The New York Times' Stuart Elliott broke the story this morning about Coca-Cola relaunching its corporate website. Armed with that revamped website, Coca-Cola now wants to break more of its own stories.

While maintaining the same website address for the Coca-Cola Company, the content is now arranged and commissioned to resemble a slick magazine or digital media brand's website, with the emphasis on storytelling from around the world. The inspiration came from the top, as Elliott recounts, when chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent charged his marketing and communications executives to refresh the company's old employee magazine, Journey, which ran from 1987 to 1997, for the digital age.

Having spent 2011 celebrating Coca-Cola's 125th anniversary, they were inspired to tell the forward-looking journey of the Coca-Cola company's multitude of brands in a more engaging, digital fashion — taking a page from Journey to reimagine the company's online and digital presence in a fresh, more engaging way that incorporates social media and blogging from around the world. The relaunched website (its first relaunch since 2005, after being launched in 1995) is described by NYT's Elliott as "the company's most ambitious digital project to date" for good reason.

Ashley Brown, director of digital communications and social media for the company, walked Elliott through what's new on the more editorially-focused website, which creates, aggregates and curates content while maintaining the core functions of a corporate website (careers, investor relations, press releases, executive bios). It's not just content marketing, either, with a focus on original content that's not just self-promotional.

Brown says the goal is to spark a debate, and host differing points of view, while showing the totality of Coca-Cola in a way that surprises and establishes a lively brand voice, one that Brown says had to be created "from scratch" with this launch. So how would he sum up that voice, as expressed through the new digital home of the Coca-Cola brand? "Smart, fun and fearless" — not exactly words you'd associate with the world's biggest brand. And that's the whole point.Continue reading...

Ford has been moving from one major social-media marketing innovation to the next, so it comes as little surprise that the brand is mounting a major digital and social effort around the 2013 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan.

"Random Acts of Fusion" is a multi-platform, transmedia campaign that features Ryan Seacrest as its "emcee." It centers around a contest in which consumers will "Unlock" how Fusion is able to "transform" the lives of people who drive it, Crystal Worthem, manager of Ford Brand Content & Alliances, stated.

In its slowly unfolding, almost teasing aspect, unlike previous Ford campaigns predicated on quick social-media participation, the Facebook-centered campaign is building anticipation by inviting fans to register and then stay tuned: "What's in the box? Register below to find out. Ryan will send one to each of the first 2,500 people who sign up for Random Acts of Fusion. Then come back to Facebook.com/FordFusion on July 5th to find out what happens next."

The teaser campaign "is designed to invoke emotion, which the [car] design does," Scott Monty, Ford's director of social media, told brandchannel. And the promotion is built "to go with people where they go — desktop to mobile to digital to social to experiential."Continue reading...

The 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 is the kind of luxury item the Pursuitist traffics in. Unveiled on the final episode of BBC’s Top Gear, the sports car starts at $387,000 — and inventory is already sold out.

Its perfect fare for Pursuitist, a luxury blog that's pitching itself as a digital country club devoted to the best high-end products for those who can afford them. Sixty-five per cent of Pursuitist readers have an annual income of $75k and up, and are eager to be seen as well-connected influencers with exacting taste.

The site calls itself “Luxury meets Digg meets Huffington Post.” Forbes, no stranger to appeal to the wealthy, calls it the “best luxury blog” it's run across recently. Pursuitist, however, wants to do better than that.Continue reading...

Urban Outfitters, the retail chain that franchised hipsterdom, twee sensibility and college dorm decor, found itself on Twitter's global trending list this week. It's a position most brands strive for. Urban Outfitters certainly would change places with them.

The brand is drawing heavy criticism on the social web for stealing the designs of an independent artist. On her Tumblr "i make shiny things," the artist wrote, "The World/United States of Love line that I created is one of the reasons that I was able to quit my full-time job.  [Urban Outfitters] even stole the item name as well as some of my copy." As she points out, Urban Outfitters has been accused of this before.

"This will not stand." "Urban Outfitters must be boycotted." "Blah blah blah." Don't count on it. There is one way though that consumers could make Urban Outfitters genuinely feel the pain… for once. Continue reading...

Banks are keeping up with technology through their use of ATMs and, increasingly, by offering online and mobile banking — even partnering with the world's search engine giant to advance mobile commerce, as Citi is doing with Google Wallet.

But when it comes to social media and digital channels in general, "retail banking has largely remained on the sidelines," according to Johannes Bussmann, Paul Hye, and Jorg Sandrock, three principals with the global consulting firm Booz & Company, authors of a new report, Banking on Social Media.

They argue that banks "need to reach out to younger, more Web-savvy customers... devising new products and services that are simpler and more transparent, and using the power of social networking and other digital platforms to improve their marketing."Continue reading...

Game On, a social marketing campaign from Chrysler, is on the road and headed to the Big D for Sunday's Super Bowl game.

Some lucky bloggers are driving two new 2011 Chrysler 200 sedans from Detroit to Dallas, blogging, tweeting, checking in and Facebooking along the way.

It's all part of a bigger trend, as 2011 is poised to go down in history as the year that social media marketing by brands, especially on Facebook, stole the spotlight from traditional TV ads at the Super Bowl.Continue reading...

Here are more reader responses to Brandchannel's social media debate series, this one on how much to spend on social media. We originally asked about money, but what about time? Tell us what you think by posting a comment, and follow our social media debate series by clicking here. And don't miss the comments on the "That's Debatable" social media series on Interbrand.com.

How much of your marketing spend to devote to social media?

"The key insight into social media is that its not just another channel. It has changed behaviour. So to be successful at your marketing you need to understand your brand in a different world. How much should you spend? Far less because it's far cheaper, but far more important." Walter Pike, PiKE | New Marketing

"Once you have opened a line of communication, the audience will expect you to follow-up closely. This demands not only time, also good knowledge in the media type, the specific brand and the company that you are working at. Social media can be an arena to build brand knowledge and awareness, but maybe it's not the most efficient channel to boost your sales? And will social media have a long term effect on your brand?" Merete W. Haugaa, Marketing Manager, Hennig-Olsen Is A/SContinue reading...

Here are more reader responses to Brandchannel's social media debate series, this one on crafting a brand's social media voice and strategy. Tell us what you think by posting a comment, and follow our social media debate series by clicking here. And don't miss the comments on the "That's Debatable" social media series on Interbrand.com.

Entertain or educate
- which social media strategy is best?

"How about a blend of both? - entertaining and relevant content (to reach the proposed target groups). In terms of the proportions, the answer is in brand's personality: the theme that suits the brand best should 'weigh' more than the other. This will also keep the brand message consistent and help integrate social media into an overall marketing campaign." Nadya Tatarciuc, PR and new media analystContinue reading...