brand-e

Did you know that ole Snoop Dogg works with virtual goods outfit Virtual Greats to sell branded virtual goods using his name and likeness? Well, the rapper does, and his portfolio includes everything from avatar clothing to pets, to virtual gifts, and it’s offered on social networks and virtual worlds which cater to young teens, including the likes of WeeWorld, Gaia Online and Zwinky.
And according to WeeWorld, which boasts a global audience of more than 36 million registered WeeMee avatars, unit sales of Snoop Dogg branded items are 2.5 times higher than the highest selling non-branded, comparably priced goods.

We reported recently that UK tech brands simply ain’t that great at communicating via social media. That’s a generalization, of course, because some are pretty good at dealing with the medium.
LoveFilm, for one, succeeds in getting it right. “LoveFilm uses its Facebook page to engage directly with its audience and it frequently updates the page with interesting, fresh content,” says Wildfire PR in its Putting The ‘Social’ Into Social Media report. “It also stimulates debate and conversation by asking fans questions to trigger discussions, posting videos with exclusive content, and letting customers know about latest offers.”

Time to drop in at the Levi’s Soundwash Laundry in Hong Kong. What is it? Well, it’s an online interactive brand and music experience – from TBWA\Tequila – for Square Cut line jeans which lets visitors select a nice pair of legwear… and then ‘Soundwash’ them with some decent music.
There’s also a for-real Soundwash Laundry pop-up store in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district, along with limited edition packaging and gift accessories.

Says GHMC’s Julian Routledge*. In a world of increased personal interaction and involvement, there’s a complex network of conversation taking place around brands and the influence on purchasing decisions which brands need to understand if they are to gain a foothold in the modern marketplace.
For modern marketers to raise their game, and ultimately their sales, they need to tap into these conversations and target a different kind of customer – one who takes pride in influencing the purchase decisions of family, friends and colleagues, and in the case of bloggers, their wider social network.

More than 90% of US consumers have changed their grocery shopping behavior in the last two years, with 89% claiming to have become more resourceful, while 84% are saying they are more precise when they shop, according to a study from Deloitte/Harrison Group, The 2010 American Pantry Study: The New Rules of the Shopping Game.
“We continue to witness consumers creating a whole new rule book and skillset for shopping that’s based on value, not boasting of brands,” said Pat Conroy, Deloitte’s consumer products practice leader in the US.

It’s time to re-cover those old album covers. And what with all this brand and band stuff going around, clearly a branded makeover is on order.
Welcome then to My Album Cover Lifestyle on Flickr, a collection of classic rock compilation artwork redone as pages of the 2010 Ikea catalogue. If you’re an artist who has featured any kind of furniture and household accessories on your cover, then you are clearly very fair game.
Unsurprisingly, Oasis gets the flatpack branded treatment for slotting couches, curtains, wine glasses and picture frames into the artwork for Definitely Maybe.

By Simon Fuller. There’s one activity brands have underutilized on the world’s biggest social network to date, and that’s Facebook branded gaming.