Campbell’s Chunky soup has just launched a new online community with a user-generated content (UGC) contest looking for Canada’s Most Valuable Coach. As the official nutrition partner of the Coaching Association of Canada, the company wants to honour and recognize deserving coaches who work hard for their teams.

Coach nominations can be uploaded to the contest web page from now until January 6, 2010, with a limit of one nomination per coach. All coaches will be evaluated in three main categories including, personal values, social values and work values. (more…)

Faith Hill has just launched a debut fragrance called Faith Hill Parfums that will have consumers providing discussion topics as a part of a new campaign called The Beauty of Being a Woman.

Consumers will be able to visit the campaign website beginning on October 1, 2009 to view a series of webisodes that will air over the course of two six-week seasons. The second webisode is set to launch in November. (more…)

Casual dining chain Red Robin is taking advantage of its Facebook fans through a new application called GoRecommend by Empathica to help drive social media buzz by asking consumers to post recommendations on their profile page.

While brand marketers may be working hard to attract fans online, referrals seem to be the best way to drive traffic and get people into stores. The latest issue seems to be how to turn passive fans into real brand ambassadors. (more…)

The Coca-Cola Company unveiled elements of a global integrated marketing campaign called What’s Your Celebration? late last week, inspired by the dance celebrations familiar to Africa, the host continent for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The complete campaign is in part to support its sponsorship of the sporting event as well as an extension of the current Coca-Cola brand platform, Open Happiness. The campaign invites fans to express their passion for football through a personal dance celebration. (more…)

IKEA is starring in its very own soap opera, however they have absolutely no hand in its concept, production or promotion. Conceived by a trio of Californians IKEA Heights was originally an entry for Channel101.com’s monthly video competition that debuted with such success its creators adapted it into a four episode series.

The drama is filmed entirely inside an IKEA store in the city of Burbank with actors using the store and its products as a film set. Created by David Seger, Paul Bartunek and Tom Kauffman the soap opera, IKEA Heights has never been approved by the Swedish home furnishing store.

While the company is probably delighted at the free exposure and officially calls the videos fun and complimentary its guerrilla-style video is getting a lot of attention even without the brand backing it. IKEA Heights has over 13,000 YouTube views just on the first episode alone, with the entire series viewed roughly 19,000 times. (more…)

Pepsi is developing a digital community where consumers will be able to share personal and inspirational thoughts. The campaign, Pepsi We Inspire will be aimed at African-American moms to meet the company’s marketing outreach strategy for 2010. (more…)

MuchMusic is looking for an on-air personality to be their new VJ in the user-generated content (UGC) contest VJ Search 2.0. Willing participants will be subjected to weeks of grueling, but fun challenges however - as the MuchMusic blog states - in the end it’s a J.O.B. and you’ll have to be able to commit. (more…)

Theblogpaper, a UK news community which allows anyone to publish written and visual work online and in print, published their first print issue yesterday thanks to the aggregation of user-generated content (UGC) submitted by its community of citizen journalists. (more…)

Coca-Cola brand Vitaminwater is launching a new user-generated content (UGC) campaign where fans of the energy drink will be able to participate in choosing the next flavour, as well the company will be offering a prize for the most popular package design.

The campaign and contest are being held on the social networking site Facebook where participants will be required to download an application called the FlavorCreator and vote for their favourites among a list of proposed tastes. (more…)

Pop superstar Jordin Sparks joins the ranks of more than 290 actors, athletes, models and musicians who have lent their upper lip in support of the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” campaign.

The advertisement campaign is partnering with Sparks and VH1 Save The Music Foundation to launch Drink Milk for a Change - a new program aimed at teens to encourage healthy living and raise awareness about the importance of music as a part of each child’s complete education. (more…)