The New England Patriots wanted to set themselves apart from the rest of the NFL pack by rewarding their die-hard fans with a platform that is naturally interactive and super engaging. That’s where we came in…Buddy Media developed the ultimate social media experience for New England’s fifty year old franchise and its full of cool stuff that’s fun for ALL football fans!

The New England Patriots Facebook Fan Zone features ‘Game Face’ messaging that helps fans get stoked for each week’s games, a detailed events calendar to keep the masses updated on the weekly NFL schedule, and a polling interface that let’s fans weigh in with their predictions for the season. Close to fifty Patriots-themed virtual gifts complete the Fan Zone, which will be regularly updated throughout the NFL season. But don’t head for the exits yet because the Fan Page is just a gateway to the ULTIMATE fan experience: The New England Patriots Fantasy Forecast and Trivia application.

The Fan Zone Fantasy Forecast provides football fanatics with a chance to predict a wealth of statistics for each week’s Patriot game. The Pats will reward the week’s top prognosticators with official merchandise from the team store.  But we kicked it up a social notch, by including a recruitment reward for fans who invite their friends to participate. So, if I recruit my buddy MJ and he’s the week’s top fantasy performer, I win too!

Don’t start doing a touchdown dance yet because there’s more.  The Fan Zone Trivia Challenge provides satisfying diversion between NFL match-ups.  The Patriots provided some of the most challenging team trivia questions I’ve ever seen.  Just check it out for yourself and see if you can earn a place at the top of the leaderboard.

We’re incredibly stoked to bring this unique social platform to Facebook users across the country.  While the Fan Page might be for the New England Patriots, the experience is for all football fans – no matter what color jersey they wear on Sunday afternoons.

Go to the Public Profile on Facebook

Go to the Application on Facebook

Our team worked closely with the Imagineers at Disney Parks to design a magical social media campaign that will delight Disney fans – both young and old.   We created a Facebook application as a companion to Disney’s Celebrations promotion, occuring at their theme parks all over the world.  Disney Parks Celebration Gallery is a simple way to send ’shout-outs’ to friends – with celebratory balloons shaped like the famous Mickey Mouse sillouhette. Disney afficianados can even inform the world of their very own reasons for celebration by publishing a Mickey Mouse balloon with personal messaging to their Profile Walls. A gallery of past celebrations lets users see what their friends are celebrating and even gives them a peek at what Disney-philes from around the world have to be happy about.

Sometimes your dreams do come true – and when that happens, you want to share that joy and elation with friends. Check out Disney Parks Celebration Gallery now to start the party!

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comScore released the latest social networking growth and usage statistics for July 2009.  Both Facebook and Twitter have experienced significant growth in unique visitors and time spent on site, demonstrating a continued trend towards mass adoption and increased user engagement.

•    Facebook experienced its highest growth rate in July 2009 – 87.7 million unique visitors in the US
•    Time spent on Facebook increased 36% in July, to a total of 15.8 billion minutes
•    Twitter grew by 6% in July 2009 with 21.2 million unique visitors in the US
•    Time spent on Twitter increased 26% in July, to a total of 4.75 million minutes

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As traffic increases, so do the chances for brands to build social brand advocates.  There are currently 225 million Facebook users worldwide, and over 8 million of them become fans of Public Profiles every single day.  This growth translates into millions of opportunities for brands to engage in dialogue with users, thus creating long-term relationships with them.

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and the Twitter Management System – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of the social communication platform.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, widgets and iPhone apps, among many.

- Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer

Compete web analytics have released the latest social network traffic numbers for June, 2009, with impressive growth seen across the board.  Some of the highlights for the month include the following:

•    Facebook received 122.6 Million Monthly US Visitors (up 10% in June 2009)
•    Facebook Connect received 79 Million Unique Visitors
•    MySpace received 60.9 Million Monthly US Visitors (7.2% growth in June 2009)
•    Twitter received 22.99 Million Monthly US Visitors (16.5% growth in June 2009)

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As traffic increases, so does social brand advocacy.  There are currently 225 million Facebook users worldwide, and 8 million of them become fans of Public Profiles every single day. This growth translates into millions of opportunities for brands to engage in rich dialogues with users, thus creating long-term relationships.

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and BuddyBrain – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of the social communication platform.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include  app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, widgets and iPhone apps, among many.

Our Social Page Management System makes it easier than ever for companies to reach their brand advocates on Facebook Public Profiles. This week marks the release of four of our newest creations.

1. National Jean Company

National Jean Company sells the hippest, hottest fashions on their website and at brick and mortar locations throughout the east coast. Buddy Media designed a Public Profile page that allows fans to check out the latest trends and styles – and subsequently share NJC content with Facebook friends.

A robust virtual gifting platform allows fashionistas to share 7 For All Mankind denim miniskirts with their fad-obsessed social contacts. A live newsfeed keeps users updated on the latest product releases and celebrity fashion sightings, while a Twitter module lets users read and share the latest NJC tweets. Facebook users can even earn coupons by referring friends to the National Jean Company page.

2. The Shoebox

The Shoebox, a sister brand to National Jean Company, began as a single retail location on Long Island in 1954 and has since expanded to locations in New York City and Florida.  Their e-commerce site sells the latest ‘it’ shoes to women around the world. 

