At the top of the new year, Unilever’s Axe body spray and grooming product line (known as Lynx beyond the U.S.) announced a plan to create an interactive graphic novel (the grown up version of a comic book), crowdsourced via its social marketing channels. That project is now live on its YouTube channel, where you can see the storyline evolve, and on Facebook, where fans can participate in shaping the storyline.

The objective is to expand its target audience beyond just men because the brand is introducing Anarchy, a new fragrance that has a version for men and another for women. Axe already dominates the men’s body spray market with a 74 percent share in the U.S., according to market-search firm SymphonyIRI Group, the New York Times reports.

Axe has 2.3 million “likes” on Facebook and the company’s senior brand manager, says that about a quarter of them are from women, the Times notes.  “We’ve been hearing for some time that females have been asking for and looking for their very own scent of Axe,” said Roberts. That kind of double targeting can cause, yes, anarchy for a marketer.Continue reading...

Wrigley’s Orbit gum has jumped on the crowdsourcing bandwagon, inviting the public to engage with the brand from a design and customization perspective, via packpage designs on a Facebook app. Live through February, the app pulls data from a user’s profile and generates a custom gum pack design for every participant, “essentially making each person’s Facebook life a work of art.”

The contest leverages infographics technology and the design skillz of EVB (Evolution Bureau) digital artist Joshua Davis, known for building algorithmic systems, although anyone can now audition to be a digitally crowdsourced artist. Facebookers can solicit votes for their package designs and the winner could even hit store shelves in 2012.Continue reading...

The NFL is the most sizzling property in TV advertising these days, and at the moment there seems to be no ceiling on fan and brand interest in riding the momentum. It's already clear that Super Bowl XLVI on February 5 in Indianapolis, to be broadcast by NBC, will go down as the single most lucrative advertising event in television history.

The Comcast-owned broadcast network has sold out of its commercial spot inventory for the Big Game, reportedly at a cost of up to $4 million for each precious 30 second unit of screen time, which is up from about $3 million a year on Fox last year — and about 60 percent since 2001. 

But a month before the Super Bowl, there's still speculation about other aspects of marketing in and around the extravaganza.Continue reading...

Veuve Clicquot’s new community platform, called (wistfully, enticingly) Wish You Were Here, is an invitation to share inspiring moments that celebrate the spirit and lifestyle of the brand through photos and videos — and virtually hobnob with the beautiful people and party-hopping jetsetters who embody the brand.

The Instagram-like social initiative is the latest in luxury house’s expanded effort to centralize and showcase its 100+ global programs, events and initiatives. And in further proof of its efficacy as a brand engagement tool, VC's Wish You Were Here video of a sponsored boat race last summer (below) has been recognized by the iPhone Film Festival in the best branded content category.Continue reading...

Unilever's Axe brand is starting the new year with a digital marketing first — a crowdsourced graphic novel, to be called Anarchy, developed using fan feedback via its YouTube channel. The crowd-shaped comic book (watch the teaser below) kicks off online on January 10th.Continue reading...

Pepsi's new year's resolutions include bringing the Pepsi Refresh Project to Canada with a commitment to supporting social innovation and community projects with "over $1 million" in grants to non-profits, businesses and individuals seeking funding for positive ideas that will have an impact on their communities.

The latest expansion of PepsiCo's crowdsourced social good platform, which launched in 2010 by redirecting its $20 million annual Super Bowl budget and subsequently faced allegations of cheating before expanding in Europe, Asia and Latin America last year and becoming a marketing case study at Harvard, follows a company-backed survey that found "92 per cent of Canadians would like to do something to improve the world around them, but many lack the money and the know-how to put their ideas into action."Continue reading...

Imagine handing your Twitter account over to a stranger. Now imagine a country handing over its Twitter feed to a citizen. Crowdsourcing digital communications has reached a new level as @Sweden hands over the official Swedish Twitter account to one of its citizens for a week.

The social public engagement project, called Curators of Sweden, was devised by the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden, both part of NSU, the National Board for the promotion of Sweden.

“No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world,” says Thomas Brühl, CEO of the country’s tourism agency VisitSweden who has been updating the account since January 2009.

Hasan Ramic (at top) is the Twitter citizen (or as we're calling it, Twitizen) of the week, who has been given access to Sweden's national Twitter account to share his recommendations and opinions (in English) about his country and his nine million Swedish brethren.Continue reading...

The U.S. version of the The X Factor may not be delivering the 20 million fans that executive producer Simon Cowell anticipated, but that’s not stopping the show’s main sponsor, Pepsi, from doing everything it can to engage the viewers the show does have. 

The judges sip from prominently placed Pepsi cups. Host Steve Jones injects much excitement each week into the fact that the show’s winner will not only win $5 million but — much more excitingly! — also the chance to star in a Pepsi commercial. One contestant said it would be “a huge blessing” to have such an honor. Pepsi also placed the musical guest Outasight on the show and he sang – guess what? – Tonight’s the Night, which happens to be the background music for Pepsi ads. Pepsi has also created two digital platforms to engage viewers: Pepsi Pulse and Pepsi Sound Off, which combine gamification and social TV to help bring X Factor fans together and enhance the viewing experience. 

If that weren’t enough, the pair have hooked up to find another way to keep the Pepsi brand top of mind during the show. This week sees the on-air launch of the "Pepsi Choice Performance," a “new partnership element” that invited “fans to help select details of a special ensemble performance by the finalists on ‘The X Factor’ live results show on a special night, Wednesday, Nov. 23." Voting has ended, but you can watch the results in tonight's broadcast.Continue reading...