If you clicked a Facebook friend’s photo recently, you may have got a surprise – a new theater view of that photo… complete with ads!

Facebook’s latest update not only increases the ease of interaction with content, it also gives them another place to serve advertisements to users. The only question remains: how are they targeting these ads? Are they targeted at uses viewing the content? Could ads be targeted based on keywords in the description or brands/users tagged in the photos?

Do you see the new theater view or the ads? What do you think?

We’ll have more for you soon.

Being a part of a team is something special. The New York Football Giants probably know a thing or two about that. We’re also fortunate to be a part of a great team within IPG Mediabrands – MAP (Mediabrands Audience Platform). This year, MAP agencies Ansible, Cadreon, Reprise Media, and SCG teamed up with MAGNAGLOBAL, the IPG Mediabrands’ global intelligence unit, and our friends at Simply Measured to watch the game within the Big Game – the ads.

This year’s Super Bowl was one of the most interactive yet, with Twitter saying that the final three minutes of the game saw 10,000 tweets per second (TPS). The highest TPS came after the Giants sealed their victory (12,223 TPS) and Madonna’s halftime show saw 8,000 TPS for a full five minutes. While those are great facts, we were more interested in how people were talking about brands.

We looked at on-air spend, buzz in social, and other advertising efforts (paid search and mobile) to pick some of the greatest (and worst) ads and brands from Super Bowl Sunday and put them all in infographic form, just for you:

Click the image to see larger sizes and to embed

Brands definitely brought their A-game this year with brands like H&M, GE, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Audi, Volkswagen, Kia, Chevrolet, Pepsi Max, Bud Light, Coca Cola, Doritos, and more joining the battle. NBC did a gigantic push for their own show, “The Voice” which included live performances from Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton, as well as a commercial cameo from comedy maven Betty White.

Thanks to all the teams that worked hard throughout the night pulling, analyzing, and visualizing the heaps of data that it took to make this year’s scorecard happen! See you all next year!

Note: This report and infographic include references to brands which are clients of Mediabrands and the larger IPG family, including Hyundai/Kia – however, this is not meant to be an endorsement or advertisement and no compensation was made for their inclusion.

Virtual Payments and Social Networks – A Brief History

Custom Avatars: Social Networks Start Selling

Older social networks like Habbo and Gaia Online which feature customizable avatars or rooms were among the first to create a virtual currency. Typically users were gifted a small amount of the currency upon joining, or could gradually earn a nominal amount through everyday activities on the site. Similar to today’s Microsoft (#client) Xbox LIVE avatar marketplace, the items available to users were geared towards showing off a special interest or just getting a “cool” thing – ultimately these items didn’t offer any additional perks to the user.

Though both Gaia Online and Habbo have largely exited the spotlight, they should be recognized for setting the stage in making users comfortable with:

• Purchasing decorative virtual items that serve no practical purpose, but are just for fun
• Using a proprietary site currency (purchased with real-world money)

Gamers: Laying the Foundation from World of Warcraft to FFXI

While Habbo and Gaia Online were tackling virtual payments inside social networks, similar developments were occurring in the gaming world.

With the rise of MMORPGs in the 90s users were increasingly exposed to complex virtual markets. Games like Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (FFXI), Origin Systems’ Ultima Online and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft featured in-game marketplaces where users could purchase virtual items using in-game currency from official stores or from other players. These markets exclusively accepted in-game currency and users could only earn additional money by completing in-game tasks. Unsurprisingly, a grey market system quickly sprouted up, where users could purchase (using real-world money) in-game items from other players. Concurrently, a subset of users took advantage of the opportunity to “gold farm” – creating characters simply to gain in-game currency, which is then re-sold using real-world money.

Though most game operators ban these markets, the phenomena shows little chance of stopping. Virtual markets like Sythe, IGE and My MMO Shop offer gamers a one-stop shop for buying in-game items/currency using real-world dollars.