Buddy Media’s Public Profile design began with a dynamic Newsfeed that features regular updates to The Shoebox product line, along with ‘Share’ functionality that lets users post product images and descriptions to Profile Walls. Ugg boots and Diane Von Furstenberg sandals can be sent as virtual gifts and users can participate in dynamically updated polls. Once again, the social aspects of the Facebook Public Profile were leveraged to offer fans bonus coupons for referring friends to The Shoebox fan page.

3. Mixing Bowl

Mixing Bowl leverages the wealth of content on the Mixing Bowl website — a Better Homes and Gardens web community that features thousands of recipes and contests for seasoned gourmands and amateur chefs — to provide dedicated advocates with a platform to share recipes and cuisine-relevant content with Facebook friends.

Our Public Profile design features a live Newsfeed that pipes in all the latest recipes featured on www.mixingbowl.com and makes it simple to share via Profile Wall post. Cooking polls provide Meredith Corporation (Mixing Bowl’s parent company) with valuable consumer insights and opinions, and virtual sweets can be sent to friends without the guilt or calories! Most importantly, each virtual gift links back to Mixingbowl.com, so users can prepare the ‘real thing’ using the original recipe.

The Mixing Bowl Public Profile is the first phase of our work for the brand, with a customized application due to launch within the next several weeks.

4. Parents Magazine

Parents Magazine, another Meredith Corporation property, has a strong web presence , but lacks the effective social hooks that would encourage the sharing of content with friends.

Buddy Media designed a customized Public Profile that features the latest content from the website as well as some new bells-and-whistles that will help the publication gain traction amongst the legions of new parents on Facebook. We created a highly specialized Newsfeed that displays the latest posts from the Parents Magazine blog, as well as the most recent baby and pregnancy photos uploaded to www.parents.com. 

A Parents Poll provides new Moms and Dads with popular answers to common parenting questions, and contest call-outs drive traffic to the Parents Magazine website. Once again, the Parents Magazine Public Profile represents the first phase of an extended engagement with the brand, that will include the implementation of additional robust fan page modules, as well as the development of a customized Facebook application.

Buddy Media Social Page Management System

These projects wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the Buddy Media Development team, who created the Buddy Media Social Page Management System (SPMS). The Social Page Management System provides these brands with an intuitive back-end interface that allows them to update content and messaging on their pages in the wink of an eye.  Of course, our experts are always available to handle the heavy lifting and the more complex technological implementations, but the SPMS makes it incredibly simple for brands to gain control over their Facebook Public Profiles.

We’re incredibly proud of our work on these four ‘fan pages.’ They represent the end product of countless manhours and caffienated beverages. We’re certain that Facebook Public Profiles represent the future of social media marketing and we’re honored to provide companies (big and small) with an outlet to reach loyal brand advocates with interactive content that is useful, engaging, and fun.

With the world’s top professionals teeing off at Bethpage Black this week, golf is on just about everyone’s minds. The Buddy Media team has been working non-stop to get our latest application ready for the sunny, temperate days ahead. SI Golf Nation is a social app-vertisement that can be found on multiple platforms; that is, it has a home on Facebook, Apple’s iPhone, and a GOLF.com microsite. Unlike any other golf application, all three platforms are linked together using Facebook Connect, which will provide golfers with a seamless transition from mobile, to open web, to social network. While the cross-pollination of content and messaging will provide users with application functionality wherever they go, the real value comes with the amount of useful tools and features included within.

First time application users will be prompted to choose a home course from the National Golf Foundation database, as well as the type of equipment that they carry in their bag. Once their personal customization is complete, users enter the main interface where they are presented with a wealth of goodies that all hackers and seasoned pros can use and enjoy. Golfers can input their latest scores from any course within the NGF database and track tons of other statistics within a GOLF.com dashboard interface. The data tracking is so complete, that golfers can use their iPhone as a scorecard while on the course, and upload their stats directly into the application. Dynamic leaderboards track everything from recreational handicaps to greens in regulation and allow for personal goal benchmarking as well–but that’s nothing compared to the amount of trash-talking possible amongst friends who can challenge each other to a one-on-one throwdown for golf supremacy no matter where they are in the US.

But that’s not all! GOLF.com wanted the application to be social in nature, so we took it a step beyond stat comparisons and application leaderboards by allowing users to find other golfers in their area, join groups focused on their home course, and set tee times with friends, directly from the app. The added 19th Hole functionality lets users send drinks and messaging to friends before, during or after their round (sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka) from either the web or their iPhone. Golfers can also choose to have their GOLF.com actions published to the Facebook Newsfeed and their personal profile. This includes the ability to upload photos into the application directly from the iPhone! Rounding out the functionality, Buddy Media developed a live feed that pulls in news, photos, and video directly from the GOLF.com website.

When all is said and done, golfers around the country can use SI Golf Nation as a one-stop shop to score, share, and communicate with fellow linksmen through a robust and intuitive multi-platform interface, that won’t limit functionality to just Facebook users. The GOLF.com microsite will allow the uninitiated to enjoy the application as well.

So grab your clubs, throw on your collared shirts, charge up the golf cart, and visit SI Golf Nation now!

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- Joe Couceiro, Busch Entertainment Exec VP CMO on Buddy Media’s Sea World & Busch Gardens Photo Adventure

The US reach of social networks has steadily increased through May 2009, according to the latest statistics from Compete.com.  Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have all posted impressive numbers:

•    Facebook received a total of 113 million US visitors (up 8%)
•    Facebook Connect received 65 million US visitors (up 14%)
•    Over 40% of the US Internet population is using Facebook every month
•    US MySpace traffic increased by 2.39%, to 56.8 million

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As these numbers continue to grow, so do the opportunities for brands to leverage them.

