The Opening of the 2010 College Football season also marked the debut of Kelin Johnson Keepin’ It Real Radio. It’s all part of CWI’s melding of social and traditional media to establish the personal brand of young athletes…

See and Hear how combining live event production, i-radio streaming, social network marketing and the right content can draw attention and establish a unique and powerful level of excitement and audience loyalty.

[audio:http://www.kelinjohnson.com/audio/kelin.10.09.04.mp3]

Video Highlights from the debut broadcast, Saturday September 4, 2010
Bulldog Greats Fred Gibson, Thomas Brown, join Kelin Johnson and co-host James Carr on the Tate Stage in the shadow of Sanford Stadium for Kelin Keepin’ It Real Radio.

CWI is tackling the youth brand challenge on behalf of Smart Mouth Pizza. The company’s in school pizza program brings good pizza–nutritious ingredients, fresh made together with a brand that gets 13-17 year olds talking.

The marketing strategy includes the creation and launch of a scholarship program, student brand ambassadors and a dual social media strategy, building brand in school and supporting the good work of lunchroom staff.

CWI is excited to be coaching an all star team of media and development professionals, athletes turned talent to develop a field to future athlete media development program.

The Media Playbook Positive Performance Program, developed by Creative Word and Image Inc., in association with Talent Dyanamics and Gil Tyree’s PositivePub organization is designs to help great college alumni athletes develop the skills, their personality, their brand and their contributions to their teams, their schools, their conference and their community.

Download Preview of the Program

CWI is about to embark on a mission to discover how to make the most of 12-24 hour in key European cities with no advance planning. We’ll simply be armed with a Michelin Green Guide. Follow @europetravelexp while we are there and watch for the resulting video segments as components of upcoming the Michelin Travel & Lifestyles social media campaigns.

As seen in Shopping Centers Today Week
CWI Sourceicsc.org

Startup launches ‘TV’ show for Atlanta real estate pros

Commercial real estate is getting its own version of the TV show Entertainment Tonight. REAL CRE TV, which launched May 10 with a Metro Atlanta edition, is an online video show that aims to give time-starved brokers, developers and other commercial real estate professionals access to the latest industry news. (Sorry, Entertainment Tonight fans — Mary Hart and John Tesh will not be hosts.)

“This is Entertainment Tonight meets the most detailed industry publication you can think of,” said Michael Shoer, head of business development for the video news service, which is delivered by desktop or laptop computer or by mobile phone as a free subscription for qualified professionals. “What we are creating is unlike anything out there currently. It is fast-paced, solid content, delivered in an engaging and exciting way.”

REAL CRE TV, which will eventually cover 10 metro markets if all goes as planned, boasts some impressive network know-how, with production values akin to those of prime-time TV, says Shoer. Led by two former CNN producers, its team includes former FOX and NBC sales executive Michael Panethere, who recently joined as head of interactive advertising and sponsorship. “This is not about making YouTube videos,” Shoer said. Nor is it about running video puff pieces. “We are very conscious of our core video programming being independent editorial content,” he said. “We want that content to be of absolute relevance and importance to a broker, agent or developer on the go.”

Toward that end, the editorial board includes a number of industry veterans, among them Richard C. Lackey Jr., CEO of Atlanta-based City Commercial Real Estate, and Matt Gove, senior vice president of marketing for Cousins Properties and a longtime commercial real estate journalist in Atlanta.

Subscribers to the www.realcretv.com site are encouraged to submit their own videos, photos, press releases and project descriptions and to use a variety of online resources. The editorial team will cull through the submissions for story ideas and do its own reporting on those it deems relevant.

Companies have several ways to advertise on the site, such as sponsoring show segments. “It could be ‘The Real Deal: Brought to You by Simon Property Group,’ ” Shoer said. “The story wouldn’t be about Simon Property Group, but on the page, Simon would have the potential to have its own sponsored video specifically about them or one of their projects. It’s kind of like ‘The Prudential Halftime Report.’ ”

Designer’s Tribute to Her Mother is New Gift Idea for a Mom, Wife, Girlfriend or Daughter

Handbags and Tote Bags quality-crafted by hand from vintage fabrics, quilt pieces and feedsacks, each distinct in design now available for Mother’s Day 2010. Each bag design is a reflection of the life and times of real women who lived, worked, toiled, and sewed during different periods of American history from the mid-1800’s through the 1940’s.

