You could live inside a Buffalo Wild Wings for March Madness

For its March Madness promotion this year, Buffalo Wild Wings is introducing “BnB-Dubs” – a bed and breakfast inside a Chicago Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. The restaurant chain’s chief marketing officer said the idea came from basketball fans who stay there all day, every day to watch the tournament. To enter the competition, contestants will post videos on Instagram and Twitter sharing why they are the ultimate March Madness fan.

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WHO takes to TikTok to reach the masses about Coronavirus

On the same day the World Health Organization elevated the coronavirus to the highest threat level possible, it tried out a new tactic to get the word out – taking to TikTok. In the video, WHO’s technical lead of infection prevention demonstrates what everyone can be doing to protect themselves from coronavirus. With TikTok’s global reach, this campaign is a good bet for reaching a wide audience with an important message.

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Kevin from “The Office” is back to cooking chili

Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on “The Office” is not who comes to mind when we think “influencer,” but given his famous chili, he’s the perfect choice for Bush’s Beans. To celebrate National Chili Day, Baumgartner released a video with Bush’s Beans that now has over 2 million views on Twitter. This is a lesson in the genuine content brands can create by collaborating with ambassadors that are a natural fit for their product and audience.

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Google News Initiative Subscriptions Lab helps publishers keep journalism alive

Over the past two years, Google has been funding an initiative to help publishers keep their businesses alive through digital subscriptions. With a focus on sustaining journalism and preventing “local news deserts,” Google worked with publishers of a variety of sizes to help them create long-term digital strategies. After the success of Google News Initiative Subscriptions Lab, their next moves are to release their learnings, lead workshops and panels on the topic, and start a new version of Subscriptions Lab in Europe.

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YouTuber fakes Bali vacation in IKEA

YouTuber Natalia Taylor is reminding us not to believe everything we see on the internet. She posted a series of photos on Instagram that looked like she had traveled to an exotic destination with the location tagged as Bali. Later, she revealed on her YouTube channel that the photos were staged at an IKEA store, showing how easy it is to fool people. The photos received thousands of likes, even though one of the photos even showed an IKEA price tag. To enhance her story, she also posted videos from her friends that went to Bali.

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FCC complaints say Super Bowl halftime show was too hot for primetime

Yes, people are still talking about J.Lo and Shakira. We all saw the chatter on social media following this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Controversy arose over the costume choices and dancing styles, with many people left feeling like the performance was an inappropriate choice for a show that viewers of all ages that would be watching. This week, we learned that there have been more than 1,300 complaints filed with the FCC following the show. Now the question is, do next year’s producers take the feedback to heart, or call it a PR win that the show is still in the news weeks later?

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How to market expensive dog food? Put CBD in it.

Consumers are increasingly thinking of and shopping for their pets as family members. In the past year, U.S. pet owners spent more than $33 million on pet food with “human grade” products. And if there’s one thing American consumers love as much as their pets, it’s CBD oil. Although CBD isn’t mainstream in the pet food industry yet, studies are showing there’s only a limited amount of time before dog owners are easing their furry friends’ anxiety with CBD and are willing to cough up even more money for food with CBD in it.

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Rosedale Center to launch 10-day social influencer ShareSpace in former J. Crew store.

Rosedale Center, a shopping mall just outside Minneapolis, has found a new use for vacant store space — a pop-up for social media influencers named ShareSpace. ShareSpace will offer an array of marketing strategy sessions such as panel discussions on “using your platform for good” and the legal implications of being a social influencer as well as interactive experiences with local brands. Rosedale Center has experimented with numerous marketing and retail strategies recently including rotating art exhibits and a new food hall. The ShareSpace experience will run from March 6 to March 15.

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Burger King serves up a moldy Whopper to promote going preservative-free

Burger King’s newest ad campaign breaks the mold of food advertising by showing off a moldy Whopper. The campaign, aptly called “The Moldy Whopper,” shows what happens if a Whopper is left out on a table for more than a month. “The beauty of no artificial preservatives,” the ad’s tagline reads. Burger King is eliminating artificial preservatives from the Whopper sandwich in all U.S. restaurants by the end of the year. Other chains such as McDonalds and Panera Bread have already made similar changes to their products, but clearly none of them were bold enough to get ugly.

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Some Staples stores in Boston are getting podcast studios

The office supply store is partnering with iHeartRadio to build podcast studios at six of its stores in the Boston area. For $60, customers will be able to rent one of the soundproof studios for a full hour. A recording specialist will be on hand to help, and additional sound editing services will be available for purchase. The studios are part of broader store renovations for what the company calls Staples Connect, which are stores designed to be co-working and community spaces for professionals, teachers and students.

