SteinIAS formed from the merger of New York- and Manchester-based marketing firms in March. The company is adding a Shanghai office to a roster that includes New York, London, Manchester and Paris, and it plans to grow its footprint through new hires and acquisitions. "By coming together we position ourselves to better serve truly global accounts," said Tom Stein, president-SteinIAS, Americas, and a member of the national BMA board. Read more.

Harper Reed served as CTO for the Obama 2012 campaign. He led the team that engineered the digital infrastructure of the re-election effort and that got a sitting President to participate in a live Q&A session on popular social forum Reddit. Reed will deliver the keynote at BMA Chicago's first Fuel expo. The marketing technology event will be held on May 14 at City Winery in Chicago. BMA Buzz subscribers pay $75 when they register via this newsletter. Register here to receive the discount.

BBDO New York assembled an all-star cast for an integrated ad campaign that gives concrete examples of a complex subject: GE's Industrial Internet. The agency tapped K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, B-9 from Lost in Space and other robotic superstars in a 'Brilliant Machines' integrated ad campaign. The cultural references helped it captured eyeballs via traditional and social broadcast channels. Read more.

Aurum took home four Bell Awards, including Best in Show, at the April 25 BMA Milwaukee Bell Awards event. The design studio created a brand video for commercial fitness equipment manufacturer Johnson Healthtech. The company wanted to elevate its Matrix Fitness equipment above the noise at the 2012 International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association Convention. It purchased a sponsorship package that included a 3-minute video option. More than 7,500 attendees watched the video, which also became a rallying point for global sales staff. Read more.

By Peter Friedman, CEO-LiveWorld

When it comes to social media, most companies are not actually very social at all. Instead they are stuck in the traditional broadcast, digital and public relations marketing models of talking at customers. They just are using social channels to do it. Here is a short list of best practices to join and develop online conversations effectively. Read more.

5/10/2013 | Englewood, CO

BMA Minnesota Chapter Learning Event: Upcycled Marketing: Putting a new spin on the tried and true

5/14/2013 | Minneapolis, MN

BMA Kansas City Chapter Event: Behind the Scenes of Marketing Automation - People, Process and More!

5/14/2013 | Kansas City, MO

BMA Southern California Chapter "Internalizing & Launching Your Social Media Initiatives"

5/14/2013 | San Diego, CA

BMA Chicago Chapter Event: Fuel Keynote & Expo

5/14/2013 | Chicago, IL

SEE ALL UPCOMING EVENTS> 

Blaze: Secrets of the Deloitte brand

Brian Resnick, global brand and visual identity leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, is giving attendees at the 2013 Global BMA Conference insight into the heavyweight Deloitte brand. In fact, he is spilling secrets everywhere. He coauthored Designing B2B Brands: Lessons from Deloitte and 195,000 Brand Managers. The book, published in April, offers the Deloitte brand story as an instructional case study, a manual for businesses that are building their own global identities. Read more.

Digital events help organizations reach broader audiences, according to a recent report released by the Virtual Edge Institute. The "Digital Event Benchmark Report" examines the growth of digital attendance, as well as monetization, content and marketing strategies. Read more.

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