Limited-time deals aren’t new to consumers or retailers, but sites that focus on time-sensetive promotions for extraordinary discounts have exploded with popularity. Check out Slickdeals.net and Groupon.com;  they rank as the 171st and 249th most visited sites in the United States, respectively.

Deal of the day, hour or minute; the real-time stream of information via social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook has opened new potential to connect consumers and advertisers under time-sensitive conditions.

Then it comes as no surprise that Twitter has recently launched a new account called @Earlybird, channeling these offerings to followers and also, creating another revenue source in addition to promoted tweets and sponsored trends for the four-year old company.

The creation of @Earlybird, which already has 56,186 followers, may complement the demand of both the consumers and advertisers, but will random promotions keep Tweeters following @Earlybird? How do you separate @Earlybird from just another handle spamming promotions?

Twitter has plans to launch more accounts like @EarlyBird, so stay tuned.

The next version of Facebook will publicly exchange user’s personal information to other sites and applications to create a more unique experience based on one’s interests, “likes” and more.  As soon as you log into Facebook, then go to a different site, your profile will automatically connect and exchange your personal preferences. The more you use the web through Facebook, the more it learns about you.

For instance, based on your musical interests listed in your profile and past bands that you’ve “liked”, Pandora will already have a playlist ready for you…even if you have never been to their site. If you give a favorable rating of a band on Pandora, Facebook will store that information and may share it with Amazon, who will prompt you on that band’s newest album next time you visit their site. Other sites like The Wall Street Journal, HULU and IMDB will also be using the platform in similar ways.

These new string of features will completely reorganize the relationship between people and websites, goods and services – with huge advertising and search potential.

As the web becomes more dynamic with social media information, Facebook may become the source for finding information beyond social networks, as their individual social database expands and they continue to conquer more online territories.

Instant online publishing from blogs and social networks has created massive amounts of data existing within social networks, which is often difficult for Google to index and deliver in real time.

As the web is becoming more social and the demand for real time information increases, can Google keep up?

CreativeFeed wants to know your opinion! Cast your vote on the poll below.

TweetUp and Twitter is keeping us very busy at the CreativeFeed office.

Yesterday, we blogged about Idealab’s latest startup, TweetUp, a service that will be applying search engine marketing and keyword filters to Twitter. Think AdSense and Google.

Later that day, Twitter announced Promoted Tweet, Twitter’s very own, and similar,  advertising platform.

Today, we ask ourselves, what are the similarities and differences between these two platforms?

We could provide you a lengthy explanation, but a Venn Diagram is a lot more fun.

Click to Enlarge

Creative Feed is also curious to know about the effectiveness and functionality of either service
•    Will paid vs. organic search results dilute the user experience of a genuine and open social community?
•    What will happen to the companies that don’t pay for keywords? Other services that involve paid search results have been labeled as cyber extortioners.

Recently, P&G has re-centered its focus on the shelf. CreativeFeed can certainly get behind this effort, as we understand the importance of selling at the most basic level. With that, we’ve put together our top 5 pros and cons to in-store marketing.

5 Pros:

“I walked in to buy deodorant but left with a full toiletry set”. Clever in-store marketing promotes compulsive purchasing through great packaging design.

Creating Brand Identity Can Forge a Franchise Linking Product. The human mind is more likely to recognize an item when seeing it again. Product lines with a certain packaging theme will introduce new items of the same product line.

“I told my friends about the product not because I liked the product, but because I like my friends “. Great packaging creates consumer conversation, which is becoming more important as growing online social networks make it easier to promote products and services through a peer to peer network.

It’s More Than Just a Box. Great design is communication without words.

Efficiency. A recent study by Nielson found in-store advertising accountable for 50% of product awareness, where television is just around 33%.

5 Cons:
High Reward, Higher Risk of Failure. Creativity is often subjective and failing design initiatives can have major repercussions for product and company reputations.

Coordination of Cooperation. Manufacturers can create an amazing design, but the retailer is ultimately responsible on how it will be executed, such as retail floor layout, lighting, product stocking and placement.

Sensory Overload. Retailers want to create a comfortable shopping atmosphere for their costumers, but brands want to be seen. Can this conflict of interest still create an enjoyable shopping experience?

Changing Product Design Instead of Product Lines. Bottom line, consumers care about the quality of the products they purchase.

Think Global, Stay Local. A brand overhaul has little consideration for local consumers.

CreativeFeed wants to know how packaging design influences your purchasing! Leave a comment below.

Interesting project happening on 23rd and Broadway, near Madison Square Park. Starbucks is encouraging people to switch from paper to reusable mugs. Their way of doing it? Bring your paper cup and walk away with a great reusable mug.

The project which took place over 2 days created an image of a huge tree made up entirely of coffee cups. There has been coffee cup artwork before, but this has more relevance in the messaging.

Keep watching for the time-lapse of the project soon.

Could this phrase soon replace the ubiquitous “Google it” response to all things unknown? Microsoft certainly hopes so. With the launch of its new Decision Engine, Bing, searchers are offered more detailed information for the decisions that matter most to them. Like in popular categories such as travel, health, shopping, local directions, restaurant reviews and traffic maps.

CreativeFeed was tapped by JWT New York to help launch the new Decision Engine. One aspect of the CreativeFeed contribution was devising a remarkable way to demonstrate live online search results to pedestrians and drivers in cities in the northwest US. Commuters were informed via digital truck-mounted billboards displaying real time results from Bing. Drivers could now get live updates as to which highway provides the faster commute. To showcase the Travel feature of Bing, the same innovative technology was used to display the destinations that have travel deals on airfare at that moment.

Read the Article

Creativity does not (and should not) stop at campaigns and ads that a lot of times don’t get noticed. We would hope that everyone notices our cool, chic print ad, but in all honesty, there are so many out there that only radical (sometimes downright bizarre) forms of creativity get appreciated.

AND in all honesty, our eccentric Creatives (whom we so dearly love) need some free reign. They dream up ideas, the rest of the company scrubs the edges, et voilà! We have a product that makes consumers tick.

http://cnbceb.com/marketing/not-just-a-pretty-face/951/