Social Media

Gap will launch a fall global marketing campaign called “Back to Blue,” featuring two videos with musicians Dhani Harrison and Alexa Ray Joel, which consumers can watch on TV, desktops and smartphones and tablets.

Football season is underway and Dick's Sporting Goods has upgraded its "Jersey Report" with advanced features to provide fans insights into pro football jersey sales at store locations nationwide and online. 

Updated daily, the Jersey Report offers fans a comprehensive breakdown of how the sales of their favorite players' jerseys are rising, falling and stacking up against the competition.  

Twitter is going public and announced its intention to file for an IPO with a tweet.

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO,” stated the tweet. “This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”

An already impressive speaker lineup was further strengthened this week when executives from Walmart.com, Salesforce.com, DataRank and Saatchi & Saatchi X were added to the lineup for the Emerging Trends in Retailing conference.

Special guest judge, Marlon Wayans, was on hand to help Miller Lite select the winner of the brand's national comedy competition "Stand Up. It's Miller Time."

Southern retailer Belk drew in nearly 220,000 registrants through daily prizes and giveaways in its “Belk’s 125 Days of Prizes” campaign. 

Belk partnered with mobile, social and digital engagement provider ePrize to power the sweepstakes across a microsite, Facebook and mobile channels. The multichannel campaign, which aimed to promote Belk’s 125th anniversary and to increase consumer engagement with the brand, exceeded Belk’s expectations for engagement across digital channels.

Dallas – Independent agency network Project: Worldwide intends to acquire Mercury 11, a social media and marketing technology agency with retail and shopper marketing focus. The agency will be integrated with Project’s shopper marketing engagement agency Shoptology.

PLANO, Texas — As the Lay's Stax brand prepares to mark its 10th anniversary, it is teaming up with the National Football League for its first-ever football-themed promotion. 

Lay’s Stax will host a Game Day Click-Off sweepstakes on its Facebook page, where fans of Thursday Night Football and Lay's Stax crisps will have the chance to engage with the brand, share their love of football and win prizes, including a chance to win tickets to Super Bowl XLVIII in New York/New Jersey.

Milford, Conn. – Subway is entering a cross-platform advertising partnership with NBCUniversal for its new interactive game show “Million Second Quiz.” In addition to providing gift cards to contestants during the course of the show, Subway will offer photo opportunities and social media engagements.

Other aspects of the joint campaign will include messaging on Facebook and Twitter, a prize of a year’s worth of foot-long subs via an NBC radio promotion, and a Subway presence in the live stream both online and in the MSQ App.

The rapid spread of a presumably false rumor about Jack Nicholson retiring from acting last week got me thinking about what a true Hollywood icon he has become and how he took a very unique path to greatness. Retailers aspiring to greatness in their social efforts may want to “be like Jack” in the way they apply social media technology.

Know your own strengths