While some game operators have a zero tolerance policy towards users found to illegally purchase in-game items (or in some cases, full characters), others are trying to bring the markets in-house. Last summer Blizzard garnered the gaming world’s attention when it announced its upcoming Diablo 3 would feature an official marketplace that accepted real-world currency for virtual items.

Facebook: Bringing Virtual Payments to Casual Gamers

Social games codified gamers’ comfort in using real-world currency to buy virtual items and brought this behavior to an even larger audience. While other social networks were testing the waters with social gaming, Facebook’s 2007 decision changed the social gaming landscape as the network welcomed 60+ companies to build applications on the network and begin selling virtual items on the site. This move not only opened the doors for outside companies to start tapping into Facebook users’ wallets, but set the stage for Facebook to continue the monetization model hinted at by its Facebook Gifts introduction.

As gaming grew on Facebook,  Zynga’s meteoric rise in 2008 drew attention both for the speed at which the company’s games permeated Facebook, but also for critiques of its revenue model which relied largely on ads. While ad-supported games allowed developers to reach a wider audience with a free-to-play game experience, this greatly limited the overall revenue a game could drive.

As developers sought a new revenue stream they took a page from the MMORPG book and introduced virtual goods that players could purchase using real-world currency. By 2009 Zynga had phased ads out of its flagship franchise titles and the majority of its revenue came directly from user purchases of virtual goods. Simultaneous to the rise of virtual goods within third-party developers’ games on Facebook, Facebook introduced its Facebook Credits system, creating Facebook’s first official currency.

With Facebook Credits gaining popularity, and Facebook seeing a steadily growing revenue stream through credit purchases, the network announced in 2010 that starting in 2011 Facebook Credits would be the only currency allowed for in-game purchases on the network. By mid-year 2011 game developers transitioned (with only a few uproars) to Facebook Credits and Facebook’s currency was finally set.

Virtual Payments – A Global Approach

Bringing Back the Golden Days: Friendster and hi5 

Today most social gamers don’t bat an eye at the prospect of buying virtual goods. Global networks embraced virtual currency and in-game item purchases during the same period as Facebook, but received far less press coverage. Some adopted the same approach as Facebook, setting a proprietary currency for their network, while others simply piggybacked by enabling Facebook games porting. Below we recap the virtual payment methods and approaches to encouraging micropayments for virtual services/features on two of the largest global social networks, Friendster and hi5.

Friendster - Following Friendster’s revamp as a social gaming site in 2011, the company quickly introduced its own credit system for premium games items, the Friendster Wallet. Parent company MOL Global is one of the largest internet companies in South East Asia, and is well-entrenched in payment services through its MOL AccessPortal Behad payments system. The Friendster Wallet holds Friendster Coins, which can be purchased with MOL Points. Items purchased using Coins offer users “enhanced” gameplay, but like other virtual social game offerings, all of Friendster’s games remain free to play.

Unique features: Though MOL Points are the only virtual currency accepted on Friendster, MOL Points can be used for micropayments on a wide range of other online games including buying Facebook Credits.

Friendster’s Future – While MOL Points can only be used for virtual gaming/content purchases now, MOL has a comprehensive virtual and real-world payments system. The company’s MOL Pay product, a payments system for virtual and small physical businesses, shows potential to bridge the gap between virtual and real-world purchases. However, the company’s discontinuation of its MOL Card (a prepaid credit card product) illustrates it may not actively pursue this path.

hi5 - Like Friendster, hi5 has its own virtual currency, hi5 Coins. hi5 incorporates micropayments into its social games, but also offers premium features for users who purchase Coins including virtual gifts to share with friends, premium game items and additional options for its dating feature, hi5 Flirt. In 2011 the company launched SocioPay, a new monetization platform specifically designed for social games, which will work with hi5’s new social gaming platform, SocioPath.

