In an inspired bit of rootsy marketing, Frito Lay has made it possible for consumers to find out where their potato chips came from via the Chip Tracker. Great idea, but a shame they didn't make the tool social. How cool would it be to geolocate your chips and track their journey from farm to table on Google Maps, then tell your friends and followers about it? Okay, okay...maybe some personal data is still best kept under wraps.

SCVNGR and AT&T are working together to create in-store Rewards, based on a new SCVNGR feature that combines actions, location and coupons.

Mashable reports:

The stores testing the initiative will be decked out with SCVNGR signage promoting three AT&T rewards; players can opt to unlock each of the rewards by completing challenges and earning points via SCVNGR’s iPhone and Android apps.

SCVNGR CEO and Founder Seth Priebatsch hints that AT&T was drawn to SCVNGR because it could script challenges and offer rewards for behaviors, as opposed to giving away coupons.

In talking with other prospective and current retail partners, Priebatsch has found a 'totally unambiguous unsatisfication around couponing,' who see coupon apps as 'a race to the bottom.'

Have we come to a point where retailers are no longer willing to give away discounts for simply checking in to their stores? Or is this simply a case of bigger buy in (in the form of user action taken) means bigger rewards?

Denizen is a different kind of denim, and not just because it's the first product Levi's has ever launched outside of the U.S. or because it's made for China. For Denizen's debut, Levi's has recruited 10 unpaid bloggers — known as The Denizen 10 — to speak freely about the brand over the course of 100 days. (Sound trivial? Consider the context.)

This is could be a really smart move for Levi's. At the very least, the Denizen 10 should generate tons of original content for Levi's to leverage in service of their new brand (people love that stuff). But in a part of the world where censorship is an ongoing concern, this Pan-Asian social media project may resonate on a much deeper level — as long as the results are authentic, that is.

As Groupon gains more popularity, now valued at more than $1 billion, big brands like the Gap see value in partnerships. I wonder if the ROI on partnerships like these is higher than banner ads and other forms of demand-generation. What do you think?

How to do you get kids at summer camp to stay connected to your brand? First, build them a branded summer camp, like the Coca-Cola Village. Then, build real life Like buttons around the camp so they can share what a great time they're having with all their friends back home and on Facebook. And make it all possible though the ease and magic of RFID.

The project brief gives us the details:

Once in the village, each guest will receive a bracelet ID which transmits an RFID signal. The guests will then be able to use the bracelet in order to 'perform Like' in each of the Coca-Cola Village facilities. For example, a guest that like the pool can place his/her bracelet to the readable RFID device that is next to the pool, and automatically a Facebook message will appear on his/her wall stating the he 'Liked' the pool at the Village. In addition, a photographer will be present around the Viallage, taking pictures of the guests while also carrying an RFID device. This will allow each guest that is pictured to 'Touch' the photographer, and that guest's picture will be automatically uploaded to the Coca-Cola Village Facebook page, already 'tagged.'

Kids get to brag how much fun they're having and Coke gets plenty of new photos, friends and Likes to their Facebook page. Talk about summer fun.

Being ranked first for your keywords in major search engines is bound to get you a lot of clicks, but it might also help you get something you didn't expect — unquestioned trust. A Northwestern University study found:

Most students clicked on the first search result no matter what it was, and more than a quarter of respondents said explicitly that they chose it because it was the first result. 'In some cases, the respondent regarded the search engine as the relevant entity for which to evaluate trustworthiness, rather than the Web site that contained the information,' wrote researchers.

It seems to be the case that people trust Google/Bing/Yahoo! and therefore trust the results these companies give them, without question.

The paper quoted numerous students professing their particular love for Google, or talking about how Microsoft's search services are credible because Microsoft is a "more professional" company—basically, search engine brands meant a lot to the students using them, and those students seem to place credibility on the automated search rankings provided by those services.

From the looks of it, cross-country trips are hot like fiya this summer. Among other brands, Sears and Levi's have launched grassroots campaigns that follow solo journeys across America — one by tractor, the other on foot.

The two campaigns have a lot in common. Both narratives revolve around a young, rugged-looking dude. Each campaign used Google Maps and YouTube to help set the scene. And if you were to guess that the marketing strategies for both campaigns involve telling a story about honest, all-American products that can endure even the most rigorous wear and tear, you'd be right.

Sort of. Turns out only one of these campaigns is the straight story. In a PR stunt that would make Mad Men proud, Levi's talked the talk but apparently didn't walk the walk.

Still, the end result is a brilliantly crafted campaign — one that arguably outshines Sears' more earnest effort. Which goes to show that sometimes a lie travels faster than the truth in advertising, even if it doesn't hold up as well over the long haul.

Coke Europe is using short, stylized films and other niche content to introduce Burn to its target audience of young hipsters. From winged competitors like Red Bull to fleet-footed fighters like Converse to 10,000-lb. heavyweights like Dell, big brands have been wielding microgenres in the battle for the attention of tastemakers for years. And the success of tactfully branded collaborations like The Creators Project suggests that the approach may be working.

Now, whether people actually share the content socially or not is another matter. Here, success seems to rely on two main variables: entertainment value and the credibility factor. In other words, influencers are always among the first to show fresh stuff to their following. If a piece of content is too heavily branded, that implies a lack of freshness. Makes sense, right?

Certainly there are plenty of exceptions to this rule (Nike, Adidas, et al.). But one way to help influencers them keep their cred intact is to burn most of the evidence of your brand within your niche content.

Stella Artois may be a thing of beauty, but its social presence could use some serious cosmetic surgery. In this day and age, warhorse brands like Bushmills, Perrier and (of course) Old Spice are exploring bold, inventive ways to refresh their brands online via social media. Putting a few videos on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube simply isn't enough. But since the new campaign just launched this week, we'll give the crown a little more time to build. Here's to your health, Stella.

Apparently big media is betting elective surgery can help it cope with its identity crisis, and the new face of news has begun to emerge from underneath the bandages. In fact, between Bloomberg's reboot, The Times's digital mitosis and the BBC news revamp (among others), we're seeing the industry's major players up the ante with each new bid for digital relevance.

The Economist's recent makeover (which launched today) serves as a good example of the mixed results we're seeing from this approach. While the site's enhancements give it a cleaner UI as well as a crisp look and feel, the new Economist.com home page fails to leverage the power of social media in any meaningful way. And oversights of that magnitude can turn even the freshest faces into sourpusses overnight.