Does your brand have a presence in social media?

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and the BuddyBrain – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of social media.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, Twitter management, widgets, iPhone apps, and more.

We’ve made a splash before with Facebook app-vertisements for Busch Entertainment properties (Sea World Splash Blast, Aquatica Motu’s Island Hop, and Busch Gardens Escape the Twins), but our latest work for the brand is a tidal wave of social media innovation. Worlds of Discovery Photo Adventure is a cross-platform social application that leverages a tried and true game concept to promote all of the theme parks that fall under the Worlds of Discovery umbrella. The app brings you so close to the thrills available at all the parks, that you’ll be sure to need that umbrella to protect yourself from the wet and wild action depicted in the game’s collection of photos.

Can you spot the differences?

In short, Photo Adventure application users are tasked with spotting the five differences between near-identical photos taken at Busch Entertainment theme parks. Busch Entertainment supplied all of the photos, so the application is filled with whimsical shots of celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Rod Stewart interacting with the menagerie of animals that live in all of the parks. The functionality of all three apps is consistent and the game play is engaging and addictive. But the real ‘Wow’ moment comes when you realize that players on all three applications have their high scores listed on a single cross-platform leaderboard – you can compete against friends while at the parks or from the comfort of your living room. This was accomplished with a Facebook Connect implementation that ensured that the experience would allow users to move seamlessly from social network to open web to mobile device.

We launched the Busch microsite and Facebook application together, with a roll-out of the iPhone app coming within the next several days.  So toss on your wet suit, grab your snorkle and fins, and dive into Worlds of Discovery Photo Adventure.

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Rejoice time-strapped fitness wanna-bes!  Reebok has developed a brand new athletic shoe targeted at those striving to get in shape for summer without hard work and a pricey gym. The Reebok EasyTone was designed to provide a thorough workout  – on the go – for manic moms, working women, and ladies who lunch.

When the time came to spread the word among social networkers about these revolutionary new sneakers, Reebok returned to Buddy Media for a healthy Facebook workout. After the splash we made with last year’s ‘Talkin’ Krazy’ campaign, we were excited to strut our stuff and show off what an additional year of app-vertisement experience and ingenuity could provide. So we cooked up a killer new branded app that perfectly communicated Reebok’s over-arching campaign goals for the EasyTone shoe, while leveraging the power of social brand loyalty.

The Reebok EasyTone Facebook application makes it easy for fitness-fearing ladies to get a regular workout. It’s a simple concept with a sparkling execution. The application helps people keep track of their day-to-day movements around home, work, and the town so they can see how much excercise they’re getting. Users simply enter an estimation of their daily activity level and a step goal. The app will show them how many steps it takes to burn off a cheeseburger or an ice cream sundae. Facebook users can even team up to ’step’ across the Grand Canyon or to the top of the Empire State Building.

So walk, don’t run to start your social media workout.

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For over thirty years, Charles Schwab has been providing high quality financial services to individual investors and savers. The company is dedicated to serving the interests of the common man, rather than bottom line of faceless corporate behemoths.  So, it should come as no surprise that Schwab was quick to jump on the social media express. Is there a better place to reach people with sound financial advice, than Facebook and YouTube?

Buddy Media developed a two-headed monster of a strategy for Chuck – a branded YouTube channel and a customized Facebook Public Profile. The YouTube channel lives in a Charles Schwab branded “skin” and serves as a repository for interviews, informational videos, and the library of innovative ‘Talk to Chuck’ commercials. A prominent ‘Share’ module lets viewers send individual videos or embed the entire channel on their personal website or blog.

The Facebook Public Profile is the latest in our canon of interactive, custom designed profile pages. Our development team leveraged the power of the Buddy Media Social Page Management System to sculpt an engaging Facebook experience for investors of all styles and stripes. A dedicated Tab houses the Peer Comparison Tool – a personalized survey that shows users how their financial decisions compare to those of people within their demographic. Is there anything more appropos of a social media experience than comparing yourself to an audience of your peers? A second dedicated Tab hosts the Talk to Chuck contest – an ongoing marketing initiative that lets users fill in a ‘thought-bubble’ with creative and original financial advice for a chance to win a monthly prize, a $1,000 Charles Schwab investment account. More Schwab videos and links to several open-web resources complete the Public Profile reboot.

For a financial kick in the pants, talk to Chuck on Facebook and YouTube today.

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Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a tropic port aboard a great big ship.

Welcome aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line Countdown Clock, our latest application for adventurous world travelers bound for exotic ports of call. The Buddy Media team has been hard at work polishing this simple, easy-to-use utility that allows vacationers to count down the days to their voyage on Norwegian Cruise Line ships. The concept is simple: set your destination and travel dates, choose the name of your ship, and AHOY, you’ve got an official NCL Countdown Clock that you can post to your Wall or set as a permanent fixture on your profile.

The application is much more than a simple ticker that lays out your travel itinerary. You can choose from a detailed list of ship-board and beachside activities, see cruises that other Facebook users have planned, and share your cruising itinerary with all the peeps in your social circle. You can go directly to the NCL website to book passage on the same cruiseships as your friends or travel straight to the Norwegian Cruise Line Public Profile for photos, videos, and more from past NCL voyages.

