Once you engage a brand in conversation, you gain the power to kick-start conversations about new topics, rather than just sitting idly on the sidelines. AKQA’s CEO Tom Bedeccaré explains.

As if on cue, AKQA CEO Tom Bedeccaré kicked off his Breakthrough Summit keynote by asking everyone in attendance to swap business cards with someone they don’t know. As he shared the stage with Lars Bastholm, co-chief creative officer, Bedeccaré walked into the audience, card in hand, and the ballroom quickly broke into a rapid networking session.

“This is a relationship business,” Brad Berens, iMedia’s chief content officer and editor at large, said as he introduced the morning keynote. Read more

The world is getting more crowded by the minute. And while some facets of life seem to be more distant and disconnected than decades ago, there’s a growing field of technologies and new human user interfaces that is bringing commerce and people together like never before. [original link at iMedia]

Although the end business goal might be to sell, sell, sell, digital in-store marketing tools have adapted to the demands of a more educated, research-minded, and networked population. Simple messages don’t always deliver on the goals of marketers, particularly when the target audience wants to be enriched in the subject matter. Read more

Almost immediately after Apple opened the floodgates on its App Store, developers, investors, and brands began gravitating toward the platform with a speed and interest that’s unmatched in the history of mobile phones. Brands — large and small — see the iPhone as a unique mobile outlet that can help them connect with consumers in a way that’s more crafty than overt. [original link at iMedia]

Some brands have opted to downplay their presence on their applications by delivering some utility, be it snow reports, recipes, or some other functionality. But defining branded iPhone applications isn’t all black and white — there is plenty of gray area when it comes to their categorization. Read more

TV commercials don’t always translate to online consumer excitement, so marketers are tackling new channels this year. Here’s how brands like Doritos and GoDaddy are using social media to build online buzz after the big game.

NBC is selling 30-second Super Bowl spots for a record $3 million a pop this Sunday, but brands’ ad spend on the big game won’t necessarily translate to consumer excitement. [original link at iMedia]

Like all things these days, the economy is trumping everything else. And brands are taking notice. General Motors and FedEx won’t be anywhere near this year’s Super Bowl. Read more

Wieden + Kennedy’s digital guru is tired of all the conversations about traditional media spend moving into interactive. Traditional media isn’t going away, he argues, so get used to it. [original link at iMedia]

More often than not, Renny Gleeson’s attention is captured by content developed by people working in a proverbial basement than by brand-funded campaigns. The global director of interactive strategies at Wieden + Kennedy thinks that’s a good thing, but it’s also a challenge because of what it exposes. Most brands are pledging time and money to interactive because they simply think they should, whereas average social media sensations do it because they care. The motivation factor and differences between the two is exponential, he says. Read more

If you tend to be a Grinch when the holidays roll around, maybe Weezer can help bring you some holiday cheer and put you back into the spirit of things. The band just recorded six Christmas song classics that will be the hallmark of a new iPhone application from Tapulous, the makers of Tap Tap Revenge. Set to be released later this week, Christmas With Weezer is the latest application that’s all about one band. Earlier this summer, the company released a Nine Inch Nails version of its wildly popular application. The free version, which earned Tapulous its star power soon after the App Store launched, is one of the most downloaded applications on the storefront and shows no signs of relenting.

This project, which spanned about a week for the band, also marks the first time the group has originally recorded songs for mobile. The exclusive tracks “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “First Noel,” “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful” live on in new-fashioned Weezer glory on the $5 application along with two bonus tracks and a video message from the band. Read more

After two days of mediated talks failed, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is asking members to approve a strike authorization. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing some 350 studios and production companies, and the actors guild met face-to-face this past week for the first time in four months. But the talks broke down abruptly Saturday morning, putting the upcoming awards season and film lineup for 2010 into jeopardy. The guild wants jurisdiction over all shows created for the web and a better residual payment structure for new media and DVD sales. But the union, which is 120,000 members strong, is far from a monolithic group. Factions are already calling the union’s leadership into question and suggest more could have been done to move negotiations along. The studios, for their part, have held firm and say they’re only willing to make a deal that matches agreements recently made with writers and directors—nothing more.

All this comes while just earlier this week the writers union reported that gains made in last year’s strike have yet to bear fruit. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) alleged that studios and producers are failing to make good on payments for writers’ work being reused in new media – exactly the sticking point that brought the industry to its knees for four months last winter. The studios claim that their deal with WGA isn’t retroactive, and only applies to films that are initially released in new media after the new contract was signed in February.

LAT: Before the latest talks broke down, the actors guild hinted it would compromise on new media payment terms if the studios agreed to pay actors more for DVD sales. The studios then made some changes to their final offer from four months ago, but the union’s negotiating committee rejected the new proposal in an 11-6 vote. Internal conflict within the union and typically low voter turnout could make it difficult for SAG to get 75 percent to approve a strike if negotiations fail. Moderates recently elected to the guild’s board are also unlikely to call for a strike without an overwhelming mandate from members.

Variety: The federal mediator abandoned negotiations after neither side budged significantly during almost 27 hours of talks at the end of the week. Negotiators spent most of their time reiterating previous positions. When SAG sought approval from its members to hold out for a better deal in September, little more than 10,000 (or just one-twelfth) of its members chimed in, but it got backing from 87 percent. Still, the worsening economy puts into question whether members would give union leadership the same level of support for a strike.

SAG: “We remain committed to avoiding a strike but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers. The WGA has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored. We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of our members and their families.”

AMPTP: “SAG is the only major Hollywood guild that has failed to negotiate a labor deal in 2008. Now, SAG is bizarrely asking its members to bail out the failed negotiating strategy with a strike vote – at a time of historic economic crisis. The tone deafness of SAG is stunning.”