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Facebook Says Political Candidates Can Use Sponsored Memes

In an announcement that seems to undermined its recent efforts to build public trust, Facebook said it will allow politicians and political groups to pay for sponsored content on its platforms. The decision comes after Mike Bloomberg paid popular accounts to promote his campaign on Facebook-owned Instagram. Sponsored content is hard to track on Facebook and Instagram unless it is ‘boosted’ like a traditional ad — many influential accounts are paid to simply post organically for their loyal followers. This organic form of influence does not always contain obvious disclaimers and isn’t archived in a transparent library like other paid political ads on Facebook and Instagram.

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Valentine’s Day gifts aren’t good investments. Couples, and governments, should beware.

While many people in happy relationships look forward to gifting and receiving Valentine’s Day presents, some economists agree that the added expense of gift-giving are comparable to the government’s tax-and-spend program—it overspends, and its gifts are just mediocre. From the perspective of Joel Waldgogel, author of Scroogenomics and professor at the University of Minnesota, Americans “waste” up to $13 billion a year on gifts that the recipients wouldn’t have bought themselves— “deadweight loss,” as he calls it. With the unavoidable power of consumer marketing around Valentine’s Day persuading us to engage in this spending, the question remains: Are you a hopeless romantic who believes that the infinite value of your relationship is worth far more than a piece of jewelry and box of chocolates? Or, are you on Waldfogel’s bandwagon and would prefer to skip the gift entirely, instead opting for cold, hard cash—allowing for the purchase of your sweetheart’s own desired gift? Swoon!

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Target says its ‘Minnesota Badgers’ onesie is donesie, apologizes

Gopher fan website GopherHole.com tweeted a photo depicting a sour mistake made by a Target vendor: a maroon onesie featuring a gold “M” with the words “Minnesota Badgers.” A quick doubletake by former University of Minnesota employee and huge Gopher fan Kileigh Carpenter during her Saturday night Target trip confirmed that, in fact, she wasn’t just seeing things—there had been an unfortunate fashion misprint. The major retailer issued a statement: “Color us red,” they began out of embarrassment, “As a Minnesota-based company, we know we are home to the Gophers. We’ve worked with our vendor to remove this item and apologize to any sports fans who might have been left scratching their head.” Carpenter admitted that she was happy to see the two rival fan bases unite, and while we agree, University of Minnesota sports fans can agree that the word “badger” has no business donning our signature maroon and gold.

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#BroomChallenge: You can actually stand a broom up anytime during the year

Social media mavens, celebrities and sports teams alike took to Twitter to conduct the “Broom Challenge.” From what started as a viral tweet [falsely] claiming that NASA announced that Monday [Feb. 12, 2020] was the only day that—due to Earth’s gravitational pull—a broom could stand on its own. While this social media phenomenon is alluring, the reality is that a broom can stand on its own at any given day or time thanks to its low center of gravity. Karen Northon, public affairs officer for NASA headquarters, commented that while the broom hoax is “harmless,” it’s important to fact-check and researching “before jumping into the latest viral craze.” We’ll just sweep this one under the rug.

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Snapchat introduces mental well-being tool to counter user issues

In an effort to increase the Snapchat user experience, the app has created a new search tool, “Here for You,” which aims to provide Snappers with a variety of mental health and wellness resources. So, how does it work? When a user types in a flagged work or phrase (i.e. “anxiety”), Snapchat will guide him or her to an appropriate tool, whether it be a piece of expert advice, anxiety-relieving video or other third-party content. The new product launch follows a 2017 study depicting the quantifiable, negative impact that Snapchat can have on the mental wellbeing of young people. As a millennial who has seen the negative mental health effects resulting from the use of several social media apps, the implementation of this feature is a positive leap toward creating a safe and supportive Snapping experience for all.

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Faulty Iowa App Was Part of Push to Restore Democrats’ Digital Edge

The Democratic Party jumped the digital gun when they committed to backing Shadow Inc.’s cell phone app as the main tally for the Democratic Iowa Caucus. Hindsight is 20/20, however, and the push to, as the New York Times’ put it, “match the Republican’s prowess in digital advertising and organizing” pre-2016 election was not without merit. A digitally savvy campaign is almost a necessity nowadays and was proven to be a deciding factor and one of the most effective ways to communicate with voters in the 2016 election. For the Democrat’s to contend with the juggernaut that is President Trump’s online presence, they’ll have to boost their digital game.

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San Antonio Zoo offers Unique Closure for Lonely Hearts on V-Day

Not feeling the love this Valentine’s Day? The San Antonio Zoo might have just the fix for you. Their newly announced promotion, “Cry Me a Cockroach” gives the newly-single and broken-hearted the opportunity to purchase and name a cockroach or rat after their ex. The purchaser can then watch, via an online livestream provided in their Instagram post, as the ex’s proxy is fed to the zoo’s resident reptiles. In addition to getting national hype for the zoo, the morbidly genius promotion will hopefully give some vicarious closure to those participating, proving in a round-about way that broken hearts can be fixed by full stomachs.

