With Internet usage almost overtaking TV usage and the recent rave for social networking groups such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, companies all over are jumping on the bandwagon and doing their part to invest in this new form of advertising. Buzz questions such as “Are you my Facebook friend?”, ”Have you tweeted recently?” and “Did you check out that blog?” are heard around the world from audiences of all demographics. Sounds like they may be speaking another language, but in fact this is the language socially accepted in response to the new age of  social media marketing.

In an effort to compete with advertising across a social platform, Downy is promoting a new way to stay connected with friends and family. Until May 31, those who enter a snapshot photo with a pledge caption are automatically entered to win the ultimate reunion trip. Downy, the fragrant fabric softener, wants you to share this pledge with the world and connect with family and friends in a whole new atmosphere. So check it out, submit your own Downy pledge and stay connected with family and friends in a whole new way.

Amazing! Barely looking half her age, Barbie just turned 50! Originally marketed as a teenage fashion model in 1959, this popular fashion icon toy has undergone 5 decades of facelifts and wardrobe changes.

Despite a sales slump of 20 percent, Mattel is investing in an extravagant marketing campaign in honor of Barbie’s milestone birthday. They’re hoping the multimedia campaign will increase sales by reaching out to 3 generations of consumers.

Though Barbie’s actual birthday was March 9, Mattel will promote the 50th anniversary campaign throughout the remainder of the year. Not only does Barbie the doll get a makeover with the 2009 Golden Anniversary Barbie, but the official website also has a new look and feel.

By partnering with other companies and brands, Mattel extends marketing beyond the basic media relations and aims to touch everyone from brick and mortar stores to online events and much more! Here’s a small sampling of some of the promotional campaigns seen in honor of our plastic symbol of pop culture:

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

Barbie marketers tag teamed with Mercedes Benz for a Broadway Runway Show produced during the coveted fashion week. With a live broadcast of the show on Barbie.com, viewers witnessed a beautiful runway in which 50 designers showed off Barbie-inspired collections.

Limited Edition Barbie VW Beetle

In celebration of the big 5-0, Volkswagen of America created 13 hot pink Beetle convertibles. The limited edition car is fully equipped with rhinestones, paint that sparkles and a motorized vanity.

Facebook Page

The Barbie Facebook page shares Barbie’s secrets, favorite things, messages and a regularly updated status.

Malibu Dream House

On the eve of Barbie’s birthday celebration, interior decorators spruced up a 3,500-square-foot villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After 6 months of planning, this Dream House became a Real House that hosted Monday’s 50th birthday bash. One word to describe the dream house: PINK! Decorators thought of everything when decorating for the 11.5” doll. This fantasy land was complete with wall-to-wall pink carpeting, 50 pairs of pink heeled shoes lining the closet, an original Andy Warhol portrait of Barbie and much more!

Bloomingdale’s

Bloomingdale’s in New York is uniting with Mattel to promote the Barbie celebration. This retail partner dolled up the store to feature amazing window décor honoring Barbie, an in-store display of 120 historic Barbie dolls, and a 242-square-foot in-store Barbie boutique that highlights accessories, apparel, and dolls.

Jeopardy

Contestants were put to the test on Monday, March 9th as Jeopardy included a whole category dedicated to Barbie. Trivia questions such as Barbie’s history, favorite designer, and favorite shoes were presented on the show.

Barbie Candy Bar

Partnering with Dylan’s Candy Bar, the creation of a sassy and all girl candy line is scheduled to make an appearance in early April. This candy line will include fun chocolate assortments, such as a shoebox of “The Perfect Pair of Chocolate Heels.”

Have you seen the new Skittles website? Whoa. Talk about embracing social media.

The homepage lands you on the Twitter search stream for Skittles. Anytime a Twitter user mentions the word “skittles” in an update, it will show up on the homepage.

The navigation is a simple widget that directs users to Skittles’ YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook pages. When you click on a specific product, you’re redirected to the Wikipedia entry for individual Skittles products.

The new site is essentially an aggregator of all Skittles’ social media channels. It’s a great idea, and it’s certainly paid off this morning. Everyone is talking about it, and the Twitter stream is full of commentary on the new site and great press. For now.

But what happens when the chatter dies down? I applaud Skittles’ willingness to open themselves up to consumers this way, and for right now it’s working, but what happens when the Skittles Twitter updates become more sporadic? Will the Twitter stream homepage remain relevant? What will happen to the site when the novelty wears off?

I guess we’ll find out. For now, I’m enjoying the experiment. An approach this extreme may not work in the long term, but Twitter has earned some invaluable publicity for their bold move and hopefully cleared the way for more brands to integrate social media into their websites.

Regardless of how well the strategy works long term, we can definitely learn something from them about cohesive branding across multiple social media channels. Each profile fits together as part of a whole to create an identity for Skittles on the Web, which is how all social media profiles for a brand should work. Skittles has just taken it one step further by linking them directly to their website.

This week, Tropicana made waves with the swift failure of a massive rebranding effort.