Unique features: Hi5’s payment system alone isn’t unique, but the company’s direction under new president Alex St. John has shown hi5 wants to be seen as an innovative industry leader.

hi5’s Future – hi5 has long flown under the radar, but in December was purchased by Tagged. How this acquisition will change the network and its virtual currency remains unclear, but it’s evident that hi5 and Tagged will continue to leverage micropayments in their new combined form. 2012 will prove to be a transformative year for hi5, especially as its SocioPay and SocioPath platforms fundamentally alter the company’s gaming and monetization programs.

The True Innovator: Hyves

The Netherlands’ social network of choice, Hyves, has the most aggressive approach in changing the way users view virtual payments. In 2010, the network introduced Hyves Payments, the world’s first no-fee social payment system. A joint venture with Rabobank Group, one of the Netherlands’ largest banking institutions, Hyves Payments lets users send virtual payments to others using only their social network account. Leveraging Rabobank’s MiniTix technology, Hyves social network users can opt in to link their Dutch bank account to a Hyves Payments account and immediately transfer up to 150€ to anyone in their network.

Hyves hasn’t stopped at peer-to-peer payments – Hyves Payments can be used for real-world payments in approximately 30% of Holland’s bars and restaurants. Merchants face only a fixed 0.15€ fee for these transactions and the technology is backed by cash register system Eijsink and mobile application MyOrder.

By combining features from traditional peer-to-peer/peer-to-merchant payment systems like PayPal, social payments systems like Facebook Credits and mobile peer-to-peer like Visa’s recently announced P2P payments system, Hyves may have stumbled upon the magic combination to bridge the gap between social/virtual payments and real-world transactions. What remains to be seen is whether Hyves can retain its prominence in Holland, as Twitter and Facebook continue to target the market. If the company is able to expand its social payments system beyond its national borders, there is huge potential for success.

Products aren’t always things you can touch. Sometimes a product is a line of service a company provides, like an agency or a professional services firm. Today, in a time where social is at the interaction point between brands and consumers, sCRM is taking lead in information gathering, classification, and sharing across organizations that definitely leads to the creation of smarter products and services.

Collecting Feedback

Social businesses already into their maturity cycle are likely running listening and monitoring campaigns, which in turn feed in to their sCRM systems – the next step is then plugging that sCRM or content management system into their existing sCRM system.

The thing to remember when thinking about product and service feedback is that it isn’t always going to come in the forms that you think it will – likely you won’t get your most-useful information from the surveys sent out with new products, or the online surveys taken at the end of customer service interactions. Today, consumers take to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and forums to talk about what works, what doesn’t, and what could be improved upon to better their view of a product – if a brand already has listening and monitoring in place, they’re likely capturing these statements, the next part is actually doing something with them.

Cross-team Sharing

We’ve talked before about the importance of brands maturing on a path toward a truly social business model – one where information is shared easily across teams and up and down levels. The reality of the matter is, however, that for most brands that kind of fundamental shift takes quite some time. However, there are a few steps that can be taken to easily bring valuable product and service information to development, design, customer service, and sales teams:

1. Distribute regular reports to a wide group (beyond social) to give a better idea of consumer reaction to products and services – Specifically call out sections that pertain to different parts of your business
2. Share ideas both ways – It’s not enough to share information shared through social with internal teams. You have to be willing to share their ideas back to the social communities. Perhaps the story about a product or service just isn’t being told well and they can help hone that message.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask – More often than not, consumers who are interacting with your brand on social are already fans (regardless of the experience they’re having right at this moment). Oftentimes, their speaking out about a product or service is really their way of saying “come on guys, I’m a fan here and I just want things to be a bit better.”

Let the Community Drive

This instance isn’t really for the weak of heart. There’s a reason why products that are designed by committee take longer and sometimes are met with bad results – too many ideas. However, if you’ve got the power and active community in place that makes holding a product design contest a reality, then you have a chance at creating a experience and product that can punch above its design weight with your core audience.