So throw on your life vest, slap on your captain’s hat, and check out NCL Countdown Clock now! It’s the ship.

After the resounding success of our two previous engagements with Anheuser Busch’s Bud Light brand, it should come as no surprise that the King of Beers came back for more Buddy Media inspired social media genius. Bud Light Gifts may sound like your every day, run of the mill, virtual gifting application, but look closer and you’ll see the that it’s been given a Buddy Media creative boost.

A branded interface wraps around official sponsored Bud Light schwag – which users can send to any friend in their social circle. But, we’ve taken a step beyond creative super injection with this application. The Buddy Media development team has optimized the application to leverage all social integration points so that when users send a Bud Light gift, all of their friends will hear about it – an obvious catalyst to viral and social growth.

We’ve developed a really unique strategy behind the launch of Bud Light Gifts that we’re sure is going to provide the application with sustainability and return engagements. The app-vertisement has been created to sustain a prolonged roll-out – meaning that the gifts will change to reflect the season or to promote a special event. We’ve launched the initial run with a variety of St. Patricks Day gifts to get Facebook users in the spring spirit.

So check out Bud Light Gifts today and again in the future – because there will always be new virtual gifts to send to your Facebook friends.

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One month ago, we rolled out a ’spring training’ version of Intel’s Me InTru 3D. The initial launch included basic creature customization functionality with the promise of great things to come when the app-vertisement was ready for the major leagues. Over the last several weeks, the Buddy Media team has been working to flesh out the creature creator, while adding a ton of new features for today’s March 10th full-scale launch. Well, opening day has arrived. Wait until you see what we’ve been brewing for the folks at Intel.

Intel’s Me in Tru3D still has the same ground-breaking avatar creation technology that early adopters of the application have been enjoying over the last four weeks. But now, the creature creation is only a gateway to a much more robust application.

Once users have finished customizing their monster in the Intel labs, they’ll have several social options for interacting with both their friends and their friends’ creatures.  To begin with, the app-vertisement now includes two minigames that will challenge both mind and reflexes. Users will be able to send animated versions of their creatures to friends–perhaps sharing their inner creatures! The recipient will be treated to funky dance steps, hugs and kisses, or even more bizarre and dastardly actions. In the application a minicam will even allow users to take pictures of their creations, so that they can post them as their Facebook profiles.

This application is like nothing we’ve ever built before. Sure, we’ve built engaging app-vertisements in the past, but Intel’s InTru 3D is our first masterwork. It was specifically designed to appeal to a wide range of Facebook users with content and functionality that’s fun, interactive, and social. Check out the application now to get your creature on.

Go to the application on Facebook

It comes as no surprise that marketers are under increased pressure to do more with less. Every time Buddy Media meets with brand marketers and agencies, our number one goal is to help them engage people on social networks in a cost effective way.

On that note, we launched a new budget calculator that allows marketers to analyze their online marketing budgets and compare the cost of different solutions and how effective they are at generating engaged users. Give it a whirl and see how many users you can engage with your current budget.

The calculator comes in conjunction with our latest research report Social Math: The Economic Case for Branded Applications. The report arms brands with the data necessary to decide how to more effectively invest their online social media budget. We aggregated data from more than 80 Buddy Media app-vertisement programs for 60+ clients and compared it to public data on digital display campaigns and data provided by clients, partners, and other publishers.

We believe strongly that engagement will be the key metric used to measure the effectiveness of social media campaigns. And Facebook

Our development team was excited to integrate Facebook Connect functionality with the Buddy Media website and we shot around a lot of ideas about how this technology could be appropriately implemented. We decided that leveraging the capabilities of Events in conjunction with Connect would be the smartest strategy, as it would allow us to spread the word to the Facebook community about conferences and gatherings that we sponsor or attend.

The addition of Facebook Connect will let visitors to the Buddy Media corporate site indicate whether they’re attending an event. The interface also displays profile photos of all registered attendees. The user can then choose to spread the word about the soiree by posting their response to the Facebook Newsfeed – which includes a link back to the Buddy Media Events page.  This increases exposure for our corporate events by seamlessly aggregating our audiences from Facebook and the open web into a single transparent group.

Feel free to check out the Buddy Media Events page and let us know what you think.

The wind howls as you approach the gates of Intel’s Secret Labs. The moon casts a ghostly blue light that illuminates your path. A monstrous shriek cuts through the night, piercing your heart with terror. The doors open with a belch and acrid air disperses with the foul stench of creation. You repeat the mantra ‘There’s no such thing as monsters, there’s no such thing as monsters…’ You actually believe it, until a horrible form rises up and covers you in shadow. What in the world is going on here? What is Intel up to?

We can give you a sneak peak with our newest Facebook app-vertisement, Me InTru 3D. Intel has developed ground-breaking InTru 3D technology that will begin to hit movie theaters this spring, so they wanted to DRIVE AWARENESS AND CREATE A LOYAL FOLLOWING  OF THIS TECHNOLOGY before the things are rolled-out for public consumption. OF COURSE, THEY came to Buddy Media for concept, strategy, development, and execution of a Facebook application that would educate consumers about InTru 3D within an interactive and engaging environment that would be both fun and entertaining–AND SHOW THE TECHNOLOGY IN LIVING COLOR. Our Innovations Department quickly fleshed out an idea that aimed to take a popular Facebook concept and make it better.