MediaFLO USA expects to nearly double the number of markets it serves by the end of next year, and is working hard at developing temporary channels and original content for its mobile broadcast TV service, according to Bob Bradley, MediaFLO USA’s Senior Director of Content and in charge of licensing and advertising, who spoke at the Mobile Marketing Forum in San Diego this morning.

– 2009 expansion plans: The Qualcomm subsidiary, which was a big participant in the last spectrum auction, is waiting anxiously for broadcasters to clear spectrum on Feb. 7, 2009 as part of the digital TV transition so that it can have more airwaves to expand its services. Today, it operates in 62 markets, and aims to be in 108 markets by the end of 2009.

– Temporary channels and live events very successful: MediaFLO hasn’t taken off as quickly as they had hoped, and it’s unclear how many users the service has through its partnerships with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, but Bradley said the company is starting to see success in offering both temporary channels and access to live events. For instance, MediaFLO just launched a Victoria’s Secret TV channel with CBS Mobile that will air exclusive content from the lingerie-maker’s annual fashion show this Saturday. The channel will feature behind-the-scene snapshots from the event and a group of short episodes that will loop around the clock. Bradley: “It’s a great way for an iconic brand like Victoria’s Secret to increase engagement with its fans.” Another hot area is live events, which are getting an average viewing time of 20 minutes. Bradley: “People are really drawn to the service as a way to connect to live events.” Last summer, when the company aired footage from the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, it saw viewership increase by 103 percent from that event alone.

– Original content coming soon: The company will also gamble on developing original content. Bradley announced a trio of new channels coming up – Guilt Free, Kissing and Self-Esteem – that it’s trying to build around consumers’ interests, passions, pet peeves and more. Going forward, MediaFLO will work with well-established Hollywood talent to help develop even more original content.

– Interactivity and ad-targeting still elusive: Bradley also re-emphasized the company’s commitment to innovate more on interactivity, measurement and ad targeting. The company’s been talking about the back-channel opportunities that could enable viewers to vote or click to buy, for example, but they’ve yet to deliver on anything commercial and it’s been hyped at conferences like this for at least 18 months now. Bradley: “Our number one priority is really to validate the platform through credible metrics and we’re talking to third-party vendors right now… We’re only beginning to understand the new marketing opportunities presented by this new innovative approach.”

Less than one month after Barack Obama moves into the White House, the FCC will be overseeing a major airwaves transition that will require TV broadcasters to hand over analog spectrum to wireless carriers who are eager to start building out 4G networks. Wireless carriers recently bought rights to the soon-to-be-cleared spectrum in the FCC’s highest grossing auction yet. The transition will have to go through smoothly in order for 4G network development to get underway.

Although the Obama team seems eager to make the transition seamless, so consumers don’t go without TV, it is just as important to clear the spectrum quickly for wireless carriers who spent billions on leasing the airwaves. Verizon Wireless was the biggest winner in the high-profile spectrum auction, and probably has the most to lose as a battle begins to brew between 4G technologies. While Verizon and others are leaning towards using LTE, they will have to compete against Clearwire, which recently got the FCC’s blessing to merge with Sprint’s 4G division, and is already in the process of building out a nationwide WiMAX network.

Obama’s transition team head John Podesta recently told reporters that the new administration is keenly aware of the upcoming shift to digital-only television and that it plans to move quickly to confirm new FCC members to see it through, TV Week reports. Some have already, but the remainder of broadcasters throughout the country will be switching to digital-only television on Feb. 17, and it’s sure to be at the forefront of whoever sits on the FCC when and if things go wrong. Podesta declined to say whether the Obama team has immediate plans to replace current FCC Chair Kevin Martin.

“We’re focused on the fact that that will be an early challenge and we need to be ready and prepared for that,” Podesta said, according to Multichannel News. “With respect to personnel announcements, I am not going to speculate… I have no doubt that the President-elect will believe that it is important to put his own stamp on the FCC.”

National Association of Broadcasters president David Rehr sent a letter to Obama earlier this week, noting that up to 19 million households still rely exclusively on over-the-air TV. In areas were some broadcasters have already cleared analog spectrum, the FCC permitted the early transition if stations were located in cold climates or areas were Qualcomm was waiting to begin rolling out its MediaFLO service in the same spectrum.

As one of the more engaging elections in recent years enters the final stretch, the Huffington Post is riding a wave of political influence and enviable growth. But will that all go away after the election? It’s a question that haunts CEO Betsy Morgan, and we raised it again today as part of a panel she participated in at WebbyConnect. She said the site expected content to skew heavily towards politics in the second half of the year, but once the race ends, they’ll begin to increase the mix of content, which hopefully users will stick around for. Those users with an “obsessive behavior” that simply can’t get enough campaign news and chatter might visit less frequently, she admits, but hopefully most of them will turn to other content—from the economy to America’s perception abroad and issues of the new administration. “We’re really ready to capitalize on those users. That’s our core.”

There’s no denying how much the site has benefited from the election season. Huffington Post’s traffic has quintupled in the past year with 4.5 million unique visits last month, WSJ reports. That’s more than double the traffic Drudge Report tracked last month: 2.1 million unique. A year ago, Drudge had 1.2 million unique visits to Huffington Post’s 792,000. Morgan said at WebbyConnect: “In the news-publishing space, there is now so many different alternatives and so many places you can go for news on the web. It can be just overwhelming.” Looking ahead, the site wants to drive more engagement with its audience and make sure they don’t “feel like they’re responding into a black hole.”