Coca-Cola Social Media during Superbowl

adweek.com – Coca-Cola today launched a social media campaign on Facebook that teases its upcoming Super Bowl commercials while raising funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Through Coke’s Facebook fan page, members can send friends virtual gifts of Coke — a bottle image that appears on their profile pages and newsfeeds. In return, senders get 20-second previews of the new commercials the beverage giant plans to air during the Super Bowl. Coke donates $1 to the Boys & Girls Clubs for each gift sent. At noon on game day, Feb. 7, gift-givers will receive both full ads before they are revealed to the general public on the CBS broadcast that night.

“By using our Super Bowl ads to invite people to join us in supporting Boys & Girls Clubs, we’re going beyond simply airing great commercials on a terrific live television event,” said Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America. “We’re reminding people that whenever they enjoy a Coca-Cola, they play a role in helping us make a difference in the lives of others. By opening a Coke they create a happiness multiplier.”
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Village Voice Media Shows the Industry How to Make Ad Revenue

Village Voice Media thinks it can teach others how to pull new sources of ad revenue.

Forbes.com – Jim Larkin, chief executive officer of the Village Voice Media publishing company, is baffled by other media companies these days.

Over the past year, news outlets have scurried to go local in hopes of pulling in new ad revenue from mom-and-pop shops that have traditionally turned only to the local Yellow Pages to place their ads. In September, ESPN launched ESPNBoston.com, and a Dallas site is in the works. Patch, a unit of AOL, rolled out in March of this year, attracting eyes and advertisers in communities where newspapers have scaled back or closed shop. The New York Times launched its own online version, “The Local,” in two Brooklyn neighborhoods, as well as in South Orange, Millburn and Maplewood, N.J. Local online ad spending is expected to reach $14.2 billion this year, up 12% over 2008, according to media analytics firm Borrell Associates.

Larkin’s view of the phenomenon: Well, duh. The 60-year-old Phoenix native and his long-time business partner Michael Lacey have spent almost 30 years building their own variety. It was called New Times Media until 2006, when the owners merged it with the New York weekly the Village Voice, (now Village Voice Media). It’s the publisher of 14 local publications, including the Houston Press, the LA Weekly, and of course the 54-year-old Village Voice.
Read more at forbes.com

Ruxton Becomes Voice Media Group

PHOENIX, AZ–(Marketwire – November 5, 2009) – Voice Media Group, the one-stop lifestyle agency formerly known as the Ruxton Group, launched today, giving national brands a unique, targeted advertising gateway to young, urban consumers. As part of the Village Voice Media Holdings LLC family of companies, Voice Media Group helps brands engage with an audience of active young adults in every major national market through integrated print, online, event and street team offerings. In turn, it gives its alternative publisher partners access to valuable national brand marketing dollars.
Voice Media Group’s national network of 50 alternative print publications and more than 100 digital publications and Web sites reaches more than eight million newspaper readers, and receives more than 25 million unique digital visitors per month. It offers brands a national footprint with hyper-local reach to target consumers by verticals, interests, demographics or a combination of the three. In addition, Voice Media Group streamlines the ad buying process — from inventory to creative to billing — so advertisers can easily take advantage of the company’s entire platform and services.
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Larry Johnson Losses His Cool on Twitter

Larry Leaping to the unemployment line... again.

pitch.com – The Kansas City Chiefs just released a statement saying the team and the NFL have told Larry Johnson to stay away from practice and team activities.

In the statement, the Chiefs say a decision on Johnson’s status with the team will be made at the conclusion of the investigation.

Read the full story at: pitch.com

NFL Warming up to Social Media

Double D has had some interesting, and crazy funny tweets this off season.

AP: The NFL said Monday it will allow players to use social media networks this season, but not during games. Players, coaches and football operations personnel can use Twitter, Facebook and other social media up to 90 minutes before kickoff, and after the game following traditional media interviews.
During games, no updates will be permitted by the individual himself or anyone representing him on his personal Twitter, Facebook or any other social media account, the league said.
The use of social media by NFL game officials and officiating department personnel will be prohibited at all times. The league, which has always barred play-by-play descriptions of games in progress, also extended that ban to social media platforms.
Earlier this summer, Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie was fined $2,500 by the team for criticizing the food service at training camp on Twitter.
The Miami Dolphins imposed restrictions on players, reporters and even spectators at their training camp, and several other teams also set up some restrictions on practice fields, including the Broncos, Patriots, Bills, Colts, Saints and Lions.
Read more at AP

SM Will Never Replace SEO

This article definitely falls under the “no shit” category. SEO is not dead? Really? To think that the latest community/communication trend will have a major impact on search is a silly discussion, but since some feel it’s relevant, here we go…

brafton.com: With the increase in the number of people using social media to help increase their online presence some have said there will be less of a need for search engine optimization (SEO), but at the SES San Jose conference this week the assessment was that SEO is not dead.

InfoWorld’s Paul Krill writes that at the “Search: Where to Next?” panel discussion, panelists agreed that there are benefits to social media, but there is still a need for search engine optimization in a web 2.0 world.

In what might be a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media, Krill notes that Eli Goodman of comScore says there are more than 3 billion searches each month on YouTube, meaning people are becoming more accepting of performing searches outside of traditional search engines.

“[What] you have to remember is that the places where people are comfortable in getting relevant results is spreading out,” he said.

Read More at: brafton.com