Character and avatar creators have been making the rounds for many years and several shops have made forays into making the idea social. But our idea was to take the concept and give it a blast of InTru 3D. Thus, the Intel Creature Creator was born. The application, which will launch with basic functionality in place on February 1st, will allow users to create their own 3D creatures – from the tips of their pointy horns to the bottom of their hairy feet. Rather than just dragging and dropping flat 2D elements onto a paperdoll template, Me InTru 3D will give users a 360 degree view of their creation. All physical characteristics will be fully editable and will even stretch and warp to fit the contours of the three dimensional creatures.

But that’s just Phase One of the Me InTru 3D launch! Our developers are hard at work on a virtual environment to house all of these creatures. Once Phase Two launches, users will be able to guide their creations through the Intel Labs, where they can interact and even play games with other creatures. It’s a huge step forward in social media technology and we’re eagerly anticipating its release. Check back to the application often for details on Phase Two’s release date.

So put on your lab coat, wind up the power generators, and prepare yourself to scream “It’s ALIVE!” If anything can make you feel like Dr. Frankenstein, it’s Intel’s Me InTru 3D.

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Terror hits hardest in the middle of the night, when the lights are off and the slightest sound seems like a sonic boom. Gasping for breath you rise from your sweat-drenched sheets questioning the evil images that flooded your brain while you slept. What do these subconscious visions mean? Buddy Media invites you to discover the meaning behind your nightmares on our latest application for Paramount Picture’s new film, The Uninvited.

The Uninvited represents another foray into Tinseltown, working hand-in-hand with the studio to create an application that matches the creepy aesthetic of the new film. In addition to a keyword driven Nightmare Analyzer, the application enables users to share dream interpretations with friends, as well as watch clips and trailers from the film – in theaters January 30, 2009.

Hollywood has been taking baby steps into the world of social media, but we’re certain that The Uninvited will pioneer a new breed of promotional app-vertisements for movie studios. While movies provide an entirely passive experience for film-goers, branded app-vertisements immerse the viewer in the world of the film with contextually relevant content and imagery. It’s the perfect strategy to build awareness of and interest in an upcoming release of a movie, while at the same time engaging consumers who left the theater wanting more. What’s more, film buffs now have an easier way to spread the word about their favorite box office releases!

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Given today’s economy and environment, most of us can agree on two things – we want to spend as little as we can on gas, and we want to use as little gas as possible.

Well, today Buddy Media today launched a new eco-friendly application for Chevy Fuel Solutions that people can use to learn how they can do both.

Part of the application is a simple social utility that allows users to search for the cheapest gas prices in any geographic locale. A dynamic interface plots each gas station on a local map and displays the most recent price per gallon.

In addition, the application also helps consumers check out the latest about Chevy’s fuel-efficient cars, including the Aveo5 (better fuel economy than Honda Fit and Nissan Versa) and Chevy Malibu Hybrid (better than 33 MPG on the highway)–a great way to deliver social responsible content AND help social networkers save money in these tenuous economic times.

Chevy’s Fuel Solutions application clearly demonstrates how major brands realize that in today’s economy, social media applications can provide them with more bang for their advertising buck than many traditional forms of advertising. Moreover, this new app provides further support for the Economist Intelligence Units recent finding that executives worldwide believe that participating in viral networks and social networking is the “most effective technique for targeting millennial consumers.”

We hope you all have a Happy Holidays and drive safely and efficiently!

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We recently partnered with Jason Cuthbertson, Senior Art Director at Atmosphere BBDO, to launch a new  application which allows people to vote for their favorite print or television ads submitted by fellow Facebook users. Two opposing ads are pitted against one another in a randomly sequenced order that ensures that no single ad is seen more or less often than the next.  The addition of a benchmarking feature lets users build their Ad Battle ranking from Featherweight to Heavyweight – depending upon the performance of their uploaded ads.  An additional social functionality allows users to compare their Ad Battle rankings with others within their network of social contacts.

The application also features a Mystery Ad Game that tests the users advertising IQ. A simple ten question quiz challenges users to match brand names to advertising slogans or to identify the company associated with a print ad from which all branding has been removed. Once again, a social feature lets users compare their Mystery Ad Game scores to those of their friends.

In ten days time, hundreds of ads have been uploaded and users have spent, on average, close to five minutes per visit to the application. Even more exciting is the amount of press we

Buddy Media conceptualized and developed the application to drive sales of HBO DVDs by highlighting the madcap humor of their original comedy programming. HBO Comedy Climb is a simple quiz application with a social twist.  Users have the opportunity to build a career in virtual entertainment by correctly answering questions about specific episodes of Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, and Flight of the Conchords.

Our research shows that applications that provide users with a chance to strive for performance benchmarks achieve high levels of engagement and repeat usage over time.

As a result, we built the HBO Comedy Climb to provide users with challenging goals to strive for on their way to the top, while giving them the chance to improve their ‘career standing’ in the entertainment industry. In addition, a challenge mode that catalyzes competitive impulses amongst friends will help the application ‘go social.’

So grab your thinking caps (with the requisite propeller on top, of course) and prepare yourself to become a Hollywood mogul. Grab a rung of that career ladder, step over your friends and co-workers and strive to reach the top in the HBO Comedy Climb.

