Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers

New York Times, October 26, 2009 — Companies big and small monitor Twitter to find out what their customers like and what they want changed. Twitter does the same.

It started two years ago as a bare-bones service, offering little more than the ability to post 140-character messages. Then, it outsourced its idea generation to its users. The company watches how people use the service and which ideas catch on. Then its engineers turn the ideas into new features.

U.K. Wireless Brand Turns Customer Service Over to Consumers†

Users Get Freebies for Marketing the O2's Giffgaff to Others

Advertising Age, October 5, 2009 — You've seen user-generated content, so now get ready for user-generated marketing, technical support and customer service.One of the UK's biggest cellphone operators is launching a new mobile network called Giffgaff whose customers will be able to earn free calls and texts by actively marketing the service to their friends and families.

Skittles Cozies Up to Social Media†

Candy's Site Is Built on Consumer-Created Content From Twitter, Facebook

Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2009 — For years, Skittles has encouraged consumers to "Taste the Rainbow." Now, the candy brand wants people to "Chat the Rainbow."

Mars Snackfood, maker of the chewy, multicolored candies, launched a new homepage at Skittles.com on Thursday that may represent the closest embrace of social media yet by a mainstream marketer. Instead of a typical product site that highlights information about or videos and games related to a product, Skittles.com features content created by consumers — most of it gleaned from other Web sites.

Thinking by Design†

Brandweek, November 2, 2008 — While marketers have appreciated the value of distinctive design for some time now—at least since Apple and Target started making it a key differentiator about a decade ago—design thinking is something else. The premise is that if you tap a designer, or a designer's problem-solving approach, to tackle standard business problems, you will get game-changing results.

Alpo Looks for the Greatest ‘Meat Maniac’

New York Times, July 7, 2008 — Decades ago, celebrities like Ed McMahon and Barbara Walters promoted Alpo dog food. Now, dog owners — and their pets — can do it themselves by taking part in a video contest being sponsored by the brand.

The Alpo Real Meat Moments contest, now under way, is seeking video clips of the dog that is the biggest “meat maniac” in the country — that is, the pooch that goes ga-ga in the most photogenic and entertaining manner whenever Alpo is served for dinner.