Unilevers’ new Age Miracle face cream by Pond’s hasn’t exactly been leaping off the shelves in the Chinese market over the past year. So, they have decided to turn on the charm with a digital campaign that hopes to generate buzz, establish the product’s credibility and encourage Chinese women to give it a try.

The anti-aging cream is up against a long list of strong competition from brands such as Clinique, L’Oreal, Lancome and Olay which have made their mark as trusted favourites to a loyal consumer demographic.

Unilever and Ogilvy PR Worldwide asked volunteer bloggers to participate in a blind trial program and quickly signed up 150 official testers. The Chinese blogging community is large and influential with more than 100 million claiming to communicate via forums and discussion boards and 41 million heavy social media contributors, according to Netpop Research. (more…)

The film and the professional sports industries saw a major jump in popularity during the Depression years of the 1930s. With the U.S. economy now in a deep recession, it looks like people will turn to social networking site for escape.

“Social media will play the same role in this recession that movies played in the Depression,” says Cate Riegner, VP of Research for Netpop Research, LLC, a research firm specializing in helping companies understand the Internet consumer market. (more…)