At the beginning of 2010, marketers from across the world are taking turns at making predictions on how social media will evolve and change the way brands connect with consumers. We’ve analyzed their predictions extensively and this is our pick of emerging trends for this year:

1. Women Will Rule Social Media – women will become an even more sought-after consumer segment for the social media marketers. Women make 75% of all buying decisions for their homes and 85% of all consumer purchases and it is women aged 35-55 who make up the fastest-growing population on Facebook.

2. Small Business Social Media Marketing – small businesses will continue to realize the value of social media marketing and will get into it like never before. Social media is a great equalizer in that it allows small companies to compete much more effectively with large ones.

3. Location, location, location – Foursquare, a new social network and mobile application that experts are calling this year’s Twitter is the best example of the biggest thing to hit social media in 2010: “location-based social networking” or “geo-social networking”. Twitter360 will also help people find each other, connect and see friends’ updates by location.

4. Mobile Will Take Center Stage – it’s estimated that the number of mobile web users will hit one billion by 2010. As the technological barriers come down, people increasingly use their phones on-the-go to access social networks, search, read content and find location-based information.

5. Micro-Targeting and Personalization – companies will leverage this information in increasingly sophisticated ways to deliver highly customized messaging and content to small and smaller segments.

2009 will go down as the year in which mainstream adoption of social media began at the speed of light: Facebook surges to 400 million users, nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in social media tools.

In 2010, social media marketing is far from being optional anymore.

Just because we love our brand enough, we put our creativity & expertise at work to reinvent it. This newsletter is a first glance at how the rebranding process we are currently undergoing translates into our new visual identity. Beyond the surface, the process resides in a fresh brand strategy and positioning, new team members, internal reorganization and redesign of our offices.

Have a look at the creative phases of our new logo to see how we arrived at the one we think suits us best.

Works of art often tell stories that stun the beholder, but the creators sometimes remain obscure for their entire life. This was almost the case of Ion Birladeanu, an artist whose life, once discovered, literally became a story in itself.

Two years ago he earned his existence as a gravedigger and guard, now his unschooled art is exhibited side by side with Andy Warhol’s or Marcel Duchamp’s, his works sell for 3,000 Euros a piece and his personal page on Facebook has more than 2,500 fans…

His dream of leaving something behind came true.

Find out more: here

As the world gets flatter, global marketing gets interesting. These funny translations selected from a list by Evision Worldwide will probably put a smile on your face:

• Electrolux. The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux went for quite an ‘unconventional’ approach when they ran this vacuum cleaner campaign in America: “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux”. Now that’s a way you’ll surely get the attention.

• American Airlines. AA almost created the buzz they intended when they launched their “Fly in Leather” campaign on the Mexican market. While they meant to spotlight their upgraded leather seats, they instead used a literal translation: “Vuela en cuero” or “Fly Naked”!

• Pepsi. They translated their slogan “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation” into Chinese as “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave”. Maybe just a little too spooky…

• Colgate Palmolive. They introduced a toothpaste in France called “Cue”, which also happens to be the name of a famous porno magazine printed there…

• General Motors. GM attempted marketing their Nova model on the Spanish-speaking market without researching the car’s name. Too bad: “no va” in Spanish means “It Doesn’t Go”. Did the specialists really wanted to tell us something?

• 73% sell-out exceed
• 100% market share increase
• ~1,200 demonstrations attendees in 16 days
• 300+ Facebook fans & 6,000 page views in 1 month (last year in December) – compared to competitive washing machine product page of 200+ fans in 5 months running campaign

Our integrated marketing communication campaign designed for LG Inverter Direct Drive washing machines proves just how far you can go in terms of ROI with the right communication strategy.

Have a look at the dedicated brand movie we produced for this campaign.

‘Thank you for the professionalism, enormous effort called for the implementation of this campaign, the quality of the promoters, your proactive, problem-solving attitude, creativity, quality of the concept & layouts, truly perfect management of the PR actions and online activities.
The campaign had great results and the market feedback is very encouraging. Our sales have exceeded the amount estimated by 73%. Thanks again to the whole FB team.’ Ibolya Beres – Marketing Manager, Air Conditioning & Home Appliances, LG Electronics Romania

800+ sqm auto service hall converted into a holistic brand environment, powerful 360° design carried out through live VJ-ing, thematic performances (artists from Berlin and London), table & food design.

• 3 inaugural events implemented during 6 weeks in the cities Pitesti, Brasov, Bacau

‘I really appreciate the opportunity to have met Funky Business. It is a team of wonderful people that it’s a pleasure to work with.’ Irina Marcov – Marketing Manager, Volvo Trucks Romania

 #1 What You Should Know 

 #2 What We Like 

 #3 FB Newsflash