonishing accomplishments over a century, its researchers creating what is now commonplace: UPC bar codes, magnetic strips holding data on cards, computer hard drives. IBM scientists have received Nobel Prizes, performed molecular prestidigitation and won chess and “Jeopardy!” games with pioneering examples of artificial intelligence.

The exhibition is also meant to demonstrate IBM’s vision of the world while defining its mission to the public, for it is no longer an office machine company or the maker of the world’s best electric typewriter (the Selectric), or the designer of mainframe computers, or even the manufacturer of the once-ubiquitous IBM PC.Continue reading...

PepsiCo's new vending machines dispense more than beverages.

As unveiled at the National Automatic Merchandising Association's One Show in Chicago this week, the state-of-the-art networked unit features touch screen interactive vending technology, enabling consumers to "better connect with PepsiCo brands right at the point of purchase."

Users choose a beverage, then enter a recipient’s name and mobile number, and add a personalized text message with a code redeemable at another vending machine for the drink.Continue reading...