Look at Starbucks with their My Starbucks Idea (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/). This site and the sCRM functionality behind it allow Starbucks to tap in to their large fan base and help direct product and services to a place where it’s beneficial to the brand and also complimentary to the way their brand enthusiasts want things to be. The very fact that the project is based on salesforce.com technology isn’t a coincidence either – that’s planning and sCRM forethought. Their ability to capture information and preferences, paired with their existing customer data means they have a highly-sophisticated look into the habits and desires of Starbucks brand enthusiasts.

Make it So

So, now you’re all ready to go, right? You can just waltz off into the world and make this happen. Here are three things you can do today to get started (at a small scale):

1. Poll your audience – Facebook Questions are a great way to gather quick feedback. Use them to poll your fans about new products. It’s not scientific by any means (note: this doesn’t do away with focus grouping all together), but it’s a great way to start internal conversations while getting your external audience engaged.
2. Draw up a diagram of your internal teams and list information that you think would be beneficial to share (Mini step: List out social data that you think would be beneficial for each team to see as well).
3. Think about consolidating your social efforts on a common platform. Your time is valuable and having data at a single source makes a difference in your team’s ability to function efficiently and with a high amount of insight.

Twitter, because of its propensity toward sharing, makes it a great platform for running promotions. While simplistic in nature, Twitter can be truly useful in taking promotions to the next level, when done correctly. The following piece outlines best practices and tips (including links to SCG published materials and client examples) for launching, running, and reporting on successful Twitter promotions. A short version of content covered in this post can be found in a post written by the agency on Mashable.

Prep Work: 5 Things to Do Before You Launch

Many contests owe their success (or demise) to the work done prior to launch of the campaign. The work you do before the first Tweet ever hits the Web can help you avoid pitfalls and plan for success.

Define Your Marketing Goals

Goals are your destinations. Without an end marketing or business goal, contests would be flashes in the pan that don’t truly affect the bottom line. That might have been able to fly in 2008, but in today’s world, where social marketing is showing true impact on sales, a little more is at stake. Know your top business goals and how any contest will feed into these goals. Do you want to increase awareness of a product or brand? Grow a community to increase sales leads? Knowing your end goal and the key performance indicators that lead to those goals will help you establish measurement guides (but we’ll talk about those later).

Bring In the Barristers

Legal considerations are usually the second step in most contest processes. When dealing with global social networks, the constraints on marketers to fulfill and even solicit participation can get increasingly harder to understand. Enlist the help of your group legal counsel at an early stage to make sure your contest is legal in areas where you wish to run said contest, and that you have a clear set of official entry rules. These rules, once finalized, should be posted in an easily-found place – preferably in the Twitter bio while the contest is running. More info can be found in the Legal Considerations section.

Evangelize Internally/Externally

Your internal audience can often be the hardest to energize. Start your internal awareness campaign a few weeks ahead of your actual contest. Don’t be afraid to specifically ask employees to help spread the word. Even with minimal participation, employee support can give contests that extra push toward virality that every company seeks. Partners (internal and external) can be incredibly important in pushing content during the early stages of a new Twitter contest. Reach out to partners (via DM or email) to ask for their help well in advance of the actual launch. Microsoft’s Social Team alias is an incredible asset in helping get contest information into the content pipeline of social teams. Create packaged Tweets that can easily be copied/pasted in order to help lessen the burden.

Set Up Tracking/Monitoring

Being able to track and report on the success of Twitter contests and campaigns is essential to not only tracking participation and ensuring that all fulfillment is taken care of in an above-the-board fashion, but also helps justify Twitter contests to management based on business goals. Twitter moves fast and searches done even a couple days after content hits the Web can yield inaccurate results. Use a tracking tool such as SimplyMeasured to track hashtag mentions associated with your contest and capture clicks on contest-specific trackable links in order to show traffic and tie actions to larger business goals. Doing this in advance of launching provides a full data set that can mean the difference in success and failure in the eyes of management.

Plan for Fulfillment

You’ve got a great contest going where winners receive the latest product from the hottest brand around – yours! That’s great, but how are they getting it? In many cases, in-house fulfillment may be tasked with taking care of shipping information and fulfillment, but in case they aren’t there are a number of companies available that can handle all your fulfillment needs. Plan ahead and work with your fulfillment team to make sure your winners get their prizes on-time and all in one piece.

So, You’re Ready to Run a Contest

You’ve done your prep work and now you’re ready to run your contest. OK, great. How do you exactly do that? The following are 5 tips to make sure your contest goes off without a hitch.

Announce and Inform

Make sure all your social channels, not just your Twitter channel are talking about your contest. Blog posts work well for housing long-form information like the Windows team did during their #WinWin7 campaign. Promoted Tweets are an efficient way to make sure your contest gets off the ground. For more information on using Twitter paid advertising, check out our post on Search Engine Watch.

Stay Flexible

“Stuff” happens. The key to being able to handle the stuff is having all your plans already laid out. When you have a clear plan of action for your contest, the little bumps in the road are only setbacks, not disasters. The online world is full of bumps, but by being flexible and having a plan, you can easily navigate the contest road.

Be Unique

Give your contest a unique, but not hard to understand or use, phrase or hashtag that users must include in their Tweets in order to be eligible. This not only helps you collect and vet entries, but also gives extended visibility – exactly what you’re looking for. Beyond that, you can give away creative prizes that aren’t exactly cost-heavy, like these from the #WinWin7 campaign.

Be Helpful

Large numbers of people on Twitter are really just getting going on the platform. Remember to be very clear in your directions and always be available to help users through the entry process. This will not only help with entrants, but will bring good karma your way post-contest.

Don’t Go Silent

Contests are great and can definitely raise the profile of your Twitter account, brand, and products. However, contests aren’t the end of the engagement loop. Once you have new fans accumulated, you need to continue nurturing that relationship and adding value to their experiences. The worst result of a contest is increased accumulation of fans because of a giveaway that then results in a community that is uninterested in the content or, worse yet, just leaves.

A Note About Hashtags

As you’re looking at what content to add to your Twitter contest, the obvious use of hashtags will definitely come up. Hashtags are a great way to drive brand awareness and to help categorize content for your contest. For more information on hashtags, including general guidance that goes beyond this, check out our post.

Be Mindful of Length

You’re hoping to be retweeted and those characters take up space. Know how much space you need to accomplish this (hint: take 140 and subtract the number of characters in your handle + 6. That’s the number you need to hit for Tweets to be retweetable)

Capitalize

When combining multiple words, the most-accepted convention is capitalizing the first letter of each new word. Example: #HappyHolidays.

Do Not Hashtag Spam

This is the practice of including popular hashtags in tweets simply for the purpose of being included in those searches/conversations. (Example: Tweeting about the #GRAMMYs if your brand has nothing to do with the GRAMMYs and your Tweet is not related).

Limit the Number

#Not #everything #needs #a #hashtag.

Our Lawyers Made Us Write This

Like with any contest run on social media, the legal aspect of Twitter contests can be tricky (as we mentioned before). However, there is a wealth of information available on the subject – even some from Twitter itself.

The following are a couple high-level legal points to think of as you’re going through the contest process:

Sweepstakes, Contest or Lottery?

While they all sound fun, the difference between the three are slight, but important. Here are some guidelines to help:

• Sweepstakes: a promotion in which a prize is awarded on the basis of chance rather than skill.
• Contest: a promotion  where a prize is awarded on the basis of skill
• Lottery:  a promotion in which all three of the following are present: 1) prize 2) chance 3) consideration. Note: lotteries are illegal under most state and federal laws with the exception of state-run lotteries and authorized raffles.

Local or Global?

Whether or not you open the contest to users outside the United States impacts the prizes and guidelines you’ll have to work with. Work with your legal counsel to set parameters.