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When Reebok approached us with the original specs of the new ATR Talkin’ Krazy shoe and relayed their interest in featuring the sneakers in a Facebook app, we jumped at the chance to work with yet another athletic shoe giant.

The ATR Talkin Krazy basketball sneakers allow “ballers” to tag up their shoes with a dry erase marker as a means of smack talking while on the court. We saw unlimited potential for an app-vertisement that would highlight the coolest features of these sick kicks.

The Facebook app offers a number of unique ways to talk smack to your friends. You can:

• Smack Talk – Choose from a variety of pre-written smack talk messages. Tag your virtual Reeboks and send them to friends. (My game and your momma – both nasty!)
• Personalized Smack – Use a virtual dry erase marker to draw custom, personalized messages on your Reeboks. Once you’ve tagged the shoe to your heart’s content, you can shoot it out to all of your friends. The more smack your talk, the better your chances of becoming the King of the Smack Talk court.
• Video Smack - Search YouTube or Vimeo for relevant clips of you displaying your skills on the court and send it to friends, along with your tagged virtual sneakers.

So check it out at http://apps.facebook.com/reeboktalkinkrazy/. You don’t need to be a baller to enjoy this app – you just need to talk a big game.

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Mike’s week began at the Social Ad Summit, an invite-only, conference focused on strategic issues driving the growth of advertising in social media, where he treated the crowd of industry insiders to a keynote address entitled, “Social Marketing: Where are we? Where are we going?”

The presentation outlined the present state of a burgeoning business and the positive outlook for the future. Mike included a high-level breakdown of strategies for marketing big brands to highly targeted audiences on social networks like Facebook. Mike didn’t pause to rest on his laurels, however, as he remained at Tribeca Rooftop to moderate a one hour panel discussion called “Alternative Social Advertising.”

Tuesday brought the highly publicized announcement of our partnership with Social Media, the largest stand-alone ad network on Facebook. This deal will allow big corporate brands to enter into a single engagement with both companies to plan, develop, promote, and monitor applications on social networks. This deal is huge, as it signals the companies’ intent to work together to help the social marketing space grow quickly and effectively. What does this deal mean for corporate America? It means that social app-vertising campaigns are easier to execute, as well as being more accountable and results-driven. Better yet, it means that brand advertisers have greater support from the two thought leaders in the industry.

All of this jaunting about town has built up to Mike’s big day today at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, overlooking the Hudson River on Manhattan’s West Side. Mike will be speaking twice at the Web 2.0 Expo – the East Coast’s largest tech conference. Web 2.0 is a celebration of the future of the Internet and its myriad of potentials and possibilities. Obviously, Mike fits in perfectly with this crowd and will get a chance to display his breadth of industry knowledge from entrepreneurship (Cashing Out: When, How, and How Much?) to the sundry benefits of brand advertising on social networks (Why Brand Advertisers Will Be the Biggest Beneficiaries of Social Media and How You Can Participate). See Mike’s presentation on Social Marketing above.

What does the future hold for Michael Lazerow? Only time will tell, but you can bet that Mike’s future and the future of social media advertising are intimately linked.

Last week, Buddy Media launched the BuddyBrain. We are thrilled about the excitement generated by this product and its ability to provide accountable metrics that support the strength and engagement value of branded applications or app-vertisements. We strongly believe that the BuddyBrain helps make social marketing accessible, accountable, and results-driven.

Caroline McCarthy, who covers social media for CNET and has probably seen hundreds, if not thousands, of social marketing technology platforms, broke the story. She nailed what we’re trying to do when she wrote in her The Social column that the BuddyBrain was tackling “one of the challenges of social advertising: that it’s just plain difficult to tell how successful it is.”

We built BuddyBrain to make available to our clients data that we already knew but were providing manually.

I think the findings speak for themselves. In particular, users spent an average of 2 minutes and 35 seconds engaged with our branded applications,or 75 times greater than the time consumers  spend interacting with traditional banner ads and five times greater than the time spent watching a typical TV commercial. And 85% of our users returned for multiple interactions with our app-vertisements, with 56% of the total user base returning 9 times or more during the month of testing.

Another general finding from the BuddyBrain data is that our branded applications are entertaining, fun, and engaging ads. Better yet, they encourage users to become social brand advocates who evangelize the application, passing it around to their own personal networks. They are a better form of advertising than other ways to market in the digital and social media world. In the end, the apps are ads, albeit a new form of digital ads, that are tied to the social graph and a database.

In short, App-vertising programs are branded experiences that connect brands to people in a fundamentally better way than banners, buttons, and other interruption-marketing techniques. Our clients understand this, which has lead to more than 6 campaigns for our largest clients, repeat business from more the a dozen clients already and significant commitments for 2009.

Many of our clients and potential clients agree with our conclusion that these numbers are game-changing for brands. As Matt Rebeiro of Ryan*MacMillan, a digital marketing agency in London with large clients that include BBC Worldwide, Discovery Channel, TimeLife and others, noted on the company’s blog, Buddy Media’s “figures look like a pretty good reason to ditch banner ads…and instead offer audiences a chance to interact with digital advertising so both parties get something positive out of the interaction.”

Despite technology like the BuddyBrain that provides transparency to clients and our ongoing efforts to educate brand marketers and their agencies, some confusion remains in the marketplace about what branded apps are and why they are successful.

