Brands Go Social

Five-time Grammy Award winner Wynonna Judd announced last Wednesday
the launch of her new online community via the Nashville-based social
commerce network, Moontoast.com. The innovative technology provided by
Moontoast adds an interactive element to her current website,
wynonna.com. Unlike other social networking sites, Moontoast is more
than just a channel for sending messages. Moontoast instead combines
the engagement of traditional social networking with easy-to-use
commerce tools, creating the first "Social Commerce Network." Fans of
the country music star are able to directly communicate with other
fans, receive Wynonna Judd's content from Facebook and Twitter, access
exclusive content from wynonna.com and enjoy broader access to her
merchandise and music.

The new community can be accessed by link from www.wynonna.com or
directly at http://wynonna.moontoast.com/. Fans that sign up for this
community before May 14th will be entered into the "Wynonna Calling
Sweepstakes" for a chance to win a live chat with Wynonna! Contest
details are at the following
http://wynonna.moontoast.com/blog_post/detail/id/187.>

To celebrate the brand placement of the R8 Spyder in Iron Man 2, Audi
is launching a social media competition called “The Tony Stark
Innovation Challenge.” Starting TODAY, consumers can submit two-minute
videos that showcase their ideas of better living through the use of
technology.

Check out http://www.tonystarkinnovationchallenge.com for more details.

More on the Contest:
Tony Stark is forgoing weapons manufacturing and adopting a new
business philosophy. As part of his latest venture, Tony has joined
forces with the Stark Expo and Audi to challenge you to submit ideas
for "Better Living through Technology."

You could win a $15,000 in funding to bring your concept to life and
an unforgettable Tony Stark lifestyle experience: driving an R8,
flying an amphibious ICON A5 aircraft and wining and dining at some of
the top establishments in Los Angeles.

View a special message from Tony Stark and download the assignment
brief for more details on the competition. Find out if you're Stark
worthy. Video entries accepted beginning April 28.

I was checking out one of the Facebook pages that I managed and
discovered a new button asking me to promote a post. Looks like
Facebook is trying to make it easier and quicker for page managers to
get fans.

Here is a promotion that every woman will love...but you have to be in
London to take advantage. Jimmy Choo is using Foursquare in a new way.
They are using it to power a real-time treasure hunt around London.
One pair of Jimmy Choo trainers will check in at various locations and
those who follow the campaign and are lucky enough to arrive at a
venue before the trainers leave will get to pick a pair in the style
and size of their choosing. I think this is a great usage of
FourSquare and could be very fun. I'm curious to see how Londeners
take to this promotion.

I also think FourSquare need to add object check-ins to their
platform. I'd love to check in to a location and include a check-in
with a brand that I might be enjoying. This could be another way for
FourSquare to add and extend their platform.

Reaching 1 million fans is a big deal for any brand using Facebook.
Now the popular tape that can do just about anything has reached 1
million fans and they are celebrating with a contest.

More about the contest:
We're giving away one million inches of Duck® brand duct tape in the
Duck Tape® One Million Sweepstakes. Fans of Duck Tape® can win one of
100 Duck® brand duct tape prize packs, featuring a selection of
colored duct tape from the Duck® brand palette of more than 20 colors
and patterns. Additionally, fans are eligible to receive a coupon
toward any roll of Duck® brand duct tape.

The Duck Tape® page on Facebook gives fans the opportunity to show off
their own duct tape creations, talk with other duct tape fans and
participate in opportunities to choose the newest colors and patterns
in the Duck® brand duct tape line-up.

The sweepstakes starts April 26, 2010, and ends on May 24, 2010.
Winners will be announced around June 7, 2010. For official rules and
sweepstakes information, check out the Duck Tape® page on Facebook,
and while you're there, become a fan. You just could be one of 100
winners of the Duck® brand duct tape prize pack and learn a few sticky
tricks along the way.

Beginning Monday, April 26, the National Archives will be hosting a
Civil-War themed social media scavenger hunt to advertise its newest
exhibit "Discovering the Civil War." The event kicks off on the
National Archives main Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/usnationalarchives) at 12:00 p.m. EDT.

The scavenger hunt occurs across the National Archives' array of
social media sites, including over a dozen Facebook pages, Flickr,
YouTube and Twitter sites.
Those who complete the scavenger hunt and submit their answers will be
put into a raffle to win four "Discovering the Civil War" themed
T-shirts from the National Archives gift shop.

If anyone has doubt if it is really the year for mobile then think
again. The big O has moved her content into the mobile space. Oprah
has partnered with Hands-On Mobile to release content pushing mobile
apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. The mobile apps feature of
Oprah's mobile include video clips and previews from “The Oprah
Winfrey Show.”  Polls, audio clips, photos and articles and view photo
galleries. It's pretty much the full Oprah band experience on your
mobile phone. Oprah has enough power and pull that these apps should
be popular. But will the content be engaging enough for repeat usage?

Hit the comments and tell us what you think.

The Cleveland Indians are taking social media seriously with the
launch of a special social media deck. /the professional sports team
is embracing bloggers, twitter users, and other users of social media
to promote their on-field product. The 10-seat section is called the
Tribe Social Deck, and is held aside exclusively for social media
users with the express purpose of furthering the Cleveland Indians
brand within online circles. Time Warner is sponsoring the project and
also providing the Internet access to the bloggers.

James Cameron's Avatar is doing a full take over of Ask.com to promote
the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the film. The take over is pretty cool as
you can see questions about the Avatar film populated over the
homepage. Click on the question takes you to an interactive search
quiz where you can then share the answers with your friends on
Facebook. This is really cool takeover of the Ask.com homepage. Check
it out now!

The "Like Nation" is full steam ahead as Levi's Jeans has now fully
integrated Facebook "Like" button into their website. This is going to
be big for social shopping because now as you browse or buy from
online stores and "like" items it will publish directly to your social
graph on Facebook. So if your getting the latest pair of jeans and
"like" them your friends will see this activity and it could spark
them to go shop and buy also. We are really curious to see how this
trend will take off and if the "like" button can have a serious impact
on traffic and sales.