Know the Laws

While tax and sweepstakes laws can vary by country, they also vary by state inside the U.S.  Most notably, Florida, New York, and Rhode Island sponsors are required to register all sweepstakes where the total retail value of the prizes exceeds $5,000. A general rule of thumb is to keep prizes under $500 to avoid winners paying taxes on their winnings. For more information about sweepstakes in these states, contact:

Do Use Not Language

When writing the rules of the contest, use exclusionary statements to help users determine if they are eligible for the contest. Example:

You are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, and are 18 years of age or older; and

You are NOT an employee of MadeUp Corporation or an employee of a MadeUp subsidiary; and  You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes; and

You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a MadeUp employee, an employee of a MadeUp subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes.

Note: Microsoft Windows is a client of SCG

When you think about social media, what are the first social networks that come to mind? Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Google+? For most professionals, those are the foundation for any program- they allow marketers to reach the bulk of their audience and the sites are mature enough that they’re a (relatively) safe investment for time and resources. There are even a brave few who have expanded their social programs to include emerging niche networks like Pinterest, Tumblr and Quora. Especially for those focusing on a U.S.-centric program, a combination of the traditional and emerging sites is more than enough to build a vibrant and engaged social community.

But what about those brands and marketers who want to reach global users on their local market sites? We know the global social environment is just as dynamic and rapidly-evolving as what we see in the U.S.. From giants like Renren and V Kontakte, to regionally entrenched players like Mixi and Nasza Klasa, the market’s simultaneous fragmentation and saturation has further complicated the daunting task of evaluating global sites.

This eBook kicks off a bi-weekly blog series here at Spring Creek where we’ll dig into different facets of the global social landscape. To get us started, we’ve profiled 20 of the largest social networks from around the globe to illustrate how diverse the space is and to spark marketers’ consideration of the quickly changing social landscape. Though this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the global networks, we strive to strike a balance between the massive sites whose glory is fading but still wields power, and the nimble up-and-comers who are threatening (and often succeeding) to steal market share.

The largely unspoken, if often hinted at, challenge to each of these networks is the continued expansion of those foundational sites addressed above. Facebook is the clearest potential giant-killer, as witnessed by its recent win in surpassing Orkut as the most popular social network in Brazil. Facing a similar threat in Japan, Mixi’s recent strategic partnership with Twitter is largely perceived as an attempt to stave off Facebook’s potential growth in that market.

Over the next few months we’ll continue to explore the successes, challenges and innovations the global social landscape faces. We’d love to hear from you if there are certain areas you’d like to explore, or to share your own experiences with these networks.

 Note: Our research is based on publicly available information, in-market third party analyst commentary and, when possible, firsthand experience with the networks. All figures are based off the most widely reported and commonly accepted figures for the end of calendar Q3 2011. 

The CES show floor is incredibly daunting when you walk in and look at the sprawling maps with each section marked off. I made it my goal to see every single booth on the floor – and I did it. Here are a couple more trends that I saw during my time in Vegas:

AutoTech

The auto industry has plenty of their own industry shows, but that doesn’t stop top automakers from trekking to Vegas for CES. In-car auto technology was a big part of the show with Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Ford showcasing how technology is powering the next generation of autos.

Kia’s new Uvo system, made by Microsoft (both clients of SCG/Mediabrands) was one of the coolest in-car systems I saw in Vegas. The new system pairs with smartphones to identify drivers, making the experience completely personal. For parents with new drivers, the system allows users to set up things like speed limits, curfews, and geo-fences that notify the car owner if/when these limitations are broken by the driver. That’s one piece of tech I definitely am glad didn’t exist when I was 16. The system also goes beyond the car and uses augmented reality to help drivers find their car once they’ve parked. No more wandering around aimlessly hitting your key fob in hopes of hearing your car honk.

SocialTV

There’s no doubt that people come to CES to see the next generation of televisions. However, this year wasn’t totally about screen size (although there were some huge ones) or crazy bells and whistles (there was seriously a TV that you could see through), but rather about how connected TVs could make users. Connected to content. Connected to their friends. Connected to just about anything.

