I apologize in advance if the headline was misleading and you are here thinking you’ll win some sort of a prize. But if you stick around, I assure you that you might come away a winner anyway.

It is a sure bet that one of the 10 slides in every business plan presentation to investors is about ‘the competition.’ And more often not, it is assumed the investors would not want to place their money in jeopardy if there is a ton of existing competition; or worse, if your great idea is sure to attract future competitors who will surely be bigger than you and wipe you out.

One way to tackle this concern would be to point out that the market is too big and getting bigger, competition is expected, healthy, and in fact would serve to validate your business model as a winning entry.

As Adotas points out, “How come every new technology that comes out has to be a ‘killer’? When Google’s NexusOne was launched, the headlines read, ‘iPhone Killer?’ Eight months later, that doesn’t seem to be the case as the iPhone 4 boasts terrific sales and Google has given up on ol’ Nexus.”

Case in point: Facebook Places and Foursquare. Facebook, with its 500 million users, was going to ‘kill’ Foursquare, or so said the social media ‘experts.’ Instead, Facebook further validated the legitimacy of location-based apps. Most astonishing: The day after Facebook launched Places, Foursquare said it received the largest number of one-day sign-ups ever. Just a couple of days ago, Foursquare surpassed the three million user mark. Thanks in large part to ‘the new kid on the block,’ the competition.

The lesson here is to not be afraid of competition, but to embrace it. It is inevitable you will encounter some, especially if you have a winner of an idea. Competition may not be a bad thing, especially if you are ready for it, and find a way to not compete against but expand with it.

Some smart brands are already thinking ahead; they are engaging heavily with their younger demographic (considering the youth's obsession with social media), while realizing their younger demographic will grow up soon and head up some of the industries these same brands will interact with one day. But who said social media is just a playground for the young and immature? A new Pew study shows that over the past year the sharpest increase in social networking has been among the over-50 population.

Obviously social media is not a fad. And if you can't beat it, you join it. This is the attitude of most brands/businesses who are now shuffling to 'get into' social media. Surely, just having a Twitter account or a Facebook Page alone is not going to cut it. They along with others who have yet to 'jump in' are reevaluating their strategy. Some are actually very intimidated, or have no time, or other excuses given their passive-aggressive behavior.

The so-called social media 'experts' are not helping either. Their all or nothing attitude of 'interactivity' at the expense of strictly online campaign/engagement is not really working. Interactive marketing and true audience engagement (or relationship development) need to be treated by healthy doses and the right mix of online and on-site offerings concurrently.

And in order to re-introduce these 'helpless' brands to social media, branding and/or sponsorship agents should offer trial runs (with the proper mix of online and onsite events) and present relevant post-trial results, while laying out the the need for an ongoing strategy for them. Just telling them what to do is not enough; you have to do it for them! Any comments?

The most valuable brands are usually the most popular and liked. They know who they are, and we know why they are. Successful brands know they must forge an emotional connection with their customers. They don't just give us what we need, they also give us what we want. Even company troubles don't always doom strong brands. Just look at Toyota and their constant push for your love and eliminating the backlash from the recall incident. But as one industry regarded as a necessary evil, the airline market continues to amaze us with their constant need for survival at our expense and without regard to what we want.

Some airline brands are worse than others. Take this news about American Airlines rolling out fees for 'choice' coach seats. Or fees for pre boarding. And fees for anything that lessens the annoyance factor of being locked up in the air for several hours with hundreds of strangers. Any airline that offers us any relief is considered the least of all evil, not necessarily the best of its class that a brand would be proud of. I guess they get away with it because we don't have a choice or say in the matter. And they just don't care!

Next time you hear the announcement 'we're so happy you chose to fly with us given all the choices out there,' maybe it's time to remind them that the choice was out of necessity, and one born out of economics, not due to the love of their 'brand.'

I believe in the importance of integrating onsite event marketing with online offerings when it comes to sponsorship activation and the best possible return on sponsor's investment.

Online social media tools are great to recruit the audience and create the buzz for the event as well as their engagement with the sponsor and its products. Social media is very critical in what happens during and post-event as this article in Marketing Week also points out.

"Social media is the ultimate tool in recruiting an audience and driving fame for experiential activity before an event and maintaining impact and value after it." Greg James, Experiential Agency Cake

Recently, Coke experimented with a new distribution model at the NCAA Final Four that enabled the rest of the world to see what everyone in Indianapolis was enjoying. Everyone involved including the artist had to give their blessing, and then there were the navigating around the rights issues. But in the end, "this was truly as integrated as you can get for a sponsor, property and event, and the worldwide exposure for it was phenomenal," said Vince Thompson of Coke's agency partner MELT.

Social by definition is of or relating to human society. As such, marketers don't have to choose between online and traditional advertising. Remember it's not 'traditional' marketing that's the problem; it's 'traditional' thinking. Coexistence of online and onsite strategies is critical to cross promoting the sponsor's message and maximizing the effectiveness of both efforts. That's true interactivity!

via geeksugar.com

It's all about contests and giveaways. 'You need to give some to get some' has been a mantra for ages. But now in the social media age, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social sites make it easier for consumers/contestants to brag about entering contests, receiving giveaways, and spreading the marketing message further and faster. In a related article, The Wall Street Journal's Joseph De Avila writes, "Giveaways are [also] an inexpensive way for companies to stretch their marketing dollars during the recession."

WSJ should know, since it's currently in a battle for the New York market with The New York Times. The NYT campaign (see interactive microsite: nytaudience) is centered around, you guessed it, coffee giveaways.

For its 10th anniversary, JetBlue launched an ambitious campaign to give away free tickets by telling Twitter users where to show up. That's engagement and interactive.

So don't just give away any old thing. Make sure the giveaway itself is 'beneficial' to your audience as well, besides being just a catalyst to attract them to your product/brand. Dual purpose is the key to success.

Toastmasters posted tips for accepting an Academy Award, but did the 'winners' follow suit? Saying the wrong thing could send you to the hurt locker (pun intended - sorry Avatar), but I didn't think Jeff Bridges' overuse of the word 'man' in his acceptance speech qualified.

Just in case, I had prepared my own thank you speech. And as someone I know once said they were "the only one nominated, and still didn't win," I take solace in the fact that at least I wasn't nominated. I knew in advance I didn't qualify for any of the awards handed out, but still had the foresight to keep that folded paper in my jacket pocket; like I said, just in case. Even if I'm unrelated (Six degrees of... Oscar? See interactive tangled web of nominees). Who knows, maybe a 'write-in' candidate will one day win over all the pre-announced nominees, and that will be the evening's real biggest surprise.