Are your fans passionate enough about your brand that they would make your ads for you?  If you are Etsy, than the answer is yes thanks to their Handmade Moment contest. I don’t know about you, but if I saw this on TV, I would have never guessed it was “Handmade.”

Lots happening in the world of digital and I have been negligent in sharing the news / posts that really caught my eye lately.  So with that, here’s my latest weekly (better called monthly) update:

Breathing New Life Into Virtual Worlds – PR 2.0:  Virtual World membership grew by 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million with Youth driving most of that growth.

Four Questions for Successful CPG Social Media Marketing:  Great post from the Google CPG Blog, which is a must read if you don’t subscribe to it.

Why Teens Don’t Tweet:  Only 16 percent of Twitter users are under 25.  More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

Why We Need Marketing General Contractors – The Toad Stool:  Another great post by Alan Wolk.  I frequently use his term “NASCAR Blindness” and now I think I might be using “Marketing General Contractors” as well.

Best Buy’s CrowdSourced Job Posting is Live:  I’ve said it before, but this is one reason Barry Judge is a CMO that just plain gets where marketing is headed.

6 Lessons from the Best Marketing Campaign Ever – Rohit Bhargava:  At the Cannes Ad Festival this year, a single marketing campaign took home a Grand Prix award in three categories simultaneously–direct, cyber and PR– something that had never happened before in the 50+ year history of the show.  And the campaign was from a Tourism Board…not a Fortune 100 company or brand.

If Twitter had 100 People…:  5% of the people create 75% of the Tweets

While summer is upon us, there is plenty of news happening in the world of Digital Marketing.  Here are some of the articles / pieces of news that jumped out to me in recent weeks:

Team Wins Netflix $1 Million Crowdsourcing Prize:  For several years, Netflix has had an open challenge that whoever improved their recommendation engine by 10% would win a prize of $1 million dollars.  This has always been one of my favorite examples of Crowdsourcing in business and it looks like someone is finally going to claim the prize.

Panera Adds Community Service:  I love the simplicity of MeetAtPanera.com.  It’s a easy way for Panera to deliver brand utility by allowing people to set up a meeting at Panera.

Online Advertising hits a rough patch, while Google and Digg release new ad units:  With the economy putting a pinch on advertising, digital marketers will need to turn to innovation to win new ad dollars.  Google and Digg are doing just that with the introduction of new ad units that give interesting options to Brand Marketers.

Dunkin Donuts Creates Innovative Facebook Campaign:  I love this campaign by Dunkin Donut to its fans into brand advocates.  Simple, straightforward…and effective promotional campaign.

Five Leaders in YouTube Marketing:  Lots of brands are trying to figure out how to best use YouTube for their marketing efforts.  While this post highlights 5 examples, Home Depot is far and away my favorite example.

Facebook Talks about Payments Across the Web:  Micropayments continue to gain traction and Facebook Connect is appearing on more and more sites.  Combine these two things and Facebook might be onto something very interesting as it explores ways to build revenue.

I am heading off to Las Vegas for a couple of business meetings.  Since I am not sure how much access I will have when it comes to blogging, I wanted to send out my weekly round-up a bit early.  Here’s what caught my eye this:

• Interactive Marketing in Politics – 10 Takeaways: My friend (and former Mt Adams neighbor) Pete Blackshaw had a great summary of his takeaways from how politicians are using the Net in the Primaries.   Of the 10 he listed, I most connected with the idea of “engage, enroll, and participate”.   Consumers today are action oriented (and politics are so by their very nature) so it is key to actively engage consumers.  All the candidates this year have done an amazing job of giving consumers the tools to engage….brands could learn something from this.
• Netflix Prize – Getting close to a winner:  The Challenge Dividend gives an update on the Netflix Prize, where the company is offering a prize of $1 million dollars to anyone that can improve their member movie recommendations by 10%.   So far the closest someone has gotten is 8.82%.  Think you can do better?  Well then try your hand at Crowdsourcing and see what happens.
• In-game ad spending will hit $650 million by 2012 - eMarketer :  Ads in videogames will increase from $295 million in 2007 to $650 million in 2012.  With predictions like that, it sounds like Microsoft made the right move buying Massive to enter that market.

So as of last week, I am officially part owner in an English Football Club (soccer that is…not American Football).  Thanks to the power of Wikinomics and crowdsourcing, I purchased a small share in Ebbsfleet United FC, which plays in the Blue Square Premier, with 28,300 of my “closest friends” through MyFootballClub.  While I have played soccer all my life, I never really followed English soccer.  However, the chance to own part of a professional sports club for only £35 was too tempting to resist.  The whole concept of crowdsourcing is one that marketers need to pay close attention to.  MyFootballClub is just the latest in series of business models that have cropped up where consumers are using the power of the crowd, partial ownership and technology to shake up business as usual.  Just look at Prosper.com in lending or Threadless.com in t-shirts/apparel.  This is one of those waves that once started doesnt show signs of stopping any time soon.

 Now the only question is how I am going to find a way to see my team actually play a game.  I don’t think ESPN carries too many Blue Square Premier games.  Maybe I will need to look into fractional aircraft ownership over at NetJets and get myself a flight to