Social Media

Fast-growing flooring retailer The Tile Shop is leveraging social media with a clever contest idea to expose its expanding brand to more customers.

The operator of 92 specialty flooring stores is giving social media users until May 22 to enter its, “Ugliest Kitchen & Bath Contest,” for a change to win $1,000 in free tile and a design consultation. All photo submissions will be eligible for weekly $100 gift card drawings. Homeowners can enter photos of their ugly kitchens and bathrooms to Facebook or Instagram using #thetileshop for a chance to win.

Technology is no longer the sole province of “IT geeks,” or even marketers and finance executives — it is also now a focal point of such operational departments as store planning, energy management, construction management and real estate.

In recognition of the huge impact technology is having on store operations, SPECS 2014 held a series of hands-on tech boot camps, with the first one devoted to design, development and facilities, the second to operational technology, and the third to social media trends and tools.

San Francisco – Stock compensation expenses helped produce a net loss of $132.4 million at Twitter Inc. during the first quarter of 2014, compared to a net loss of $27 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Twitter attributed part of the net loss to $126 million in stock compensation expense.

San Jose – PayPal is rebranding itself in an effort designed to create a cohesive look and feel across the brand. The program includes a new logo and an omni-channel campaign called “powering the people economy.”

Chicago -- Consumer confidence rose significantly in the first quarter of 2014, according to a MarketPulse survey from IRI. All age groups are reporting a more positive outlook — especially Millennials. A distressed consumer segment since the economic downturn began, this age group is showing the greatest rise in confidence.

As part of a competition between Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles to see which cereal is more popular with fans, Post Foods announced two professional American soccer players to grace its cereal boxes. Omar Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Galaxy will join WWE star John Cena on Team Fruity, while Olympic gold medalist and forward of the Portland Thorns, Alex Morgan, will join basketball star Kyrie Irving on Team Cocoa.

Mountain View, Calif. - Airtight Networks, which provides in-store WiFi analytics such as how long customers stay and shop, how often they come in and marketing campaign effectiveness, is partnering with Frontera Consulting to package social media and retail intelligence capabilities with the Airtight platform. The new solution offers WiFi-based brand lifecycle management.

Tic Tac mints has launched limited edition Summer Ice Pop Tic Tac mints. The combination of blue berry-flavored pills, red cherry-flavored pills and white lime-flavored pills aims to offer consumers a nostalgic reminder of summertime, the company said.