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Pioneer Press owner buys 11 more Minnesota papers

MediaNews, the parent company of the St. Paul Pioneer Press has purchased 11 other community newspapers in Minnesota. The CEO of Red Wing Publishing Company which previously owned all 11 publications said that “the best prospect for sustainability for the staff is a large organization with financial wherewithal” and they found that with MediaNews. This sale is part of a larger shift in the industry – smaller businesses are having trouble keeping up with the technology and resources needed to keep up in the age of digital news.

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British ‘X-Files’ of UFO sightings is going public: The U.K.’s Ministry of Defense will publish secret UFO reports for the first time.

The truth is out there… or it will be on a dedicated gov.uk web page. After over 50 years of classified documentation and investigation into reports of UFO’s, the entirety of those files are being released to the public via a yet-to-be-named, government run website. A British news agency filed a request for the UFO files under the Freedom of Information Act and the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense is opting for transparency for the public and giving into pressures to release information.

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New video sharing platform could take a Byte out of TikTok’s market share

Four years after Vine was shut down, one of its creators is returning with a new (but very similar) video sharing app. Like Vine, content is limited to six seconds, but it allows for more creative videos with drawing and GIF capabilities. Almost a week after it’s launch, Byte has a long way to go to catch up to TikTok, but the Vine generation is hopeful that their favorite app has had a second coming.

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Corona is unphased by the coronavirus

In the midst of global panic about the deadly coronavirus, Corona is keeping calm. The brand is doing something brave: trusting its consumers. Although Google searches have spiked for “Corona beer virus,” the beer’s parent company says they do not plan to address it, as they believe their customers understand that the virus is in no way linked to the beer or their brand. “Corona beer virus” has led to some free publicity in the form of memes, anyway.

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Being respectful is more important than being relevant: brands mourn the loss of Kobe Bryant

Quickly turning around content that keeps up with the news cycle helps brands stay relevant, but companies have often been criticized for hopping on bandwagons in the wake of tragedy for their own gain. As the world mourned the loss of Kobe Bryant this week, most brands seemed to have learned their lesson and chose to stick with genuine sentiments instead of hashtags and promotions. #RIPKobe was of course trending, but almost completely dominated by fans grappling with the loss.

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You can now report voter suppression on Twitter

Twitter’s “report this tweet” drop-down now offers “it’s misleading about a political election” or “it intends to suppress or intimidate someone from voting” as options for why you are reporting. Twitter has been notoriously ineffective about enforcing its own policies, and its now asking its users to help get this kind of content off of its platform. This update came just days before the Iowa Caucuses.

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Bloomberg Media launches ‘Bloomberg Green’ to focus on climate change

Meet Bloomberg Green. The media giant’s new effort toward increasing the frequency and depth of its environmental coverage. In addition to its website, the new, multi-platform brand offshoot will include a daily newsletter, print magazine on recycled paper and a podcast discussing the business, science and technology of climate change. Bloomberg Green will also roll out an interactive dashboard, called Data Dash, that tracks the effects of climate change in real time, such as the metrics on the current parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and each day’s most polluted city.

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“Equal Time” for political candidates on social media?

Due to known foreign country interference in the 2016 presidential U.S. election,Forbes offers a potential way to address how ad targeting interferes with politics. The idea is that candidates should have equal opportunity to respond to audiences targeted by their opponent’s digital ads. “It would be an updated digital ‘equal time’ rule for twentieth century political campaigns.”

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Facing public relations crises, Boeing reportedly looks for $10B-plus

Should the Boeing 737 Max rebrand this plane to address the public relations crisis surrounding its spectacular failures? In order to rebuild consumer confidence, Boeing needs to do more than calling the aircraft by another name. If you ask us, good PR is not as simple as slapping a shiny new logo on a catastrophic problem. Boeing needs to double down on honest audience outreach as well as making enough substantial changes and safety enhancements to this new line of planes that they actually are new models.

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Queen Elizabeth’s royal crisis PR performance

The Queen was just as stunned as the rest of us to find out that Harry and Meghan are taking a step back from their royal duties, especially because she found out on Instagram. This sudden announcement brought the royal family into crisis PR mode which they handled with grace. Its important to note first, that Queen Elizabeth has not always handled crisis situations eloquently, and second, that the work is nowhere near done: the family needs to continue to work together to control the narrative around the Duke and Duchess’s departure.

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“Dry January” provides a marketing opportunity for… alcohol brands?

One in five Americans is participating in “Dry January,” or attempting to abstain from alcohol for the duration of this month. What could have been chalked up as a low sales month for booze brands has turned into an opportunity to market low or no alcohol beverages, or market to those who aren’t participating in “Dry January” in the new year.

