Want to catch up with what happened in the digital world this week? Our weekly cheat sheet will fill you in on everything you missed while you were scrambling to meet deadlines and put out fires.
Read about the Starbucks Facebook game promoting the Pumpkin Spice Latte, how Kroger is offering personalized coupons in real-time, Nike’s Twitter contest promoting ParaNorman, and more!
1. Starbucks promotes their Pumpkin Spice Latte with Facebook game
Starbucks is promoting the fall favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte again, and cities must compete against one another to be the first to get the drink. Fans can go to the Starbucks Facebook page and earn points by sharing on Facebook and Twitter, playing daily challenges like trivia, and taking part in creative challenges that asks fans to create pumpkin poetry and art. The city with the most points on August 24 will win!
2. Kroger offers personalized coupons based on shopping history and behaviors
Kroger supermarket is now offering consumers personalized discounts in-store for the products they shop for the most. In collaboration with dunnhumbyUSA, Kroger is analyzing consumer loyalty cards and sending out coupons to consumers that are likely to take up on the offer. In addition, they are able to take the loyalty card data that suggests a consumer may buy for a family and offer discounts for larger sized products. All of these coupons are automatically loaded to a customer’s loyalty card and applied at checkout.
3. Nike contest gives away ParaNorman movie-inspired shoes to Twitter fans
In order to promote the movie ParaNorman, Nike has created weird glow-in-the-dark shoes inspired by the movie to give away to the weirdest ParaNorman Twitter fans. The contests asks those who follow @ParaNorman to tweet their most awkward childhood photos with the hashtag #weirdwins for a chance to win one of 800 Nike Foamposite shoes. They currently have nearly 50,000 photo submissions and has given away 400 pairs of shoes.
4. Food Network launched ‘On the Road’ app for travelling foodies
Ever watch a Food Network show that talks about that great hole-in-the-wall joint but you always forget the name of it? Well, now you can find all of the amazing restaurants with Food Networks On the Road app. The app allows you to sort by location or show to help you find the top recommended restaurants and hot spots across the nation. Next time you’re on a road trip and wondering what to eat, the On the Road app will help satisfy any foodie’s craving.
5. Checking Out App.net
App.net, a new social platform that imagines what Twitter would be like if it were a platform and not a media property, opened up access to its site to more users this week. Twitter has slowly been shutting down its “Find Friends” tie-ins on services like Instagram and Tumblr, which has caused developer concern over the future of Twitter as a platform for creating new experiences. App.net hopes to change that. Currently, the community is small (less than 20,000 users), but developer activity around App.net could make the platform a compelling alternative to Twitter in the months and years to come. You can check out the global feed of posts to App.net here:http://alpha.app.net.
