Social Media

Chicago - An overwhelming majority (89%) of moms are regularly influenced by coupons to try new food and drink products. Conducted by online community Womensforum.com, the "Womensforum.com Supermarket Moms Survey" of 2,200 moms also finds nearly half (49%) of grocery-seeking moms see it as a frequent occurrence.

Toys “R” Us is launching a nationwide in-store and online awareness campaign encouraging its customers to support the athletes participating the Special Olympics.

Starting Feb. 1, by texting "Cheer" to 80888, customers can make a $5 donation via their mobile device that will help Special Olympics athletes.

Plans for the fragrance division of Marc Jacobs to open a pop-up in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood are not terribly unusual. But the type of currency the shop will accept is.

The Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop, which will be open during New York Fashion Week, from Feb. 7 to 9, will trade in social currency instead of money.

Kozy Shack, a 50-year-old pudding brand, is hiring a spokes-grandma to represent the brand nationally in online, broadcast and print advertisements.

The call for applications has been put out coast-to-coast: Pudding-loving grandmas can submit their applications at KozyShack.me/Grandma now through Jan. 31. More information can be found in job postings on Monster, Careerbuilder and LinkedIn.

Modell’s CEO Mitchell Modell will be extending a personal welcome to Super Bowl fans who visit the flagship store in Times Square, N.Y., via the Tensator Virtual Assistant. The company has invested in the interactive digital signage to personalize its brand and reach out to customers in more than 10 languages.
 

Retailer and CPG companies’ usage of Facebook to engage with customers helped propel the 10-year-old social media platform to record levels of usage, sales and profitability in the fourth quarter.

Facebook said its daily active users increased 22% to 757 million while mobile daily active users increased 49% to 556 million. Those who used Facebook on a monthly basis increased 16% to 1.23 billion and those who did so monthly via a mobile device totaled 945 million.

New York -- The fragrance division of Marc Jacobs will open a pop-up in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood that will trade in social currency instead of money. The Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop will be open during New York Fashion Week, from Feb. 7 to 9.

According to reports, all transactions at the pop-up will be carried out based on customers’ use of the hashtag #MJDaisyChain across Twitter and other social media platforms. Shoppers will be able to exchange each tweet, Instagram post, or Facebook update for a single item.

By Rodney Mason, CMO, Parago

When the 2013 holiday shopping season ended, it resulted in sluggish results for U.S. retailers.  Price-match policies worked to fend off some showrooming, but these discounts also ate up margins at a very unhealthy rate.

A recent national shopper behavior study by Parago found that:

• The majority of smartphone owners showroom and regularly make purchases on their phones while in-store;