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Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump to run competing Super Bowl Ads

Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump have each spent $10 Million on campaign ads that will run during the Super Bowl. Big spending on Super Bowl ads is uncommon for political candidates, and Bloomberg’s team reportedly said that their goal for the ad is “getting under Trump’s skin.” Bloomberg entered the race in November and is funding his campaign with his personal fortune.

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Influencers get creative to raise money for Australia

As people across the world chip in to support Australia as it faces growing wildfires, a few influencers have found major success in creative fundraising tactics. Celeste Barber, an Australian comedian and actor set the global record for Facebook’s fundraising program and PayPal is expediting its usual process to get the funds in the right hands ASAP. In even less conventional fundraising news, this Instagram influencer sold nude photos to incentivize donations.

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The rise of the celebrity health influencer

Michael Phelps broke barriers when he went public about struggling with his mental health. Serena Williams showed us a new side of her when addressing issues around childbirth effecting African American mothers. Non-athletes have become health and wellness icons by sharing their diets and work-out regimens with their fans. Social media has changed the way we understand celebrities, and an important outcome of that is the rise of the celebrity health influencer.

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YouTube starts limiting ad targeting and data collection on kids content

YouTube is officially limiting the amount of data that the video-sharing platform and video creators can collect on content intended for children. Without key insights and engagement drivers, content creators face new obstacles for understanding their demographics, and the reduced data collection will essentially eliminate targeted ads to kids, landing a big financial blow to anyone making children’s content on YouTube.

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One Nation, Tracked

Every day, dozens of companies – largely unregulated and rarely scrutinized – are constantly logging the precise movements of tens of millions of people through their mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The New York Times Privacy Project obtained one such file and dissected its contents to illustrate how brands are leveraging location tracking to understand the customer journey, how data collection companies make false promises about anonymity and why Congress has to step in to protect American’s needs as consumers and rights as citizens.

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Ad-supported streaming could benefit as consumers balk at subscription costs, study says

The cord-cutting trend continues to sweep across America as streaming platforms expand their offerings to satiate consumers’ appetite for digital video consumption. According to a new survey though, most American consumers are unwilling to pay more than $20 a month for streaming services and 68% said they would be willing to watch relevant ads, if it meant watching fewer total ads. The results suggest that there is great opportunity for improving the ad-supported experience on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+ and other streaming platforms.

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TikTok revamps content rules, aiming to clear up which videos it allows or blocks

TikTok released a set of new, more detailed rules spelling out 10 categories that are not allowed on the Chinese-owned social media app, including content that glorifies terrorism, shows illegal drug use, features violent images or seeks to peddle misinformation designed to deceive the public. The swift growth of the wildly popular app spawned questions about how the company enforced its vague community standards, particularly in the United States, where free speech values differ greatly from those in China.

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Nike “Dream Crazier” inspiring video highlighting double standards for female athletes

Nike did it again by continuing the culture-rattling conversation with its “Dream Crazier” ad. Serena Williams narrates the video speaking about the double standard of how female athletes are treated when they expose their emotions and ambitions to the world. Nike’s ad went viral on social media and shows the importance of utilizing all platforms for digital campaigns. They directly address the inequality women in sports experience and have gained a spot at the top of the 2019 roundup.

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Halo Top: Ice cream for adults…getting to who really deserves a treat

“What did you all do to deserve ice cream today?” Halo Top’s national campaign hilariously turns an ice cream truck into a place of harsh reality. Children are told the truth about life and maybe why adults deserve ice cream more than them. Relatable and true, the ice cream man dishes on the harsh realities of the world we adults live in including mortgages, love, online dating and work! What a way to convince adults that yes they deserve ice cream, plus there’s no guilt because ther is only 300 calories per pint.

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Thinx imagines a world where men get periods and how it would change our culture

We are talking MENstruation for Thinx’s first national campaign which gained a spot on top campaigns for 2019. This year we saw a prevalence of socially responsible campaigns, Thinx follows this trend by imagining a world where men have periods and having them experience all-too-familiar situations to women. The goal in mind is to create more empathy and keep opening up the conversation about normalizing menstruation. Great example of how brands are being innovative on rethinking our real experiences when sharing their stories.

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The genius Bud Light-Game of Thrones Super Bowl crossover ad

This may look familiar from the Super Bowl, yes another Bud Light Knight commercial. This ad won the top spot for AdWeek’s best of 2019. The brilliant mashup of HBO and Bud Light showed the potential of collaborating two very popular brands. In a creative twist the crowd favorite Bud Light “Dilly Dilly” commercial crossed over into a Game of Thrones takeover, theme song and all. This ad definitely left us thinking about the potential and creativity that comes with the collaboration of agencies, as well as brands.

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