Social media can instantly connect large numbers of people who share interests and activities. Much like sporting events. The New York Mets are pioneering a way to unite these two forms of public interaction, by bringing social media into the stadium. Beginning this season, a Citi Field big screen will play host to an SMS marketing system that presents a whole new way for sponsors to interact with fans, and fans with each other.

Powered by txtstation, a company specializing in mobile marketing for sports and entertainment, the system boasts several features to get the crowd involved. Xerox is sponsoring 'Citi Field's Fan Photos', which displays a slideshow on the big screen of photos taken by supporters with their camera phones. 'Verizon Wireless Fan Choice Awards' runs polls on such topics as "Who is the Met's player of the game?", the results of which are displayed on the screen in real-time, while Caesar's Palace has sponsored a 'Fan Forum' that lets fans air their views on a given subject. Wise Snacks, meanwhile, is giving fans the opportunity to vote for their preferred 'Eighth-Inning Sing-Along' song, and Verizon is taking it to the next base by replying to messages from their network users with an invitation to visit their in-stadium store. It's all novel advertising that is sure to catch the attention of stadium-goers.

Similar systems are starting to pop up in all kinds of public spaces—concerts, clubs, shopping malls—as marketers take advantage of mobile connectivity to integrate levels of interactivity that are inspired by online communication.

Website: www.txtstation.com
Contact: michael@txtstation.com

Spotted by: Mobile Marketer via Judy McRae

iStockphoto is already a familiar name to many in media and design for its low-priced stock photography, illustrations and multimedia files. Now the Canadian company is planning to expand its offerings with a line of user-generated corporate logos as well.

Late last month Alberta-based iStockphoto announced that it will soon begin providing logos that clients can download and use to brand their business or organization. The site's existing contributors can create and upload logos for sale on the site, as can professional designers, many of whom likely already have unused logo designs left over from past jobs. Logos will be sold as fully editable .eps files—a training manual for contributors is coming soon—and they will be exclusive to iStockphoto. They will be sold only once to prevent duplicate use, and so will be priced higher than other items on the site—ranging from 100 to 750 credits each, the company says. iStock is currently seeking feedback on the possibility of its acting as intermediary between artist and client for one round of changes to a purchased logo so as to allow the designer to help insert the client company's name into the logo design. iStock will pay a base royalty rate of 50 percent per logo design for the first 6 months, and designers will be able to upload an unlimited number of logos during that time. As an incentive to upload early, it's also offering a USD 5 bonus for creators of the first 10,000 logo designs to be approved by January 1, 2010, with another USD 5 if it reaches 10,000 approved logos by that time.

Much like IncSpring, which we covered about a year ago, iStockphoto's logo line promises to give creators a way to monetize unused ideas and designs while providing businesses and organizations with an affordable option for their own branding. Yet another win-win for all involved—and another triumph for the crowds! ;-) (Related: Crowdsourced graphic design.)

Website: www.istockphoto.com
Contact: help@istockphoto.com

Spotted by: David Licona

Does teaching children to drive make them better drivers as adults? Mercedes-Benz thinks so. This summer saw the launch of its Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy in the UK, which teaches anyone over 10 years and 1.5 metres tall the basics of manoeuvring a car.

With packages tailored to different age groups, the Academy aims to show young people the ins and outs of driving, rather than the minimum needed to pass a test. Children aged 10–14 are taught the basics of road safety and car handling, taking an A Class out for a half-hour spin for GBP 40. The 'Pre-Road Sessions', meanwhile, are targeted at 15–17 year-olds and delve a little deeper into the theory of driving, the traffic code and dealing with emergency situations. Prices start at GBP 75 for a one-hour track session. A 3-hour, GBP 205 'Parent-Partner Package' is designed to improve parents' confidence and patience when teaching their child how to drive, no matter how hair raising the experience may be. Last but not least, those over 17 are also catered for: there's a full driving test package available to assist with passing the theory and practical test.

