Take a look at the number of new products launched at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show — more than 20,000 — and you can see the magnitude of the effort required by marketers to break through to consumers in the world of technology brands.

While most of the manufacturers of those products touted technological bells and whistles in promoting their wares, it seems what consumers REALLY want to know is how technology will simplify their life, according to a new global study of 6,000 consumers, the "Ketchum Digital Living Index," conducted by global communications firm Ketchum.Continue reading...

The new CMO of New York-based fashion label Rebecca Minkoff? Daniel Saynt, the blogger who founded Fashion Indie. The move follows H&M's just announced collaboration with the doyenne of Swedish fashion bloggers, Elin Kling.

Minkoff comments to New York magazine's The Cut blog: "We feel bloggers and social media are playing a key role in the quickly changing industry, and we are shaping future marketing initiatives around these channels. Daniel's experience will be an invaluable asset to Rebecca Minkoff moving forward. We plan to be a leader in the democratization of fashion, and Daniel will help guide us in that path." 

Some might think that social media marketers are cheerleaders of sorts, so maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that a cheerleading brand is rah-rah about social media — and wants to understand teen girls better.

For a start, they're not all as digitally savvy (and brand/fashion savvy) as 14 year-old fashion blogging phenom Tavi Gevinson (above). But they do love fashion, they love to shop, and they love to chat online and on mobile.Continue reading...

Struggling to juggle what feels like hundreds of messages you receive daily?

Facebook's new user messaging system combines SMS, IM, messaging from different channels, a history and a smart inbox that prioritizes and archives messages from Facebook friends. Messages is not e-mail – there’s no subject lines, no cc, no bcc. To send a message – just hit Enter.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola has been reaching out to soccer fans living in former FIFA's former World Cup Korea, as you can see above. It's also setting its sights on “mommy bloggers” and other netizens in Seoul. They are looking for local “digital influencers” to evangelize about Coke in South Korea by appealing to bloggers who seem sympatico with the brand's marketing message.

To that end, Coke has been hosting parties in hip Seoul restaurants for bloggers who have "clout with youngsters and cover the topics that interest them the most. The party was to build a new partnership with the young bloggers," as Kenth Kaerhoeg, group communications director for Coca-Cola's Pacific Group, tells Ad Age.Continue reading...

Turns out Dave on Demand isn't the only marketing stunt involving a virtual existence kicking off this week.

Brian Chesky, above, is the founder of AirBed and Breakfast. The 28-year-old is leaving his San Francisco home for six months to live locally via short-term stays booked via his his fledgling website. As Chesky, whose accommodation service was dubbed "Ebay for space" by Time, quipped to TechCrunch, "I am either a homeless entrepreneur, or a guy with 650 homes in San Francisco. Depends on your perspective."

Naturally, Chesky is blogging and tweeting his six-month test of his company's value proposition to consumers, which caters to the young, frugal, and adventurous.Continue reading...

Do we need another social network, let alone one just for U.S. politics?

Enter Vote iQ, which bills itself as the first social networking site that enables interaction between the electorate and the elected.

With bipartisan backing from charter advisory board members—Democrat fundraiser James Carville and Republican pollster Frank Luntz—it’s being touted as one-stop shopping for discovery of any candidate’s stand on any issue.

The aim – to reverse the entrenched political system where politicians control the dialogue – and place it firmly in the hands of the voting public.Continue reading...

Remember the Atlantic article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” If not, you may have read it online but forgotten it — thereby proving author Nicholas Carr's point.

Carr has expanded his thesis to a new book: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. His argument: “Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle, and that is what you're doing every time you use the Internet.”

"Chronic distraction" is Carr’s terminology for the nature of the Internet as a disruptive medium. Perma-distraction is how we keep up with and process the Web's tsunami of information, whether that flow of facts and data is coming to us via laptop, cellphones or other digital touchpoints.

Much like this website's tagline, the Web is always on, and so are we. (Still with us?)Continue reading...