What a fantastic way for a brand to show that they are paying attention in social media. The fan gets rewarded, good content is created and the brand gets instant social credibility. Sounds like a win-win-win to me.

There has been a lot of buzz around Foursquare in the last few days. Much it speaks to the growth of Foursquare as it starts to head into a mainstream existence.

First, the Wall Street Journal posted an article that Foursquare has made a deal for funding from a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. This is a big deal for them as they were recently rumored to be in talks with both Yahoo & Facebook for a take over.

Next up, Mashable wrote about Foursquare’s efforts to become more visible in the traditional market place by sending out window clings to businesses. These are to be placed in a store’s front window. The goal of the effort is to remind customers to check-in on Foursquare when the arrive at a business. Whole Foods and lululemon are two of the more notable stores that will feature the clings.

The third news story of the week came from Gizmodo with talks of a Monopoly style app, to be released, that turns the Foursquare platform into a game we all love. There is no date for when/if this app will be released but it shows that developers are taking Foursquare more seriously by investing time in the platform.

Last, but certainly not least, Verizon released a new commercial that features a girl walking around the city, checking-in using her Verizon ‘droid phone. Though Foursquare isn’t specifically named in the commercial, it does show a shift in methodology for promoting mobile applications (and the concept that the Verizon network is everywhere). Just a few short months ago we would have been more likely to see this girl using Facebook on the go, or updating Twitter, not using Foursquare to check-in.

It will be interesting to see where Foursquare goes with this new funding. I’m happy to be along for the ride as a faithful Foursquare user.

Jasmin Cheng of Twist Image prompts us all stop and question the process we use for developing creative briefs.

• Is that process rigid or flexible?
• Is it strictly linear or is it more organic?
• Is it written in collaboration or developed in silos?
• Does it engage and inspire all teams involved: accounts, management, strategy and creative?

Do yourself a favor: don’t gloss over this one. Spend a some time reading a digesting this one.

“The more you expect the client to know what they want, the less value you get to provide… When clients come to you saying they don’t know what they want—that’s the opportunity.” - Ellen DiResta, Synaptics

With the massive success of the Ford Fiesta’s social media marketing movement (which we wrote about here), Ford has decided to move the campaign into the retail arena. When owners come to pick up their Fiesta, they’ll get an interactive USB drive which holds their owner’s manual and a portal to Fiesta’s social networking community, podcasts, enthusiast clubs and merchandise. They’re calling it part of the “unpackaging experience” and it’s all due to a new effort by Ford to make the car delivery a true experience.

New owners start their unpacking experience by watching a video on the Ford dealership kiosks featuring the Ford Fiesta agents from the online social media experience. Then, they get their pictures taken with the car so they can be uploaded to the community site, and once inside, they plug their USB device into the car’s USB port which starts 19 minutes in podcasts that explain the car’s features.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. When they get home, they can use the USB drive to download the Fiesta Community app. The app comes with the Fiestapedia, a simple Photoshop application to photoshop pics of their new Fiesta, and of course, lots of links to the online community. It reminds me of Saturn’s successful community building and focus on the dealer experience before social media was even a buzzword, and should go well with the latest addition to the Fiesta’s marketing strategy: traditional TV ads.

It’s interesting to see a car campaign where the TV commercial is the afterthought and not the center of the campaign. It’s also nice to see one that doesn’t just show shots of the car zooming about on a closed course while some guy with a deeply masculine voice intones its virtues. According to Matt Vandyke, director of U.S. marketing communications for Ford, the previous strategy of “blast-bust” where there’s one huge marketing push before the vehicle enters the marketplace wasn’t working. Vandyke claims that Fiesta’s social marketing strategy, “five times more efficient than anything we’ve done before.” And he promises that, “It’s something you’ll see us doing with other vehicles going forward.”

Let me update you on The Situation. As Jersey Shore gears up for its season two premiere, the controversy-laced marketing for the show has been everywhere. Unlike the first season where the lead up to the premiere was relatively low key and mostly advertised on MTV, the gang has prefaced their return with a bevy of TV appearances, magazine covers, sponsorship deals, and of course, gossip-worthy incidents.

Let’s skip straight to the incidents, shall we? Potential battery charges have been dropped after Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola punched another woman in the face at a Miami nightclub. MTV has promised to go easy on the Guido references in response to Italian Americans who are upset about the stereotypical portrayal, but they’ve already been accused of making fun of southerners in the new season. And, just this week, The Situation, Ronnie, and Vinny posed for the cover of The Village Voice, but issues erupted when the mag hit the stands and the boys claim they were never told they were going to front, “The Queer Issue” with its lead story on The Guido Ideal: men on the down-low on the Jersey Shore. The Villiage Voice maintains the all knew the situation in advance, and CNN’s commentators suggested the boys were making it up for the sake of controversy.

Speaking of the Guido ideal, if you’re looking to rock the Jersey Shore look, you’ll soon be able to dress in clothing designed by The Situation and JWOWW. The Sitch is partnering up with Dilligaf USA (look up the acronym) to create Dilligaf Couture by the Sitch, and JWOWW selling her own through her site with more exclamation points than are necessary (and don’t miss the classy posters).

