By Erin Wilson, Account Manager

Will Google Chrome commercials do more than tug at your heartstrings? Will they make you want to download?

Google Chrome recently intensified its marketing efforts, tugging at the heartstrings of its audience in a series of 90-second commercials showing people using Google products to create meaning in their everyday lives. The commercials have gone viral, achieving nearly 2 million views on YouTube for the compelling “Dear Sophie” commercial alone. In addition to pushing feel-good emotional content, Google Chrome is also reaching out in support of the LGBT community—perhaps in a way that some might see as controversial—by releasing a spot focused on Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project. Chrome is clearly attempting to connect with a wide range of audiences to show how Google technology is incorporated into people’s lives, from a father cataloging his daughter’s first milestones to a Parisian love story developing through Google search.

According to Ross Paul at ChromeAdvisor, Google’s main goal is driving higher adoption rates of Chrome in the United States. Increased offline marketing efforts by Google show its commitment to Chrome as a key focus of its business and speak to its desire for increased market share, which currently stands at 12%. If this campaign is successful, they could challenge Mozilla Firefox, which is currently the second largest internet browser by usage.

As Chrome continues its promotional offensive, it will be interesting to see how other browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer respond.

By Erin Wilson, Account Manager

Twitter updates its search functionality and paves the way for changes in how it generates revenue.

Twitter recently improved search functionality to make it easier to find friends to follow based on common interests. Prior to this update, searching by interest returned results that matched the search query exactly instead of also returning loosely related terms.

Twitter has established itself as the third-largest online social network and improving search functionality was imperative. Due to the vast amount of content posted to the site on a daily basis, much of the content was lost and difficult to re-locate via the search handle. Since the update, the search function has improved but returns the most recent posts instead of the most relevant—something many have criticized (The Atlantic).

Twitter also now features chosen Twitter users on the redesigned homepage. The company has not detailed how or why they pick the users they feature, but we have been able to surmise that they are popular tweeters and all boast at least 10,000 followers.

In light of search changes and its enormous growth, Twitter is continues to consider ways to generate revenue. According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in an interview with Marketing Magazine, “more companies [are] using Twitter and individuals [are] following them” (SearchEngineWorld). To utilize this shift, Twitter is considering paid sponsor-driven search results and featured user listings. For companies, these changes may make for a great opportunity to reach out to a very select customer base.

By Erin Wilson, Senior Account Coordinator

In an effort to spread brand awareness, businesses are increasingly creating marketing and advertising campaigns focusing on charitable giving or helping out in times of tragedy.

A trend in marketing for charitable causes has gained popularity as companies look for ways to differentiate their brands. Instead of running traditional campaigns focused on product sales, companies are finding ways to tie their products to a greater cause. Corporations such as Pepsi, Ford and Tide have all used various marketing strategies to position their brands as community-focused.

In an attempt to increase engagement, many companies are asking their consumers to make suggestions about which charities the company should support. In addition to allowing the business to appear benevolent on many fronts, this engagement with consumers creates a a sense of empowerment and involvement for the audience. To initiate these conversations, corporations are increasingly turning to social media channels —and many such conversations have gone viral.

Catherine Gao, a winner of the “Start More Than a Car” Ford campaign said, “This entire experience has helped to shape my view of Ford as an innovative company that hopes to change its industry through new and green initiatives.” Testimonials like these have a huge impact and create loyal customers who extend a positive brand message.

By Erin Wilson, Senior Account Coordinator

90octane offers up a little analysis on our favorite creative online marketing campaigns of 2010.

2010 proved to be a year for pushing the limits when it came to online media. With the enormous growth of social media and the ability of the consumers to use social media to interact with businesses, companies had to do something different to stand out. Below is the 90octane review of the most creative campaigns of 2010:

· Old Spice: The social media campaign created by Old Spice and marketing partner Weiden & Kennedy was a hit immediately. Making over 150 videos within a three day time period, the videos were tailor-made to the company’s fans on YouTube and drastically increased Old Spice’s interaction with its customers. Old Spice took ‘real time’ social media to the extreme and was able to increase Facebook interaction by 800%, website traffic by 300%, and made itself the most-viewed YouTube channel.

Posted by: Erin Wilson, Account Coordinator

Many marketers struggle to find qualified online leads to pass along to their sales teams. In some cases they aim for quantity over quality hoping that a small percentage will eventually convert to a sale. Ideally, marketers should create and implement solid online lead generation programs that help bridge the gap between themselves and their sales teams.

Use the following questions to start thinking about ways you can create or improve your lead generation program.