Now, apps like Miso and GetGlue have brought a social aspect to TV and movies, but they require a user looking away from the screen to interact. While that’s not always a bad thing, the continued appification of televisions is bringing social interactions right to the set – and making them part of the experience.

Users can now Tweet or Facebook directly on their televisions while still watching content. They can join chats and discuss plots, characters, and developments in their favorite shows and movies. Look for this seamless integration to be a big part in network and motion picture companies’ push for social interaction around their titles in 2012 and beyond.

Social Everywhere (but No Connectivity)

I think one of the biggest fails of CES, besides the lack of available food/restrooms (which always happens), was the lack of connectivity in the exhibition halls. While yes, many companies aren’t really relying on me to pump their newest products out to the world, but rather a writer from Engadget who has guaranteed bandwidth, the space just wasn’t social friendly. QR codes were everywhere, but the content they accessed was nearly unobtainable in the conditions.

TMobile sponsored a contest (using Klout) to crown the king of social at CES. The only problem was, I’d guess most people actually being able to tweet about CES were not in Vegas, or had already left the show to go back to their rooms. Also, the screens showing content were kind of hard to find.

Weird Stuff

I’ve been to a fair number of trade shows in my day, but I have to say there was one thing I was really sad to see at CES in 2012… the continued use of “booth babes.” BBC did a piece on this which I think accurately depicts their use at the show. Notes the completely oblivious answer from the head of CES.

If you owned an iPad, iPod, iANYTHING, you could seriously spend the whole time looking solely at products made to connect to, hold, enhance, or otherwise augment your iANYTHING. These little weirdos were iPod speaker docks (iThink). I actually kind of like the ones that look like the ghosts from Pac Man.

Celebs were everywhere. Yes, some of them were there because they were launching a new headphone line (Luda/50), but others were obviously there just to get a check. Justin Beiber was there talking about robotics. Snooki was there, and unless she was talking about tanning beds, I’m going to guess she has no connection with the product she was there to support.

See Ya, Las Vegas

Overall, CES still is one of the greatest events I’ve ever been to. I’m not going to say that everything there relates to social – because it doesn’t. However, if we’re not keeping track of the consumers’ use of technology in accessing information, connecting with each other, and consuming media, then we’re missing the point. There’s so much more to marketing that happens outside the person-to-screen world that we often forget that there are opportunities in just about every aspect of daily life.

Check out our full gallery of SCG CES 2012 pics here.

Disclosure: Some photos and descriptions of products may reference clients of Spring Creek Group’s parent companies, Mediabrands and IPG. These are not meant as advertisements or endorsements and no compensation has been made to this blog or the author for their inclusion.

All Las Vegas cliches aside, this show is absolutely incredible. I’ve been to CES before, but haven’t ever stepped foot on the show floor – instead being stuck in dark press briefing suites. After only a day on the floor, I can say that this is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever been a part of.

Besides the endless rows of iAccessories (seriously, if you can put it on or put your in something, it’s here), there is a lot of innovative tech at CES this year – and some of it might actually be useful.

MommyTech (FamilyTech)

Mommy bloggers changed the way the internet world looked not only from a content perspective, but from a marketing perspective as well. Now, a whole new sector of tech is aimed at providing an enriched family experience  to consumers – not just moms.

From companies that are offering geo-fencing technologies for cell phones so parents can keep tabs on their teens to prenatal learning technology, it’s all here and it’s all interesting. Gamification is definitely in play as parents look to reward healthy lifestyles and development. There are pedometer-based technologies that look more like toys than a boring pedometer, which could lead to envy among some kids if their pedometer isn’t as cool as the next.

Look for influences in the MommyTech to start changing the way families not only interact with each other, but how they interact with technology. The more apt consumers are to input and share information, the more likely they are to interact with brands using new technologies.

Health + Fitness

This was probably the most-interesting part of the floor that I saw today. United Health Group, an insurance agency, had an incredible booth that not only showcased some of their technologies that are helping companies create healthier employees, but it also was just really well done. The health and tech worlds have long been friends, but up until recently that friendship was purely functional as technologies pushed forward and brought data management solutions and patient care advancements to the health field.

What United Health Group and others in the area bring to the table now is a truly enriched experience for users that puts them in control of information and support for their health needs. Throw in some game mechanics that can be shared with friends/coworkers and you’ve got a modern day recipe for healthy living.

One of the companies in this space that’s been making headlines recently is FitBit. Their pedometers which are crazy-tiny and not ugly at all are being used in offices across the U.S., but their recent product – the Aria scale is almost too pretty to keep in your bathroom. The scale, which connects wirelessly to your home network, allows consumers to track progress, share stats, and connect with friends through their online interface. When paired with FitBit’s pedometer, consumers have an integrated solution that (hopefully) leads to a healthier life.

Motorola, fresh off the heels of their acquisition by Google, launched their fitness-focused product – MOTOACTV. The watch-like device is hyper-tuned to keeping people motivated, while tracking and logging their progress. The device is the same size as a watch and comes running a variant of Android. As my colleague from IPG Media Lab said today “stuff’s going to get crazy when people start rooting these.” The possibilities are endless.

Again, this is a space where people wouldn’t have dreamed about being in 5-10 years ago. Sharing weight loss and fitness information didn’t happen – or at least not outside of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers groups. Today friends are sharing their runs with apps like Runkeeper, tracking calories with MyFitnessPal.com, and using Nike+ like it’s no big deal. Imagine what’s next.

Up Next…

Car tech, more TVs than you can shake a stick at, social everywhere, and the weirdest things I’ve found at CES.

Disclosure: Some photos and descriptions of products may reference clients of Spring Creek Group’s parent companies, Mediabrands and IPG. These are not meant as advertisements or endorsements and no compensation has been made to this blog or the author.

As 2011 was coming to a close, the team at Spring Creek Group was already running headlong into 2012. This next year will be an incredible time in digital media, that’s a given. The deck below takes a look at the coming trends and how they will impact consumers and marketers alike in 2012.

Around the office we use social tools whenever possible to help us manage client accounts and bring scale to our programs.  These range from startups to enterprise level software solutions, all providing their own set of strengths.  However, much like a doctor tackling an unknown disease with a cocktail of pills, we’re often forced to use a variety of tools to help us accomplish everything.

We’ve come to grips with the fact that no tool is going to fit perfectly with any program, but there are a few key items we seem to always be searching for.  Most of these items always seem to be on the “road map”, but it seems we’ve been asking about them forever.  We hope some of these tool providers are resolving to solve for these gaps in 2012:

• Real-time Facebook Data – Often, the tool providers aren’t completely to blame.  The fact is, Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to pull data from their system and only their tightest partners have unlimited API calls.  The trouble is there’s a mismatch between who gets the data and who’s good at managing the data.  For massive pages this delay becomes a serious issue.
  
• Collaborative Editorial Tools – Sure, you can draft, schedule, and approve content in most sCRM tools at this point, but that’s far from the elegant editorial experience that we know technology is capable of delivering.  We shouldn’t have to rely on desktop apps to really plan and collaborate on editorial content.  Where are the multiple views? Where is the merging of PR, Marketing, and product calendars?  It’s 2012, can we have an all-up communications overview already?!?!
  
• CRM integration – We know this is a big ask for 2012, but it seems like a few tools are on their way to making this happen.  This is going to take real collaboration between multiple tools.  We want to understand a customer’s complete relationship with a company, not just twitter conversations.  We need to become more sophisticated about how we communicate with customers and that requires a holistic view of all touch points including marketing channels, customer service, and social.

This past year saw the formation of our Social Technology Research team at SCG. The STR is tasked with researching, assessing, and bringing to bear for our clients the best tools and solutions in the social space. As SCG becomes a more integral part of the IPG Mediabrands family, that work will only increase, and the team will contiue their push to be the most-knowledgeable group of industy experts in the social tools space.