Vitaminwater Connect: 100,000 Free Bottles Via Facebook

Vitaminwater has introduced its newest flavor: Vitaminwater Connect (named after Facebook Connect)... and they are giving away 100,000 free bottles of Connect to their 1.2 million Facebook fans. If you remember, over the last few months, Vitaminwater ran a major Facebook campaign that allowed fans to create their own flavors and vote on the best concoctions: "made by fans, for fans on Facebook": The announced flavor is Vitaminwater Connect... which will arrive in stores shortly and carry the Facebook logo on it:

As it prepares to hit shelves, Vitaminwater is giving away free bottles to the first 100,000 Facebook fans who request one. Users request their free bottle via their fan page and the coupon "tab":

Once you request the bottle, two interesting things happen:

1. you are encouraged to share your discovery to your Facebook friends... which is how I found this offer

2. you receive a confirmation page that also changes the fan page's logo to denote that you have accepted the offer (notice the "request accepted" portion of the graphic)

As we have seen time and time again, people love offers, samples and customized 'stuff' (product, content, etc). With the Connect flavor campaign, Vitaminwater has effectively crowdsourced the flavor, marketing and launch.

Hurry and get your free bottle by becoming a fan at http://www.facebook.com/vitaminwater

Introducing Living Proof Full (Late!)

A late announcement as this launched earlier in the year... but Polaris portfolio company Living Proof has introduced a new product: Full. It is Living Proof's second product line, following the success of No Frizz. Full is a thickening cream that uses MIT-grown science to transform flat, lifeless hair into beautiful, naturally full hair: "Full is a lightweight formula that features Poly Beta Amino Ester-1, a new technology invented by our scientists that creates a micro-pattern of thickening points on each strand."

You can find Full on LivingProof.com and at Sephora (both online and in stores). In fact, Sephora storefronts currently feature Living Proof's Full.... very prominently! If you are out shopping this weekend, I encourage you to stop by your local Sephora and take a look at Full:

A Sephora storefront featuring Full:

Full featured on LivingProof.com:

More reading: - About Full - How to use Full - About Living Proof - The Living Proof Blog - Living Proof on Facebook and Twitter

And a variety of spotlights from Sephora, Sephora.com and their newsletters:

As SERPs Get More Crowded, SEO Gets More Challenging (With New Opportunities)

Internet marketers used to optimize for the "first page" - in other words, being one of the top ten natural search results. While there was declining value with each search position, you could still derive significant traffic from lower positions. But as Google gets smarter and more sophisticated - the search page gets more and more crowded.... which significantly heightens the importance / impact of high rankings... and weakens the value of lower positions. Think about how Google's search results have gotten more crowded. Depending on the query and category, search results pages now include a mix of: photos, news clippings, product data, stock quotes, Twitter mentions, mp3 tracks, etc. SERPs have become more crowded, more colorful and - sometimes - distracting.

While the SERPs have changed dramatically and impacted traditional SEO, it also represents an opportunity for other creative traffic drivers. I have written about the SEO benefit of Facebook and Twitter, but there is significant, proven opportunity around photo, blogging, product and xml optimization.

Below are two screenshots of a newsworthy query (CJ Spiller - NFL Combine standout) and a product query (Tag Heuer). Notice how much of the SERP is not traditional "organic" results.

As iPad Approaches, Amazon Aggressively Pushes Kindle

As the iPad's "late march" shipping date arrives, Amazon is promoting the Kindle as agressively as it can. The below screenshots are large homepage units that on four consecutive visits... each conveying compelling selling points in comparison to the iPad (when thought of only as a reading device): - Free 3G connection (of course, not for web browsing, but book downloads) - Product success: the #1 product on Amazon - Inventory: 420,000 titles - Price: 1,000s of books available for free This doesn't change my opinion that the iPad will do to the Kindle what the iPhone 3GS did to the Flip... and you could argue, based on Amazon's promotional focus, they agree.

3.5 Million Facebook Updates At Peak of Olympic Hockey Game

Great stats from Facebook regarding the Olympic Hockey game yesterday afternoon:

Olympic Spirit: The sending of status messages on Facebook peaked Sunday at 2:29 pm PST and 2:54 pm PST during two significant goals in the Olympic hockey finals: when the U.S. tied and Canada won. More than 3.5 million status updates were sent during the time frame of those key plays, twice the pace of the rest of the day.

Nike Revamps NikeGolf.com - Sans Tiger Woods

This morning, Nike announced the unveiling of their new Nike Golf website via Facebook: Like most Nike online experiences: it is good looking, has slick UI, and is easy to navigate. The surprising part was the clear omission of Tiger Woods... particularly as one of the lone remaining sponsors. Nike's Golf site used to be canvased with Tiger - now you have to work to find any mention of him. To be fair to Nike, they removed much of the Tiger imagery and promotion in recent months... but the announcement of a new NikeGolf.com looks as though the unveiling was more about removing Tiger than renovating the site.

Of course, I am not the only one to notice this. The Facebook announcement led to a mixture of responses from fans - about both the site and Tiger Woods:

Bobby Kane: The post was about the launch of Nike's new Golf site; why for the love of all that is holy does someone have to bring Tiger Woods and his PERSONAL LIFE into it. Nike Golf Facebook moderator, the new site looks great.

Nike Golf: Thank you Bobby Kane!

Dogpatch Labs Video Tour on VentureBeat

Earlier this week, Dogpatch Labs was featured on VentureBeat. Assistant Editor Anthony Ha visited Dogpatch Labs San Francisco, met several of the entrepreneurs / teams, and sat down for an short tour and interview. In the video, I am joined by David Hegarty of Hollrr:

After the article went live, it managed to become a "Popular" article on Digg and reach the homepage:

H&M Launches MyTown Integration & Ads; Facebook Sponsored Campaign

Earlier this week, MyTown released version 2.1 of their wildly popular mobile gaming app (unfortunately there is still no level 41). In addition to some very slick UI enhancements and clever game mechanics (such as scratch lottery tickets that are rewarded every 30-minutes) - they released integrated local ad campaigns. ... and they timed that launch with a Facebook sponsored ad campaign that echoes the same messaging and products as the MyTown focus: "The Blues":

Previously, MyTown ran ads for local franchises like Red Mango: the stores were highlighted in local listings and discounts were provided to those who either owned the property or checked-in. In version 2.1, MyTown released a far more integrated campaign for clothing store H&M. In addition to features used with Red Mango, they fully integrated H&M in the gameplay ... using the same functionality and game-mechanics that make MyTown so popular to lift H&M's brand. Here are a handful of examples.

1. Location awareness. H&M products and integrations only appear when the store is relatively close.

2. Once you check-in, you can get discounts and dynamic ads:

3. When you check-in to H&M (and other locations), you can earn H&M bonuses and virtual goods:

4. Integrated gameplay. Every so often, you unlock functionality that is branded H&M - like this scratch card: