The old saying “location, location, location” seems to gain more relevance every week in the digital world and brands finally seem to be taking notice. The reason of course is that location-based ads can be incredibly relevant and effective. According to a study that was released earlier this week, about half of people using location services on their mobile phones respond to ads.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Pepsi is joining the location revolution. As an early brand adopter of Foursquare, they have plans to continue with more programming in that space, along with a tie to a Pepsi rewards program called Pepsi Loot. Their aim is use Foursquare to drive consumers to nearby stores and restaurants that serve Pepsi products.

According to the New York Times:

“Being able to drive foot traffic into our restaurant partners and our retail partners is a huge opportunity, because that’s where our product is sold,” said B. Bonin Bough, director of social and emerging media for PepsiCo. “Ten blocks mean a lot.”

Once at a Pepsi-friendly spot, the Pepsi Loot tie-in will allow people to collect loyalty points that translate to things like free music downloads.

While the linkage of Foursquare to a loyalty program isn’t new (Tasti D-Lite kicked one off earlier this year), it does mark big name brand adoption of the idea. It’s an advanced use of location-based technology. When it comes to Foursquare, the bigger brands currently and recently jumping on board have been committed to custom badges. These badges can be cool and fun to try to acquire but as a longtime Foursquare user, I’m not as excited about badges as I was when I first stared using the tool. These days, I’m much more excited about spotting alerts for a special deal or in this case an alert spotting me.

[Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BFG client.]

Suck-Squeeze-Bang-Blow these are the basic principles of how a jet engine operates. Throw in a bit of volcanic ash and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the worst thing to ever happen to the airline industry. The problem lies with the “squeeze-blow” part of the equation, when combustion happens if it is mixed with ash, that ash will melt due to the heat and then turn to glass causing the engine to seize. I understood the jet propulsion part of things, at least the basic concept, thanks to some of my aerospace engineering friends. What I didn’t know that the volcanic ash part of the problem would have a major impact on a recent trip to Europe.

18 months ago, when I set out to take my Mom to Paris for her 60th birthday, I never thought about how a volcano could snarl airline travel for an entire continent, with ripple effects for the whole world. Before April 15, 2010 I would have laughed if you told me that Eyjafjallajökull is the name of a volcano in Iceland, truth be told I still can’t pronounce it, but now I’ll never forget it. (I’ll take oddly named things for $1000, Alex).

Mashable recently wrote a great article about how stranded travelers turned to social media for information on what to do now that they were trapped trying to get out of Europe, travel within Europe, or get back to Europe from some place else. The term “you can’t get there from here” has never been more appropriate. Not only were planes grounded but train or bus travel was completely overbooked, rental cars were scarce, and even ferry boats were hard to come by. The article talks about the great response that some airlines were able to put together when faced with a disaster that no one could plan for.

Personally, I turned to Facebook and the group “When Volcanoes Erupt: A Survival Guide for Stranded Travelers.” It was here that I was able to learn information from people stranded all over the place, which was good because news in each country seemed to be a little different. I also saw people offering to house total strangers who were stranded, or share a car from one place to another so that people could get home. I also followed updates on Twitter following #ashtag as a trend (favorite.hashtage.ever). Lastly, I found an article from the New York Times that gave up to date information about what airports were open, partially opened, or closed completely & when they were expected to open. This was valuable since one option we were considering was to travel from Paris to an airport that was open so that we could then fly home.

As a US Citizen stranded in a foreign country, I was frustrated that I wasn’t able to find information about what to do on the US State Department’s Travel Site. However, because of the Facebook group I joined, I did eventually learn that the State Department was frequently updating their Facebook page…it just took a few days for that to happen. I was also frustrated that my airline had a Twitter feed, but they weren’t updating it with important information. I would have settled for quick tweets about their website being updated, but that didn’t even happen.

In the end I was only “stuck” in Paris for one extra day. My husband, who was at home, was able to get my mother and I on one of first flights out of Paris when their air space opened on April 20th (CDG-BOS). I may not have used social media to actually get myself home, but I was able to keep everyone updated on what was happening, and to stay informed as best as possible given the unique situation. This ordeal reaffirmed for me why social media is so important; because of the information that can be quickly distributed if you just take the time to look for it.

Scott Stratten–marketing consultant, General Zod look-alike, and author of the book UNmarketing–outlines some best practices for developing a social media strategy and building an engaged audience. His presentation is couched in the context of the non-profit sector, but any organization would do well to heed Scott’s advice.

Gizmodo shared some useful advice today on how to create a Coke bottle cheat sheet using common household items: Coke bottle (what else), glue stick, scissors, and a computer with a printer and scanner.

We don’t of course advocate cheating but do appreciate interesting mashups. Instead of spending so much time coming up with a cheat sheet for your Coke bottle, perhaps this could be an interesting way to pass silly love notes among friends. Definitely a way to spread some happiness.

[Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BFG client.]

What do a couple of BFG staffers think of the iPad after test driving it for a weekend? Watch and learn.

The next installment of the Creative Seed will take place at 7pm on Monday, May 3rd, at SCAD’s Arnold Hall. This time out we will hear from Drew Dougherty, Branding Design Director at BXC, an active-lifestyle design firm based in southern California.

Drew has over 20 years of experience as a designer and art director, having developed logos, rebranding systems and ad campaigns for a variety of action-sports and lifestyle companies, including Kelly Slater’s Komunity, Nixon Watches, CamelBak, Giro, O’Neill and more.

Drew will also make a presentation Backstage in our Hilton Head office on Friday, April 30th. This intimate chat will provide an opportunity for exclusive Q & A between Drew and the BFG crew; a chance to compare notes and draw mutual inspiration.

The Creative Seed Initiative is a distinctive speaker series that brings together Savannah’s vibrant creative community with some of the most highly regarded and inspiring artists working in the creative industries today. Past speakers have included Dan Ibarra and Mike Byzewski from Aesthetic Apparatus, graphic designer Charles Wilkin from Automatic IAM, and Pentagram Design partner DJ Stout.

The Creative Seed Initiative is a joint venture between BFG Communications and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Earlier today Peter Luthy sent me a link to a Newsweek article titled Tweet Your Way To a Better Career. As one of only a handful of people who have had measurable success in doing just what the articles suggests, I was naturally curious to see what kind of advice would be dispensed; especially given that much of it was coming from a Ph.D. with no discernible hands-on Twitter experience.

Career counselor Erin Martz is quoted giving some misguided advice in this otherwise well-written piece. Martz reveals a lack of understanding of the fundamental nature of Twitter when she suggests that people shouldn’t “lose their professional edge on Twitter” and that “hiring managers don’t want to hear about your significant other or what you did last night, nor do they want to read lanuage that is full of text-message shorthand”.

Martz’s recommendations imply that you should be someone other than your genuine self on Twitter; at best a more guarded or “professional” version of yourself. And while I certainly believe you should learn to self-edit in any public forum–online or offline–to suggest that tweets about personal details are inappropriate or unprofessional is a failure to recognize what has endeared Twitter to the masses who made it wildly successful far before it became the “hot new thing” for large brands and 24-hour news media.

Twitter is not first and foremost a PR channel. It does not exist primarily for hiring managers or so that companies can give away free stuff. Yes, Twitter can be used for all of those things, but what has made Twitter so popular among its true disciples is that at the end of the day it simply provides a way for real people to share ideas and information with other real people. And it’s precisely the mind-numbing mundane details, such as the fact that I like to grill corn or that I think my wife is smokin’ hot, that add glimpses of real humanity. It’s how we know that we’re talking to a real person rather than someone just reading from a script.

So here are the takeaways for those of you playing along at home:

FOR HIRING MANAGERS: If you don’t want to see what your potential employees are really like, stay away from Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Stick to LinkedIn and your stack of resumes where you can read only the things we have all been taught that you want to hear using the homogenized language you want to hear it in.

FOR SOCIAL MEDIA NEWBIES: Be not overly swayed by talk from someone with a fancy Ph.D.; if you really want to know what is or is not appropriate for something like Twitter, you might start by talking to someone who actually uses it.

Okay, maybe not the world, but how about saving 8,500 tons of paper, 1 million liters of water, 10 tons of carbon emissions, and 20 million megajoules of electricity? That’s what Puma is doing with their Clever Little Bag.

Cool sneakers, cleaner planet. Sounds like a win-win to me.

I love art where I have to look twice before the “ah ha” moment occurs.

When I first saw these pictures I thought they were just some random shots showing a variety of people acting wacky. Though these are not photographs at all, they are very intricate drawings and they are awesome.

These photo realistic drawings are all done with nothing more than a fistful of Bic pens by Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas (I wonder if the little Bic man is aware of Casas, and if so, is he keeping him flush with Bic pens?).

For his subject matter Casas uses the candid snaps he’s taken on those obviously crazy nights when he is out with his friends and then meticulously recreates these pictures into ten foot tall canvases. With the stroke of a Bic, Casas breathes new life into his late night party Facebook pictures, which then fetch some sweet prices.

You can see more cool Bic pen works by Casas at Bored Panda, which is “the only magazine for Pandas.”

Forget checking-in on Foursquare. How’s an on-the-move runner supposed to check-in at a specific Foursquare location?

Nike has the answer for that, if you’re a runner in London anyway.

Meet Nike GRID, which uses the old London telephone boxes instead of smartphone-based geo-location technology. Once you’re signed up online, the goal is to run between two telephone boxes (where you enter your user id). Players earn points and badges for their runs, speed, stamina and street smarts. The player with the most points in a specific area gets a crown for that postcode.

The fun starts on April 23rd and players get 24 hours to start claiming their streets.

[Via Contagious Magazine]