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By Steve Mullins. Sony Europe has joined forces with global conservation organisation WWF to light the Open Planet Ideas online community which aims to ‘harness the ingenuity and open innovation out there to help tackle environmental challenges’.
The idea is to get members of the public trying to imagine how current Sony tech can be repurposed to address problems such as climate change, biodiversity and water conservation. Projects can be collaborative, with online participants building on each other’s ideas, then evaluating and voting on which concepts should be developed further.

Aussie budget airline Jetstar, which is supporting Powderfinger’s farewell tour, is also providing the cash to finance an official blogger for the rock band.
The job involves two months on the road with The Finger, watching all 34 performances, and conducting four interviews with the band. There’s also a daily tour blog to write, a video diary to compile, photos to shoot.

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.”

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.

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.