Where can you go to get the latest industry news, exclusive interviews with top ad executives, and compelling discussions and insights on the future of advertising?  Look no further than The Advertising Show, Ad Age Magazine’s weekly podcast on marketing, advertising, branding and media. Read More-->.

This post is part of a week-long series on how different industries can leverage social media to connect with their customers.

By Briana Campbell (@MsMatchGirl)

America is a car country and we Americans feel a strong connection between our cars and the identity that they give us. A car is not just a way to get from one place to another, it’s a status symbol. Our cars tell the world who we are. We’re not just keeping up with the Joneses, we’re outdoing them, letting our individuality shine through how our cars represent us. Read More-->.

By Sven Larsen(@zemoga)

Good ideas make you smile. Great ideas make you want to steal them. That was our first reaction to Paris 26 Gigapixels, a remarkable project that has stitched together over 200 pictures to provide one of the most detailed digital panoramas we’ve ever seen.

Words really can’t do this justice. You have to Read More-->>

By DJ Edgerton (@wiltonbound)

Well…not completely…but my recent interactions with Chris in Bogota revealed to me a whole bunch of what makes him special. Off stage & un-blogged. Chris Brogan is the EF Hutton of social media. What he posts, people read. What he tweets…people Re. He is one of the most sought after speakers and consultants in the Read More-->>

By Dan Licht (@thedvl)

I’m not talking about a smartphone, I’m talking about your actual palm.

We’ve seen demos of these kinds of kinetic interfaces before but I’m always fascinated to see how the technology has advanced. If you get pat the technical jargon in this video, you can see how something like this could be used Read More-->>

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The team that puts together this newsletter has been feeling a little competitive heat lately. That’s because Zemoga has been popping up in the press just about everywhere these days. In addition to his Justin Timberlake piece, DJ was invited to write an article for THE HUFFINGTON POST’s business section. Zemoga was also profiled in PORTAFOLIO magazine Read More-->.

What’s next? What’s right around the corner? When your core business is digital innovation, these are the questions you ask every day. It’s why we attend conferences and training sessions dedicated to new technologies. It’s why we monitor competitor’s activity and look for outstanding examples of creative work. And it’s why we launched blogs like this one – to found out what our customers are focused on and what new innovations are capturing their imaginations.

It’s the nature of our business that these kind of questions never go away. The things that were getting us excited twelve months ago have become part of the mainstream. Everyone from Starbucks to the US Air Force is using social media these days. Esquire just plastered augmented reality all over the cover of their latest issue. And the 100,000 apps designed for the iPhone speak plainly to the emergence of the mobile platform.

As we enter 2010, we keep looking forward. One of the major trends we see is the movement of things like AR and social media moving from the “Hey, that’s cool!” to real, practical and usable tools. This is partly consumers becoming more familiar with these technologies. But it’s also a reflection of the times we live in. With working people more time crunched than ever (and unemployed people looking harder than ever to find their next job) the balance between distraction and accomplish assigned tasks is definitely tipping in the latter’s favor.

So what are going to be the next big trends for 2010? Read More-->

Cheez Doodles Aims at Kids, Launches New Viral Brand Using Augmented Reality and Social Media

Classic Wise Food’s Brand Gets Digital Face-Lift, Brings New Mascots to Life to Engage Teens and Tweens

Berwick, PA and New York, NY – Oct. 26, 2009 – Wise Foods, Inc., one of the country’s leading snack food manufacturers, and Zemoga, a pioneering digital marketing and innovation firm, today unveiled a fresh new look for CheezDoodles.com: introducing the “Cheez Dudes.” Encouraging creativity and musical aspirations, the new campaign introduces the Cheez Dudes alternative rock/pop group with original music, and an augmented reality contest that gives teens and tweens a chance to win musical instruments for their very own garage band.

Cheez Doodles Uses New Technology, Goes Viral and Social to Reach Young Consumers

Today, Cheez Doodles^® joins the ranks of a select few brands embarking on a unique form of engagement called augmented reality. Using computer vision and object recognition technology, AR lets people augment their real-world environment to make it interactive and digitally usable. As its first foray into AR, viral marketing and social media, Cheez Doodles chose digital marketing firm Zemoga, to bring their Cheez Dudes mascots to life. For Cheez Doodles, Zemoga developed a complete digital campaign that included a new Website, casual game content, an augmented reality contest, original music, a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter site to engage teens and tweens with the Cheez Doodle brand.

“Cheez Doodles successfully appeals to moms, but we needed to get more engagement with teens and tweens. So we worked with Zemoga to develop an extensive online marketing campaign to bring the Cheez Dudes to life,” said Kevin Foltz, Brand Manager at Wise Foods. “We decided to appeal to kids’ creative sides with art and music branded themes, rather than a typical sports-related platform. That’s how the Cheez Dudes band was born.” Read More-->�

Photo by Cristiano Betta ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/cristiano_betta)

Silicon Alley Insider reported today that Apple users have downloaded their 2 billionth app from iTunes. The growth in adoption of new apps is truly astounding as the same article notes that 10.5 million apps are being downloaded per day. No wonder Apple doesn’t have that long rumored tablet computer ready yet!

All kidding aside, it’s an incredible statistic and a testament to both the popularity of the iPhone and iPod touch and Apple’s very effective TV commercials for the Apps store.

Like anything, the app store runs the risk of being the victim of it’s own success. With over 85,000 apps already in the store, it’s got to be tough for developers to come up with something truly innovative. And even tougher for them to stand out from the crowd. We may soon see an evolution in app development as applications become the province of branded marketers with the budget to promote their commercial software in other media. The Puma Index and MasterCard Priceless Picks apps are two good examples of this new trend. Read More-->MasterCard Priceless Picks apps are two good examples of this new trend.