Media spotlight on Confederations Cup; IPL

The media has been abuzz with mentions of sports activities over the past two months. First, the Indian Premier League (IPL) arrived on our shores, and mustered nearly 24 000 media mentions from the beginning of March to the end of May, with an Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) of R300-million. The Confederations Cup followed in [...]

Branding innovation with Facebook

Recent research reveals that advertisers are taking advantage of social networking tools such as Facebook, to boost their branding presence. Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Kraft, for instance, are all using Facebook to generate consumer insight. For example, Coca-Cola’s main page on Facebook now has over three million ‘friends.’ Michael Donnelly, Director of Worldwide Interactive Marketing says that the fan-page was [...]

Starbucks uses social media to brew its new campaign

According to the New York Times, Starbucks has launched a new ad campaign aimed at a new generation of coffee drinkers. The coffeehouse chain is putting up new advertising posters in six major cities in America, and to further spread its message, it is attempting to make use of the power of social media by [...]

Blogger ethics and paid reviews

Chris M has brought up the increasingly relevant topic of whether bloggers should let their readers know whether a blog post/review has been paid for or not. 
As more and more PRs are seeing the value of establishing relationships with bloggers, bloggers are increasingly bombarded with press releases and requests to review products and services. 
Chris suggests that it [...]