See News Release

 CWI sets sights on changing the informational landscape for commercial real estate professionals in a critical market period.  

The nation’s commercial real estate industry is confronting unprecedented challenges and for professionals armed with the insight and knowledge–potentially groundbreaking opportunities for the future.  REAL CRE TV is a fresh, vibrant and insightful approach to information.

It’s real time video news supercharged by CWI content to directly connect with commercial real estate brokers and property leasing managers delivering relevance, perspective and insights to get behind the headlines.

Sign Up to be among the first to receive a FREE subscription to REAL CRE TV–Metro Atlanta Edition

Pre-Launch Press Release Announcement

Industry News Coverage: Skyline News interview about REAL CRE TV.

Advertising Rates and Pre-Launch Charter Sponsor Packages

Preview Edition

The Facebook revolution has introduced new terms into our daily lexicon, including Friending, and Fan Pages.   If you are like me, you now ignore most invitations to “Become a Fan of” because–even if you want to be nice–there is no point,  no value, no benefit of becoming a Fan… and the chances that you would ever return (or even go in the first place) to the page are slim to none.

But these Group and Fan pages can be powerful ways to get results.  Especially when you note the audience demographics… increasingly women.

We have noticed a shift in Facebook being not only a social network for personal use but also a platform for business use as well. More and more marketers use Facebook as a key medium for their brands online. Earlier this year I wrote a post for the Heavy Chef blog on Why Facebook is an important platform for Brand Building. In this post I looked at its redesign and opportunities it offered brands. Now we have experienced the redesign of Facebook’s Business Pages and Fan pages and this redesign has already proven successful. Let’s look at 5 companies using Facebook fan pages well and see what they are doing right.

1. CocaCola

The page was originally started by 2 fans of Coke before the company had their own presence on Facebook. Instead of taking the page down and rebuilding their own, Coke gave these users the power to run the page for them. In addition, Coke invited them to the Coke factory, showed them around and allowed them to take pictures. This aspect of the CocaCola fan page makes the page more genuine rather than a promotional campaign by Coke.

The Coca-Cola fan page has taken the brave step of displaying user created content in their main page’s Wall feed, something most brands won’t dare do. This means that the page is powered by user generated content, good and bad. Check out this discussion on the CocaCola fan pages as an example of how they deal with negative content on their page. Even though this is a very bold move to make, it get’s their fans involved with the brand and thereby the fans get value out of the page.

2. Red Bull

For Callan Green on Mashable “the Red Bull fan page is easily one of the best on Facebook simply because it has been able to break out of the typical fan page mold by providing fun content that encourages fans to interact with and ultimately connect with the brand”. Red Bull really placed all their focus on an extremely entertaining and interactive Facebook fan page. The Red Bull Facebook fan page focuses the attention of their fans on watching videos, playing ridiculously addictive games like Red Bull Soapbox Race, and listening to music. According to Anne Brannon “it’s fun, it’s engaging, it’s what a fan page should be – tailored to the target audience’s wants and needs”.

The thing that makes Red Bull’s fan page probably one of the best is their incorporation of Twitter. I’m not talking about simply adding the Twitter stream to their fan page – it’s a lot more than that. Instead of pulling boring tweets from their official corporate account, they are pulling tweets from sponsored athletes such as snowboarder Shaun White and skateboarder Ryan Sheckler. Isn’t that just wow? It is clear that Red Bull understands their audience and appeals to them by adding valuable features that would interest them.

3. Victoria’s Secret PINK

The Victoria’s Secret PINK fan page leads the fashion category on Facebook. With about 1.24 million Facebook fans, there are clearly some things Victoria’s Secret is doing right. Understandably, the fact that the demographic targeted by Victoria’s Secret PINK and that of the most active Facebook users are basically the same, has helped grow the page as well. The Victoria’s Secret Facebook fan page engages with their fans and offer them value through competitions and special offers. They start conversations on their wall posts and thus draw fans to join in on the conversation as well. Victoria’s Secret also posts a lot on their own wall and updates status’ which other fan pages forget to focus on. Also, it’s more than just posting for promotional purposes. Victoria’s Secret offers their fans high quality posts and not only self-promotional posts. Victoria’s Secret has also added a link on their PINK landing page to their Facebook fan page, thereby generating traffic to their fan pages through other portals.

4. Pringles

The Pringles Facebook fan page really focuses on adding videos. Yes, they still focus on engaging with their fans on different levels but their use of videos is what makes them so successful. Pringles has noticed its audience on Facebook’s liking to comedy and have used their fan page to spread of a set of videos that could potentially become viral. Videos are among the most commonly shared types of content online. Pringles videos are low budget productions with little editing, about people singing goofy songs. By making a simple video such as this, they have opened up an avenue that would spread the video across Facebook. By simply ‘liking’ the video on Facebook it would appear on the newsfeed of fan’s friends and expose a great deal of people to the Pringles brand.

5. Adidas

The Adidas fan page, like many others, offers a strong page. What makes them so successful is their use of their Facebook fan page’s features to promote their other social media and advertising campaigns.

Most recently, Adidas, along with MTV, ran an exclusive Facebook contest where a fan could win an all-expenses-paid house party. What made this campaign successful is that Adidas chose a prize and partner that would echo the Facebook user demographic. They also promoted the contest on their fan page before and after the campaign. Once they had chosen the lucky winner, they used their page to share the fan’s blog posts, photos and video from the party. This resulted in a whole lot of fan engagement and interest. The thing is, they pulled through with a follow up and that’s what offered value to fans. They could see how the campaign played out.

For Callan Green “fan pages that are doing it right are the ones that are actively engaging with their fans. These pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, videos and images, and a fun and casual tone to match the medium.” Facebook Pages present an exciting opportunity for brands to directly engage with their existing and future customers and harvest new ones. It is and has been a known fact that the more time you invest in your brand’s Facebook page, the better response you’ll get. Here are some post that might help you in bettering you Facebook fan page:

3 Ways for Businesses to Take Full Advantage of Facebook

5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page

Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels. Besides moonlighting as the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative, Yolandi runs Autofemme, a blog about cars, as a business on the side. View more articles by Yolandi.

When Fine Art Dealer and Gallery Owner Candace Kaller’s cell phone rang early afternoon in New York City last September, she answered a call that changed the course of her life forever.  The call was from nurse in Atlanta trying to verify whether the Jane Doe that was on life support in the hospital’s intensive care unit was her daughter.   The 23 year had been hit by a car 30 hours earlier and had suffered traumatic brain injury. Within a few short hours Kaller was at her daughter’s bedside in the ICU, where the daunting responsibility of becoming her daughter’s primary care giver took precedence over all else.  Candace has remained  by her bedside for the past four months while her daugher progresses on the long road to recovery and the expectation that she will be able to lead an independent life someday in the future.  

Today, with strategy and support from CWI Kaller Fine Arts is evolving from a traditional high touch personal service business to a higher profile online gallery and emerging web commerce and social networking force in the fine arts community. Today, Sarah is just weeks away from returning home for continued outpatient therapy, and Candace will be able to concentrate on the ongoing care needs while the Kaller Fine Arts business carries on.

Do you know which global brand has the distinction of having the longest continual use of an iconic brand mascot?   Hint: his name translates as “drink up” and you’ve seen him more than any other corporate icon in the world on signage, product labelling, advertising, on tv and even in the movies.    CWI knows about the power of this personality because we create video using this character that is a key component of their sales motivation strategy for their North American sales teams and dealers.   For authorized access to view this video, please contact us at connect@cwi.me