Of course, there’s also the bevy of appearances. Catch The Situation on Leno, where he tells the story of his transformation from Mike the out of work mortgage broker into The Situation. Don’t miss Friggin’ Twilight Jimmy Kimmel’s Jersey Shore Twilight spoof (above). And don’t forget to buy this month’s Rolling Stone for a special Jersey Shore swimsuit photoshoot.

Finally, if you missed it, The Situation is now a rapper. He released his debut single on Tupac’s birthday. Yes, it’s true, but you really have to hear it for yourself.Jersey Shore season 2 premieres on Jul. 29 on MTV.

Here’s a quick look at video using the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4. It was shot by placing the iPhone 4 on its side in a simple business card stand.

Here’s how the camera’s user interface is laid out.

iPhone 4 packaging.

Happiness is a hot topic these days among marketers. Sharing or spreading happiness is an even hotter one. Over the past year, we’ve seen Coca-Cola’s global Open Happiness campaign come to life with stand-outs like this video of a Coke vending machine that keeps pumping out free sodas to unsuspecting students.

This week, Unilever unveiled its take on vending machine fun, bringing some Augmented Reality technology into the mix. Folks attending the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival are getting the first taste of what amounts to smiling your way to a yummy ice cream treat. When the machine asks users to smile, it uses facial recognition to measure the smile, take a photo and ultimately send to Facebook (with permission of course). At that point, users are prompted to choose from a selection of sweet treats.

The video below shows the machine in action and be sure to check out a photo gallery of smiles from SapientNitro, the brains behind this experiment.

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

In today’s installment of historic Twitter moments (doesn’t it seem like there’s one a month now?), Disney/Pixar has purchased the first Twitter Trending Topic ad for Toy Story 3. “What exactly IS a Twitter Trending Topic?” You might be asking. Well, it’s Twitter’s second step on their quest to turn the service into a profitable ad platform, the first being the inclusion of promoted tweets back in April.

Twitter has always listed the top 10 keywords on the right-hand side of your feed. Now, below that list, you’ll see purchased topics with large yellow boxes next to them that say “Promoted”. As with regular trending topics, clicking on a promoted topic will take you to the results page for that keyword. However, the results page will also include a Promoted Tweet at the top of the stream.

Interestingly enough, you can’t buy a specific length of time for your Trending Topic to appear. They have to “resonate,” which I assume means be re-tweeted enough to stay on the list. If it does break the top 10, it will move up from the 11th spot like an ordinary trend topic. If not, your promoted Topic will disappear into the ether of the Internets. More specific details are coming as the experiment progresses, but until then, enjoy these historic screen shots.

State parks aren’t exactly notorious for best practices when it comes to utilizing new technology, so I have to say I was a little impressed when a friend of mine pointed me to this summer’s GeoChallenge Adventure from the State Parks and Historic Sites division of the Georgia DNR.

The Premise

Sealed ammo boxes labeled as a Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites GeoCache are hidden in 42 Georgia State Parks. There is a “First-to-Find” special prize for a certificate for a 1-night camping stay in each cache for the person who gets there first, and 10 of the caches contain an “endangered” gopher stuffed toy which becomes yours to keep and protect.

How To Play

• Download a Georgia State Park GeoChallenge PassPort or just the Grid Sheet.
• Get the GPS coordinates at www.Geocaching.com for the Georgia State Parks Geo-Challenge locations.
• Locate the caches by entering their GPS coordinates into a hand-held GPS unit.

The Payoff

The boxes contain a prize for the first adventurer to locate the cache, and successive adventurers are encouraged to leave a trinket of equal or greater value for the next adventurer. Log your name and any comments to the logbook, stamp your PassPort grid sheet with the unique stamp for that specific park and then share your experiences online. (Unfortunately, no direction is given as to where to share your experience online.)

There also are geo-coin (bronze, silver, and gold) for finding a certain number of caches and stamping your Geocache Passport with the stamps that are unique to each cache.

As I said earlier, I really applaud the effort. We don’t often see innovation like this from state parks and recreational organizations. That said, I think there are a handful of ways the GeoChallenge Adventure could be made even better.

How To Make It Better

• Make each cache a Foursquare/Gowalla location so that gameplay is not limited only to those with handheld GPS devices. They could even partner with these location-based services so that checking-in at a cache automatically earns adventurers a cache-specific badge (an alternative to having to collect physical stamps in the GeoChallenge Passport).
• Develop GeoChallenge Adventure smartphone apps in lieu of Foursquare/Gowalla integration.
• Incorporate StickyBits at each cache location so that user-generated content can be shared easily online.
• Create and link to a Facebook Fan page for the GeoChallenge Adventure so that adventurers have a designated place to share their adventures online.

Click here for more detailed information about the Georgia State Parks GeoChallenge.

The boys of OK Go are at it again with their newest video for the song End Love. In this video they use some neat camera techniques to produce a visually pleasing video. I’m not sure they’ve hit a homerun like with “Here It Goes Again” or even “This Too Shall Pass” but I am still entertained.

What is getting them attention with this particular video is the Facebook contest that goes along with it. They have made this video available for download, for free. Fans are then instructed to upload the video to their Facebook page. One winner will receive a personalized, engraved iPad from OK Go, loaded with the complete OK Go catalog of music and videos, as well as some exclusive content and apps.