PepsiCo, owners the well established Tropicana brand, sought to capitalize on the economic downturn through marketing. They hired New York ad agency Arnell to implement a complete redesign of the Tropicana logo and packaging. Arnell is also responsible for the recent Pepsi logo revamp, which was criticized for its striking resemblance to Barack Obama’s campaign logo.

The$35 million rebranding effort backfired big time. Fiercely loyal customers fired off angry emails and blog rants complaining about the new packaging. PepsiCo and Tropicana quickly announced that the old, familiar packaging will return to the shelves by next month.

So what happened? According to the New York Times assessment of the debacle, social media factored into the equation in a big way:

Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

That ability to share brickbats or bouquets with other consumers is important because it facilitates the formation of ad hoc groups, more likely to be listened to than individuals.

The Tropicana debacle is reminiscent to the “Motrin Moms” disaster last November. Angry moms took to Twitter to complain about a Motrin ad campaign that offended them. Within 48 hours, Motrin executives had publicly apologized and scrapped the expensive campaign.

What could Tropicana have done differently to successfully rebrand without throwing their most loyal customers into an uproar? If they had used social media to involve their most loyal customers in the process, it would have been a powerful tool in their rebranding process. Instead social media worked against them as customers joined forces to increase the fallout.

What if they had given customers a vote on the new packaging? They would have enjoyed the benefit of months of publicity leading up to the unveiling. Most importantly, they wouldn’t have faced the bad press, the outrage of their loyal customers, or the cost of undoing the $35 million rebranding campaign.

Marketers can learn a valuable lesson from Tropicana’s mistake. Social media has forever changed the way that consumers interact with brands and marketing tactics. If you don’t converse with your customers, it could cost you.

This week in my quest to find some rad ads, I stumbled upon an advertisement that was refreshingly fun, interactive and actually quite entertaining. Willing to accept any creative challenge, I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Hoodie Remix … even though I’m not frequently seen sporting a hoodie!

I urge each and every one of you to check out this amusing, interactive website contest. Champion created a website that allows the average consumer to get in touch with their creative side and actually design a hoodie! Equipped with a diverse color palette and fun patterns, the site allows you to become the designer. You can create as many designs as you wish … the sky is the limit!

If you aren’t feeling creative, take the time to view the gallery of submitted designs and vote on your favorite. You can continue to submit and vote for designs until March 31. The winner will be announced on May 29 and will actually have their design produced!

This ad campaign blends all of elements of interactive advertising and viral marketing. Not only does it encourage the audience to get involved, but the easy to create widget allows users to share their creations with friends (while spreading Champion’s marketing message throughout the Web).

So this Friday, I challenge you to express yourself creatively! Go to Hoodie Remix and create your own designs or browse through the gallery to view what others have created! For your viewing pleasure, here is my work of art!

David Kiley of Business Week’s advertising blog, Brand New Day, wrote a post about Pepsi’s new ad campaigns, which capitalize on the current feeling of hope that is spreading across America following Barack Obama’s Presidential win. The ads use President Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can” to evoke the feelings of hope and inspiration that led Americans to vote for him.

Kiley calls the ads a miss. “Call me cranky,” he writes, “but I don’t think an advertiser should lift this phrase for its own use, and especially not launch the campaign right around the inauguration. This is a special time in America—difficult and historic. This ad and its language comes off as a ripoff. Not an homage, but a ripoff. And it cheapens the ad and the campaign. It makes Pepsi look crass.”

Granted, I am a tried and true Diet Pepsi drinker. As all of my co-workers will attest to, if you try to come between me and my Diet Pepsi, we’ve got problems. While I agree that taking a phrase that has so inspired America and putting it on a soda can is a bit cheap, I can’t help but feel that the campaign works. We’re talking about it, aren’t we?

Think about it — you wake up to the radio, watch your favorite morning television show, surf the web at work and are constantly bombarded by advertisements all day. Over the course of a single day, a typical adult will see hundreds to thousands of advertisements.  How will your company break from the noise to actually invite potential customers to interact with your brand?

Here are some tips to help your company stand out in the media saturated digital age:

Have a strong corporate identity.

This is your brand and how you project this to the world. A clear and legible logo that is memorable and visually represents your business will help your potential customers to remember your company. A strong logo can include a mark, a tagline, or an image to fully represent your brand. The colors and professionalism will also affect how consumers perceive your brand. Reds are stimulating, blues and greens are healing and calm, and yellows are happy and optimistic.

Utilize non-traditional communication.

By thoroughly researching and knowing your target audiences, you will have insightful information about the activities they participate in and the places they go. Use this knowledge as a venue to reach out to the customers when they are not expecting it. This can also include advertising with complementary products. For example, if my company sold skateboard decks, I would want my product at local skate parks and available to skaters in the event of a rider breaking their board. Complementary products and services could include grip tape, snacks, or skateboarding lessons. Diversify where and how you communicate with potential customers.

Offer superior value.

What makes you different from your competitors? Is it excellent and responsive customer service, fast lead times, or a high quality product? Customers want to know what value your products and services offer. How you communicate these value-added attributes of your products and services will greatly influence how potential consumers perceive your brand. Make your company memorable by providing a superior value to your customers and clearly communicating this distinctive trait.