Beeline Labs, a marketing innovation firm, recently interviewed marketing and PR executives from major companies such as Best Buy, GE and Cisco on their social media strategies. Firm founder Lois Kelly compiled what she calls the best pieces of advice, which she presents as a top 10 list of strategies used by these major brands for engaging consumers through social media.
Read more at iMedia Connection.
Lisa Baertlein reports for Reuters on Deloitte s retail sales forecast for the holidays, which the analyst firm sees weighed down by a host of economic problems plaguing consumers including credit availability. Mentioned in the story, conversely Best Buy revised up its full year forecast to reflect improving sales trends and store traffic.
Read the full report at Reuters.
Ross Honey, Microsoft GM of global content acquisition, discusses changes in Microsoft’s view on web content licensed for Xbox Live. At the heart of the issue is an opportunity cost that, according to Honey, isn’t worth the hassle. Central to the issue seems to be Xbox Live’s inability to serve up inserted ads.
Games For Windows revealed enhancements and compatibility with Windows 7. The list of impressive improvements includes a promise of easier game installs, support for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, support for ratings and parental controls in Windows 7, and better security and stability. All that, and according to the blog PC 2008 game revenue was up 18 percent over 2007.
UK movie marketing firm Creative Partnerships has created some big-time spots for big Hollywood blockbusters including Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean and Ratatouille. They say that they’ve been studying the growth of the game industry and its share of the entertainment market. Today, they announced that they’ve pounced. The firm has hired a game marketing vet in an effort to expand its services into games.
Read the story at MCV UK.
The chief executive of Particle, a company that describes itself as an inventor of products for web and mobile, sees a future where microblogs won’t just tell us what our social network is doing. They’ll show us. His company s new product Robo.to lets microbloggers push 4-second video snippets through Twitter and Facebook. [a]listdaily would like to introduce the phrase I tawt I taw a wideo Tweet to commemorate this seemingly serious leap forward in social networking.
Kotaku is holding a shindig in Tokyo around the Tokyo Game Show this week, and they ran into a bit of a snag. Long story short, at the last minute the venue decided they needed more money to hold the event (but of course).
“Is this Matsumura-san This is Ashcraft,” I started.
“Oh right, the thing on the 21st,” he replied. His voice, slurred and slowed. “I want to know if you’ll be able to pay more than we originally discussed.”
It’s midnight. I’m standing in the kitchen, in the dark and cannot believe what this guy is saying. Through the phone, I can hear what sounds like women laughing and talking.
The proprietor then becomes awfully rude, and Kotaku does the right thing in canceling their reservation, instead switching venues.
Of course, their cancelation leads to a few apologetic phone calls, all of which is outlined in this blog post.
The moral of the story? Don’t drunk dial clients asking them for more money right before an event, got it
Sony’s motion controller and Microsoft’s Project Natal have made a lot of waves since they were first announced. Still, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada said to the Financial Times that the motion controllers will have little effect on the overall console race.
Wada went on to note that he believes the industry slowdown is due to the lack of major releases by Nintendo during the first half of the year. Interestingly, he also thinks that Nintendo will release a new Wii with “with functionality more like that of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 or Sony’s PlayStation 3.” He sees that console release happening by 2011 with perhaps a new controller.
Does anyone else think the 2011 timeframe may be a bit too late for Wii to really continue its popularity? The word of mouth about Wii’s limited library seems to be gaining some traction, leading to weakness in sales this year. It may be time for an HD-capable Wii with Wii Motion Plus included sooner than later.
From Joystiq:
The Facebook page for 5TH Cell’s Scribblenauts is teasing . . . something. “Get your rooster hats ready!” a message posted on the game’s “Wall” reads. “We have a very special announcement coming very soon . . .” We have no idea what’s being announced, or even when, but it seems really early for a sequel announcement. Maybe another platform Or maybe something outside the game, like a contest. In any case, if you like Scribblenauts, 5TH Cell is going to tell us all something that will probably be delightful.
We’re huge fans of using social media to promote products and connect with audiences, and this is a great example of why it s important. Not only do you get the blogosphere cooking, but your fanbase gets ultra-excited and ready to put the word-of-mouth out there.
Take a look at how they re doing it by clicking over to Facebook.
Kotaku points out a reader submission that shows Best Buy charging $130 for a PS3 home setup. Is this a television mounting or hiding wires in walls or anything of the sort? Nope, it looks like it’s setting up an online network and parental controls as well as installing the latest firmware updates. All things that would take even a newcomer to the video game scene mere minutes to set up.
Best Buy, WTF
