Rachel – It seems like everyone is interested in Pinterest these days- from collecting fashion ideas to planning weddings. But how can Pinterest be used for B2B? The Wall Street Journal is using Pinterest to collect infographics, technology coverage, and more on their pin boards. General Electric is using their account to collect images of some of their greatest creations. How can you use Pinterest for B2B? Here are some ideas.

Chris – Interesting article and statistics on B2B marketing and integration vs. B2C.

Kristen – Target delivers the “boutique experience”  in new The Shops at Target campaign.

Christian – The best advertising is that which stands out amongst the masses. Here are some brochure designs that businesses used to showcase their creative skills.

Martin – Here’s a video made by an agency called Doremus in New York for Corning called “A Day Made of Glass” to demonstrate the role of glass in developing products for the future. The only thing I don’t like about it is it make my iPhone feel like an old piece of junk.

Also, this one is a few years old, but I love the execution of it. Very Clever.

Gary – As B2B businesses move with the rest of the world into the land of social media, they might benefit from some essential advice on how to manage their public profiles.

Patty – The conversion to Timeline was an upheaval for many loyal Facebook users. However, these businesses used the design to their advantage and came up with the 10 best B2B Timeline Covers. Our very own client, Fluke Corporation, is featured.

Charlie – IKEA takes space-saving seriously. And to prove it, they’ve created the World’s Tiniest IKEA Store.

Kristen – Mohawk unveils new logo and unique brand vision animation.

Gary – While extremely partial to all things Macintosh, Spike is interested in the fact that Microsoft plans to take a big bite out of Apple.

Rachel – It’s always interesting to see how marketing budgets are changing each year. eMarketer projects that in the U.S. market, advertisers will increase video ad spend by 54.7 percent and increase investment in standard banners by nearly 20 percent. Research shows that people exposed to banners that included online video were about 5.6 times as likely to visit a marketer’s site as those exposed to standard banners. It will be interesting to see how online advertising changes this year, in light of these projections.

Martin – Here’s an interesting site for an architectural firm in Poland. I don’t usually like sites that have strange navigation, but for the kind of firm they are and the execution, I think this one really works.

Tiffany – Cool awareness campaign mixing the new with the old…

Patty – As a youngster, it’s really interesting to see businesses creep into the social media world (or vice versa). It looks like even B2B marketers are utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging and Pinterest.

Martin: This commercial, created by Microsoft to poke fun at themselves, is a great example of why less is more.

Rachel: I always enjoy seeing clever campaigns, particularly social media. Here are a few samplings of some interesting uses of location and social media-based campaigns.

Patty, Tiffany & Gina: Google’s concept for new innovative eye-ware takes us just one step closer to world overrun by robots. Tiffany would even start wearing glasses again for these. But Gina wonders if Google is taking technology too far.

Christian: Awesome clip of the world’s first 1080 on a skate ramp. Oh yea, the skater is a 12 YEAR OLD KID!!

Gary: Spike and his colleagues dig the wood-fired, mouth-watering, pizza pies of perfection served at Bar del Corso.

Willem: A Stop-Motion-Film, inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s short story “the old man and the sea.”

Patty: It’s kind of interesting to see the new focus on digital marketing. It would be more interesting to see how the numbers hold up in 2012.

Christian: A very cool vignette of a book being created using traditional printing methods.

Kristen: While searching for some nursery design inspiration, I came across these adorable baby animal photos by Sharon Montrose.  I’ll definitely be getting a few!

Chris: Environmental design is all the rage these days. And now a Liverpool-based company is taking that to a new level with paper posters that play music via printed circuits made with conductive ink. But whether it’s on a screen or in a subway, it’s still all about creating a unique user-centric experience.

Gary: Spike likes, no, make that loves, the fact that the 2012 baseball season in underway!

Rachel: I have a competitive spirit, so the best way that I can motivate myself to get in shape for summer is a little friendly competition. A new iPhone app called Fitocracy will help me do just that- competing against other Fitocracy members in the name of fitness!!

Patricia: Try a new recipe this week- Texas Chicken with Lime Butter or Poulet Saute Au Vinaigre. These recipes are delicious – I often add vegetables like asparagus, onions, carrots and potatoes, but I’m sure they would be good with anything. Enjoy!

Kristen: In honor of St. Patricks Day, whip up these Shamrock Cookies in a flash!

Christian: Wrecking Crew video from Japan. Fast forward to around 30 seconds for the show to begin!

Willem: A whacky & very exciting movie with “just toys”.

Tiffany: My little sister, Katrina Stone, was the winner of Maurices “Hometown Sound” nationwide band search. Part of her prize included the opportunity to play SxSW this week.

Tim: For all the Chocoholics out there, could this get any better?

Sharan: My favorite was the Doritos commercial.

Rachel: Two years in a row, Volkswagen has produced my favorite Super Bowl ad!
Kristen: VWs The Dog Strikes Back!

Natasha: The M&M commercial this year was my favorite, it definitely made me laugh!

Willem: Fiat commercial.

