St. Pat's and other March Interactive Marketing Stuff

I'm getting ready to head down to New York City very early tomorrow morning to attend the SES Conference for two days. So, today I'm a bit rushed trying to get my act together, so here's a little potpourri of thoughts for the day.

First off I want to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day. It was a beautiful sunny day here in New York with the temperatures above freezing... a sure sign of Spring. Everybody has a touch of Irish in them on St. Patty's day, and I'm proud to say I had an Irish grandmother who gave me the one-quarter Irish that I can celebrate today.

I read on PROMO Xtra today about a month-long St. Patrick’s Day themed interactive mobile marketing promotion that Jameson Irish Whiskey was wrapping up by midnight tonight. Those that signed up got an Irish toast on their mobile phones—at the rate of one an hour all day, for a total of 22 toasts. Wayne Hartunian, brand director for Jameson's parent company Pernod Ricard USA, said “Everyone wants the perfect toast on St. Patrick’s Day, and mobile is the ideal medium to quickly distribute these words of wisdom to our customers who have opted in.” So, here's a toast to the Irish in us all!

The NCAA March Madness officially gott underway with the team selection for the men's championship games announced yesterday. Unfortunately my regional favorite, the Syracuse University Orangemen, didn't make it this year. But be sure fill out your brackets which you can find located on Facebook here. The two NCAA themed consumer-generated contest promotions that I previously wrote about here and here did announce some winners.

Coca-Cola announced who the four lucky individuals are who have been selected for the Coke Zero “Ultimate Dream Job.” Steven Book, from Rochester Hills, Mich.; Ryan Hohanshelt, from Boone, Iowa; Stacey Rice, from Oswego, N.Y; and Dustin Tinney, from Ft. Worth, Tex. have accepted the job and will be relocating to San Antonio, the site of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Final Four, where they will be “challenged” to watch every minute of the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and live blog about the games.

The finalists were also announced in the Alltel Wireless “MyCircle Pick & Roll Challenge.” They are: Larry Mastrogianakis from Jacksonville, Fla. - Florida Gators Fan; Jeff Feller from Gainesville, Fla. - Florida Gators Fan; and Bradley Daniels from Hazelhurst, Miss. - Mississippi Rebels Fan. The grand prize winner is still to be announced who will spend a weekend jet-setting to his/her choice of college basketball conference tournaments along with a $100,000 “salary” as the first-ever Chief Basketball Officer.

Lastly I wanted to give some link love back and mention Debbie Hemley's blog, Impressions Through Media, in which she referenced today my post on Forrester's Five Year Interactive Marketing Forecast. Debbie's post called Marketing’s Brave New Lexicon addresses the discussion of today's terminology for what we call online marketing, internet marketing, web marketing, or sometimes interactive marketing. You'll see my two cents on her blog about what my favorite term is and I'm interested to hear what yours is.

So, I really have to go back a bag for my trip now. I'll be reporting back here soon about SES. For now, Erin go Braugh!