Acquisition and Retention via Online Communities EMarketer recently published research into interactive ROI, and concluded that the primary objectives of online marketers are to acquire and retain new customers. Now it’s the fall and little has changed. There are a number of projects, technologies and tactics that can be deployed to drive customer acquisition and retention, and I will be focusing on how publishers and brands can apply their online community platform for this purpose. While the explicit definition of the terms ‘customer’, ‘acquired’ and ‘retained’ vary across organizations, I consider a new registered website user to be acquired, and a returning registered website participant to be retained. (more…)

Tricon Television38 Inc. presents a user-generated component for the promotion of their new reality YTV television series the Next Star, hosted by Adamo Ruggeiro. WIth the help of interactive website developer, designer and marketer, Pixelpusher, The Virtual Next Star contest is now accepting young Canadian’s auditions online. (more…)

Colgate has just launched Get Fresh and Dance to promote its Max Fresh toothpaste. The promotion is exclusive to Canadians and amateur dancers, as the popularity of live dance auditions is being brought online in this user-generated content (UGC) contest.

Conceived by ad agency Young & Rubicam, the collaboration was able to capitalize on Filemobile’s Media Factory Contest White Label application for this UGC project. (more…)

Pelmorex Media’s The Weather Network (Canada) has recently launched a revamped version of its website to incorporate a user-generated content portion as citizen journalism is on the rise.

With the help of Filemobile, an on-demand social media platform company, The Weather Network is engaging users and allowing them to become a part of the news broadcast. (more…)