Mercedes-Benz isn't alone in offering a service like this: we spotted BMW and Audi offering driving lessons a while back as part of the status skills trend. However, the Mercedes scheme adds a clever twist by engaging kids with its aspirational brand. With a bit of luck, they'll lust after MB cars throughout their teens and twenties, purchasing one when they can afford to do so. Or else cajole their parents into buying so they can happily travel in a Merc back seat.

Website: www.mbdrivingacademy.com
Contact: www.mbdrivingacademy.com/useful-info/contact

Spotted by: David Licona

It should no longer come as any surprise to brands large or small that they are the subject of conversation online—whether they participate or not. Launched by Seth Godin, Brands in Public is a new site that aggregates all those diverse conversations and presents them through a unified public-facing dashboard that gives any brand the chance to lead the discussion.

A Google search on a brand name may retrieve many of the online conversations going on out there, but Squidoo-powered Brands in Public differs by virtue of the fact that the brand in question can curate the conversation. By sponsoring the page about its brand, a participating company can edit the introductory text, highlight the tweets and posts it likes, point to its blog, videos, Twitter feed and corporate website, and even—if it's truly bold—highlight ways to get in touch. No censorship is involved, since the automatic feed of conversations from across the web—via Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google Trends and more—is just that: automatic. Rather, it is through the left-hand side of any brand page that the company in question can answer its critics, highlight its fans, contribute questions or quizzes, or point to its official materials. So, rather than passively monitoring the public conversation, in other words, participating brands actually coordinate it and shape it as it happens. Brands in Public is supported by Boston-based BzzAgent. The cost of participation for a brand is USD 400 per month; no long-term commitment is required. For nonprofits, however, there's the chance to be selected for a free Brands in Public page, thanks to a special selection process at the beginning of every month.

There's no doubt consumers will talk about pretty much any and every brand under the sun—again and again, in forum after forum, and probably with widely varying results. It's by having a hand in those conversations, however, that brands can embrace what our sister site would call foreverism and turn transparency tyranny into transparency triumph. Bottom line, as Brands in Public puts it: "People are talking about you. Are you going to show up?"

Website: www.squidoo.com/brandsinpublic/hq
Contact: bzz@bzzagent.com

Now that the US Cash for Clunkers program has come to an end, it's a safe bet that many auto manufacturers are racking their brains for ways to sustain the sales levels they enjoyed while the program was underway. For bankruptcy-beleaguered GM, the solution is apparently a new marketing effort called May the Best Car Win, a key part of which is a 60-day money-back guarantee on many of the cars it sells.

Aiming to give budget-weary consumers the confidence to spend their hard-earned cash on a GM vehicle without fear of regrets, GM now offers its 60-day guarantee on 2009 and 2010 model year Chevys, Buicks, GMCs and Cadillacs, with the exclusion of medium duty trucks. Consumers who purchase and take delivery on such a vehicle before Nov. 30 can then simply try the vehicle out for 30 days. If they're not satisfied—and they've put fewer than 4,000 miles on the vehicle—they then have another 30 days to return it. GM will then refund the price they paid plus sales tax, but less any rebates or the cost of add-on accessories.

Bob Lutz, the company's vice chairman for marketing and communications, explains: "We know that we’ll need to work very hard to get people’s attention and encourage them to give Chevy, Buick, Cadillac and GMC a try. We think the ‘May the Best Car Win’ campaign and the satisfaction guarantee offer should help re-instill confidence in the excellence of our products. We’re putting our money down that if people buy one of our vehicles and don’t absolutely love it, we’ll take it back. We will stand behind them both in the short-term and over the long haul.”

Tryvertising can make good sense even during the best of times, but when economic conditions are rough—and when a company is seeking to restore weakened confidence in its products? Nothing short of imperative, we'd say. Other auto makers—or any hard-hit company, for that matter: how about you...? (Related: Fertility device offers money-back pregnancy guarantee.)

Website: www.gm.com/guarantee
Contact: www.gm.com/utilities/contact_us/contact.jsp?evar24=60DayGuarantee_sitelet&deep=contact

Spotted by: Katherine Noyes