Gary: Spike noticed a difference in how academia viewed the Super Bowl commercials versus how America viewed them. In the eighth annual review by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, four SB spots received the grade of A (naturally a university would use a letter grading system):

M&Ms Just My Shell
Skechers Bulldog
Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt
Honda CRV’s Day Out

However, the top four spots as judged by the American public as reported by USA Today were:

Doritos Baby
Bud Light Weego
Kia Dream
Chrysler Halftime in America
M&Ms Just My Shell

Of course, this being an election year, it’s fairly obvious that everyone has their favorite, even if the candidates are TV commercials.

Safe Bets, Risks and Rewards: What 2012 Means for B2B Marketers

By Mary M. Flory

Content strategy? Social media? Mobile commerce? Lead generation? What should savvy B2B marketers bet on for 2012?
B2B Marketing polled several industry insiders to see what’s hot, what’s not and which strategies are worth their blood, sweat and tears, not to mention their time and money.
Here’s what they had to say.

Gary Meyers, Creative Director and President, Hodgson/Meyers Advertising:
In 2012, the economy will roar, relatively speaking. I’m not an economist. My observations are based on what we see in our world. Our ‘Tier One’ clients reside in the industries of telecommunications, financial services, security, industrial testing equipment, insurance and enterprise technology. And yeah, we’re in Seattle, which has a more robust economy right now, than say, Flint, Mich. But our clients represent a diverse geography, from New York to Chicago to Minneapolis to Houston to Little Rock, Ark., to Tucson, Ariz., to Seattle. For the most part, they’re bullish. So we’re bullish.

Brand positioning and brand activation are more relevant than ever in B2B. Content proliferation often translates to brand disintegration. More marketing “stuff” in the marketplace doesn’t mean more brand recognition. To the contrary––for the customer, it’s just more muck and mud and goo. The democratization of content creation hasn’t necessarily raised the quality bar. We hear from client marketing directors that their story is diluted and marginalized. We tell them: “Plant a flag in the ground. Be big at something. Own your space and rigorously, even single-mindedly at times, execute on that bigness with your marketing outreach.”

Data mining will be hot in B2B. While data mining, data aggregation and data selling are engendering intense debate regarding ethics and legalities in the consumer space (where commerce in consumer-data is a multi-billion dollar industry), I see more lenience, more leeway and more opportunity for B2B marketers. I think there is a huge, untapped potential, not so much for the trading of data, but for B2B companies to capture and analyze data from their own prospects and to market to them accordingly. I think, psychologically, we are more protective and guarded about divulging personal data that we are about divulging workplace data. For many professionals, our jobs involve research and purchase of products and services. It is more a requirement versus a choice as in the consumer psychosis. This more lenient business-to-business mindset opens the door to decision-tree content delivery and data capture on the Web, which leads to any number of re-targeting and nurturing activities. I believe, from what we see with clients, that data-based nurturing activities are still underresourced and underserved, especially considering that 90 percent of fresh B2B marketing leads, on average, are not ready for prime time.

To see what other industry leaders had to say on this topic, please visit the AMA website to view the rest of this article.

Rachel: For all those creative folks who appreciate Apple’s incredible product packaging, watch this video about how closely Apple considers every detail:

Willem: BIGGEST TEAHUPOO EVER!
The great surfer Kelly Slater said “witnessing this was a draining feeling being terrified for other people’s lives all day long, it’s life or death. Letting go of that rope one time can change your life and not many people will ever experience that in their life.”

BIGGEST TEAHUPOO EVER from UnFuzzy on Vimeo.

Gary G: Spike likes The Royal Room in Columbia City, especially when the Polyrhythmics are rockin’ the house. Check ‘em out on YouTube:

Kristen: Get your DNA as art!

Natasha: Adding some color to your house makes it beautiful and more unique . Check out these “Amazingly Colorful Homes“! These are my favorite ones located in Riomaggiore, Italy:

Willem: The Creators Project
A global network dedicated to the celebration of creativity, culture and technology. At a time in the history of the arts where digital technology has revolutionized distribution, democratized access, and re-imagined the scope and scale with which an artist can create a vision and reach an audience, The Creators Project is a new kind of arts and culture channel for a new kind of world.

Rachel: This is a great, clever use of video to show the amazing slender style of LG’s newest TV.

Christian: This is a really cool video on the surprising truth about what motivates us. Very creative in how to make a normal presentation really engaging!

Natasha: The finalists are in for the Doritos commercial that will air during the Super Bowl this year! Check out the five hilarious videos. This one was not a finalist but it was still funny!

John:

Jason: With Winter’s Chill firmly established Spike is thrilled to see a new ice skating rink set up in one of Seattle’s coolest neighborhoods… Capitol Hill

Gary G: Spike likes getting together with old friends, like at the Cole & Weber 80th Anniversary Party (left to right: Gary Graf, Christina Conte, Chuck Pennington, Steve Johnson, Peter Richards)

Kristen: My all-time favorite Christmas movie… Christmas Vacation! It never gets old

Rachel: I like getting in the holiday spirit! We got all of our Christmas lights up on our house, and our tree decorated. Next up for me is some holiday baking. Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Tiffany: “Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative” – Michael Collins
My spike like’s this week is the Nasa Kepler Mission. In the past few months Kepler has discovered a Earth-like planet in the “habitable” zone of a star and a Tatooine planet with 2 suns. So far the Kepler telescope has spotted 2,326 candidate planets outside our solar system with 139 of them potentially habitable ones.

Natasha: Old song by N Sync but I love it for the holidays!

Sharan: