Q&As

It was about a year ago when the opening games of the World Cup kicked off in Johannesburg, South Africa, and seven-time “Official Beer,” Budweiser, debuted a global marketing campaign of unprecedented scale called “Bud United: Bud House.” The promotion drew 4,000 applications from people who hoped to live, eat and sleep the World Cup as Bud filmed their lives and produced a number of shows for its YouTube channel. Now a similar casting call can be heard pinging around the world for Bud’s latest iteration of “Bud United” called “The Big Time.” This time, the brand is offering fans unprecedented access to live their dreams in very active ways through Bud’s sponsorships of its various entertainment, lifestyle and sports properties.

Faced with tighter schedules, more information than ever to manage and greater expectations from upper management, many marketers are turning to automated data-marketing systems.

Welcome to Broker Roundtable, where each week we ask list brokers to give their opinions on issues that matter to the marketing community. This week’s question: As the U.S. gets more ethnically diverse, what are some tips to help marketers target various demographic segments?

This summer, Mountain Dew will return to store shelves some of its most loyal consumers favorite flavors. The beverages will return for a limited engagement as part of the “Back by Popular DEWmand” promotion.

Now that the daily deals business has gone into overdrive, companies like Groupon, Living Social and Eversave are figuring out ways to step away from the pack by offering more attractive deals for consumers and driving loyalty for merchants.

A Roman Catholic religious order received a 3% response rate and raised about $100,000 from its first e-mail and web campaign to benefit victims of the tsunami in Japan.

Consumer packaged goods giant P&G has indicated a desire to source 10% of its sales online. Given that it currently sources less than 1%, that sounds like an aggressive goal but one that it is putting its formidable resources against delivering. Many other CPG companies from Kraft, J&J and General Mills to Pinnacle Foods are placing a strategic imperative on the etailing selling space.

Corona has launched its largest retail promotion using unique codes placed on bottles and cans that are hidden in packages across the country.

Miracle Whip’s video/ sampling campaign uses stars like Pauly D to nudge the public into trying the brand for themselves

A story that involves a stay in a hospice—a facility geared toward palliative, or end-of-life care—will rarely have a happy ending. So when Capital Hospice turned to a storytelling-reliant creative approach as part of a $15 million capital campaign, one could understand a few raised eyebrows.

Those eyebrows have been lowered, thanks to a sensitive copywriting team, a reconfiguration of the solicitation package, and some carefully applied segmenting and customization. What else has been lowered? The total number of pieces mailed to previous donors and other individuals it has a relationship with, from 300,000 annually in 2008 and 2009 to 140,000 in 2010.