One of the most compelling data points that I took out of the BuddyBrain was the clear differentiation between branded apps and top apps like Slide’s Top Friends application, Rock You’s Super Wall application and games like Texas Hold ‘Em from Zynga and Entourage or (fluff)friends from Social Gaming Network. Our apps are built for different purposes and the data proves out that we are very successful in building social brand awareness. Comparing the top applications to branded applications is like comparing the TV show Lost to the 30-second commercials that run during the show. Yes, they both run on the same ‘platform,’ ABC. But Lost has a star-studded cast, significant network promotion and a new, fresh episode every week, with some episodes costing up to $14 million each. Lost is an entertainment juggernaut. The commercial is, well, a commercial.

The applications we build for our clients are marketing programs. The applications built by the top Facebook and MySpace developers are uber-funded entertainment properties that are continually cared for, improved, tweaked and refreshed with new content and features. This takes significant resources and talent. The top 4 application companies alone have raised more than $150 million total. That’s a ton of money to build applications. I only imagine what we could do for a client if they gave us $150 million. Each of the app-vertising programs Buddy Media builds have cost much less!

As social media sites continue to grow in popularity, so will their share of the world’s media budgets. And branded applications will occupy an important part of the smart brand marketer’s tool kit. They won’t be the only tool and will often support a larger program on the platforms. For clients that need massive reach, a banner campaign on MySpace or Facebook will usually make the most sense.

The opening of the social media sites to third-party developers provide brand marketers unprecedented access to engaged consumers. More and more brands, like Anheuser-Busch, FedEx, New Balance and Priceline, want to work with Buddy Media to engage users and increase their social brand loyalty. And the BuddyBrain is helping us show the world that one of the single best ways to engage users is to build compelling app-vertising programs.

I could wile away the hours /
Conferrin’ with the flowers /
Consultin’ with the rain /
And my head I’d be scratchin’ /
While my thoughts were busy hatchin’ /
If I only had the BuddyBrain /

Guess what? Now I have one and it’s certainly made my job easier! After months of aggregating data from a variety of sources and tracking projects and campaign

s on a number of different platforms, I’m ecstatic to announce the arrival of Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain!

The BuddyBrain is a social control center for all app-vertising campaigns. It includes communication and analytic tools, reference materials, and cutting edge social media trends and research.

The platform features an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes social app-vertising campaigns accessible, accountable, and results-driven. The folks here at Buddy Media are the most tech-savvy people in the social media space, and they molded the BuddyBrain using their exhaustive experience and knowledge in conjunction with extensive input from our clients and partners. Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain makes managing, tracking, reporting, and analyzing easy, which leaves me more time to write blog posts.

Before we unleashed the BuddyBrain on the world, we wanted to test it’s powers on our ten most recent applications. After one month of data aggregation and analysis, here’s a sample of what we discovered:

• Users spent an average of 2 minutes and 35 seconds engaged with our applications – 75 times greater than the time consumers spend interacting with traditional banner ads and five times greater than the time spent watching a typical TV commercial
• 85% of our users returned for multiple interactions with our app-vertisements – with 56% of the total user base returning 9 times or more during the month of testing

Buddy Media’s Buddy Brain consists of four distinct components (which we call lobes – clever, huh?), that measure components of a campaign’s Social IQ.  This will allow clients to log-in for continuous tracking and optimization of social app-vertising campaigns from the beginning of a project through the completion of a campaign.

But there’s even more to the BuddyBrain than project management and analytic data. Social media couldn’t exist without embracing a culture of openness, in which everyone was committed to sharing and collaborating. With that in mind, we created a hub for social media resources, including all the latest news, trends, events, and documentation necessary to keep your brain and our Brain stimulated. Want to know when our CEO Mike Lazerow is speaking at a conference? Need information about Facebook Connect or the new Facebook layout? Buddy Media’s Buddy Brain has got all this information and more.

Check out the screenshots for a taste of what we’re cooking. You won’t need to travel through Oz to find this brain. Just follow the yellow brick road to http://buddybrain.com.

The newest addition to our portfolio is a perfect example of the innovation and creativity that have positioned us as the one-stop source for big brands interested in broadening their relationships with their consumers into the world of social media.

Anheuser Busch was seeking an interactive, social media application to support their annual Bud Light Party Cruise promotion (an offline promotion where winners won an all expense cruise). They wanted to create a virtual community of winners, that could serve as the official “pre-party” destination for winners to locate, interact and engage with fellow cruisers. A place to share photos and stories before and while on board, and eventually maintain contact with their new friends via a centralized Bud Light VIP community.

We knew Facebook was the perfect environment for such an application, but a problem still remained. How do we build an application for an inherently social platform while restricting access to all but a few chosen users?

The answer? We developed a entry page accessible to all Facebook users, but in order to get on board the Party Cruise application, winners need to enter a secret promo code given to them by the folks at Anheuser Busch. The code grants winners VIP access to the application, where they can mingle with other lucky contestants. Users can find each other by searching the “Cruiser Locator”, an innovative feature that integrates Yahoo! Maps with each user’s Facebook profile location.

Winners won’t have to worry about their VIP access being revoked once the cruise ship drops anchor at the final destination.  The application is designed to allow cruise buddies to stay in touch and share memories long after they’ve washed the final grains of sand and salt out of their hair.

We really wish that we could share this application with the world, but it’s VIP access only. All others will be thrown overboard.

Go to the application on Facebook

Buddy Media’s design and development of the Bacardi application centers on the promotion of several disparate marketing initiatives for the liquor giant. The app challenges users to make the perfect mojito, encourages them to plan mojito parties at local watering holes, and drives them off-site to purchase special Bacardi Muddlers to help them concoct the perfect beverage.

Buddy Media, in accordance with Facebook’s age-gating restrictions and accepted social standards, created this unique application that allows Bacardi to engage new customers and interact with their current fans.

Overall, the application is intended to help Bacardi build a stronger relationship with the people who buy their products — which it does by employing several features that will lead to greater brand recognition, engagement, and consumer loyalty.

Our history speaks for itself when it comes to developing and marketing Facebook applications intended for adult audiences of legal drinking age. Buddy Media was the first company to develop age-gating technology that prohibited minors from entering an application designed for a major beer manufacturer’s advertising campaign. The age-gate worked flawlessly and the application was a hit – generating over 200,000 installs in two short weeks.

Meanwhile, Facebook was developing their own age-restriction technology. They asked us to jump on board for their beta testing, and we quickly agreed. We were eager to join forces with the platform that drives our business to help pioneer this new technology. We had several clients in the development pipeline that could leverage the age-gate to reach a target audience of adults of legal drinking age. The first client to take advantage of the age gate and our close working relationship with Facebook was Bacardi.

Check out the app — we’re really proud of it. But make sure you bring your ID – cause the Facebook bouncer is really tough!

Go to the application on Facebook

Rather than “adding” the application, users can now visit the Fox News Fan Page and customize the video player, so that it can live within the framework of their profile. Once on the Fan Page, users can become fans of Fox News and extend their brand affinity by personalizing their video feeds for viewing or sharing.

We’re thrilled at the outcome of this project and eagerly anticipating the possibilities inherent in this new technology. It’s all part of Buddy Media’s Brand Advocate Process, which delivers social users to engaging, branded content as a means of creating brand advocates that evangelize the merits of the application and the brand itself. In this case, supporters of Fox News will be able to carry their brand affinity off the Fan Page and onto their personal profile – increasing brand exposure and application engagement beyond the point of first contact.

Go to the application on Facebook

Priceline was one of the first companies to sign on with Buddy Media and their application has been in the works for months. It was time well spent, as the application breaks new ground with sophisticated graphics and engaging game play.

Priceline tasked Buddy Media with creating a Facebook application that would leverage the popularity of their Negotiator television commercials, while attracting a new audience of potential customers through a relevant gaming experience. All Buddy Media needed was a hook – something that would draw in an audience, something that would get people talking, something that would boldly go where no man has gone before.

Only one man has that power and he goes by the name William Shatner aka The Priceline Negotiator!

The concept of the game is simple: outnegotiate Shatner for the lowest hotel rates on a wild cross-country journey. Bid too high and Shatner puts you in your place with a snarky comment – bid to low and you’ll meet the same fate. Successful bids will speed you on your way to the next location, as well as save you money.

What good does saving phony money do? Plenty…

That saved money is translated into more AceBucks earned. More AceBucks means more money to bid on great prizes like iPods and Nintendo Wiis.

Go to the application on Facebook

Buddy Media made its presence known from the opening moments of the conference with a crowd-pleasing tutorial moderated by Jeff Ragovin (Vice President of Sales and Business Development). Jeff led an interactive session in which he had participants develop social media marketing strategies for an imaginary product called “Apple Window.” The audience was tasked with coming up with ideas for an Apple-branded Facebook application that would serve to market the product while engaging users in a fun and addictive “casual gaming” experience.

Buddies Patrick Stokes, Dan Seldow, and Abby Lauterbach chatted up the masses while distributing popcorn and spreading the good word about our success in marketing branded applications for big brands.

Mike Lazerow had the prescience to see what was coming down the social media pike and turned that hunch into a thriving business that’s way ahead of the competition. That forethought was on display Tuesday as Mike participated in two panels on the emerging power of social media advertising – highlights from his presentation are included in the slideshow below.

If anything we’re zealous in our evangelizing of Facebook and all of its possibilities. As part of our commitment to helping the social networking world evolve and grow, we felt it was our duty to take a leadership role at GSP.

Some highlights to look forward to:

• Jeff Ragovin (Vice President of Sales and Business Development) will be leading an introductory tutorial entitled “Viral Marketing and Advertising Strategies for Social Networks.” This workshop will provide an overview of marketing and advertising solutions for popular social networks; including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and others. Attendees will learn how to create social advertising campaigns, create branded groups, drive brand awareness using social apps & widgets, and reach consumer audiences on social networks & widget platforms. The session runs from 1:30PM – 4:30PM on Monday June 9, 2008.
• Mike Lazerow (Our Fearless Leader and CEO) will lead “Apps & Widgets: The New New Ad Units” which will reveal all of the latest trends around emerging advertising standards for apps & widgets. This session is on Tuesday June 10, 2008 at 9:50 AM. Mike will also participate in a panel discussion entitled “Where Social Gets Down to Business: Advertising vs. App-vertising.” The panel will share their knowledge about using social networks, social advertising, and social applications to reach hundreds of millions of today’s online users.
• No conference is complete without a good old-fashioned cocktail party! All Buddy Media partners and clients are invited to stop by the GSP East VIP bash at 3303 Water Street for drinks and hor d’oeuvres overlooking the monuments in our nation’s capital. (Tuesday June 10, 5:30 – 7:30)