Auto insurance company Esurance launches the “SXSW Dream Gig” contest. Its looking for a socially savvy storyteller who is “inspired by technology, tapped into music and moved by film,” and who wants to be the Esurance correspondent at this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW), March 8-17, 2013.

Esurance is hosting the contest on Facebook where entrants have to “like” the Esurance Facebook page and then enter via the SXSW Dream Gig Facebook contest page. The first phase of the contest runs through January 25, 2013, at which point the judges will then select three finalists by February 1st. The finalists will each have to create a video demonstrating why they’re “the perfect SXSW correspondent,” according to the contest overview and official rules. The next phase of the contest is the public voting phase where Facebook users will vote for their favorite finalist. The public voting phase runs from February 15th through the 22nd.

The winner will receive a Platinum badge to SXSW; roundtrip air travel to Austin, TX; a 10-night hotel stay at the Hilton Austin; an iPad; a $2,000 stipend and will be the official SXSW correspondent for Esurance.

SXSW is a fun-filled conference with non-stop action. It really is a tech, music and film lover’s dream to have an opportunity to see the latest indie films, bands and social apps; and interview the hottest actors, up and coming indie bands and singer-songwriters, and social media entrepreneurs and celebs. If you’re socially savvy and good on camera and love tech, music and film, then this is truly your “Dream Gig.” 

It’ll be interesting to see the results from this campaign from how many entrants and votes the contest gets to how many video views and social media buzz and mentions Esurance gets during this year’s SXSW.

It’s the season of giving and spirit brand Grand Marnier is sharing in the joy with its second annual Grand Giving Tree campaign hosted on Facebook (via a Facebook app). How it works is fans can select from one of three holiday ornaments and place them on the virtual Giving Tree. Each ornament represents a charitable organizations: Best Friends Animal Society, Earth Day Network, Surfrider Foundation.

The charity with the most ornaments on December 31, 2012 will receive $20,000, while the remaining two organizations will receive $5,000 each. As if helping out your favorite charity wasn’t enough, Grand Marnier is also giving participants of the Grand Giving Tree a chance to win $1,000. There’s one hiccup, fans who are California residents are not eligible for the contest portion due to the State of California laws. However, California fans can still participate in voting for their favorite charity in the Grand Giving Tree.

After you vote and hang your ornament on the Grand Giving Tree for your selected charity, you can also view the ornament count to see which charity currently has the most votes. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you who is in the lead, but I will tell you who I voted for.

As an animal lover, I voted for Best Friends Animal Society. Who will you be voting for?

Oreo is a brand that knows how to keep their fans happy. The Oreo cookie is a product that just about everyone loves and they’re always keeping things fresh on their social channels. I headed over to Oreo’s Facebook page tonight to see what they did this year to celebrate Halloween.

Of course they had their classic oreo cookie photo with a witch on her broom (love it). But they also had a lot of other fun posts leading up to Halloween. They shared fun photos of “spooky treats” to help give fans some yummy ideas to make for their own Halloween celebrations. 

And who doesn’t love a good corn field maze at Halloween?! Oreo and Regal Farm teamed up to create quite the corn maze — Regal Corn Maze. One could certainly get lost in it.

On its Facebook page, Oreo shared an aerial shot of the corn maze that reads “Oreo 100th Birthday” on the left side of the maze, and “Celebrate the Kid Inside” on the right side, and below at what looks like the corn maze’s entrance reads “Regal Farm.” I’m sure it was a lot of fun for the people who were able to get lost in it; and for those of us who couldn’t, seeing the aerial shot of it was pretty cool, too. 

Oreo’s 100th birthday celebration year has been filled with lots of creative fun. I look forward to seeing what they do next!

Reaching Facebook milestones are always fun and what better way to celebrate it than with a giveaway that says “Thank You” to the fans that helped you reach the milestone. Today, Pacific Natural Foods is doing just that with a product giveaway. 

In celebration of reaching 100,000 Facebook fans, Pacific Natural Foods is saying “thank you” to its fans with a giveaway where 10 lucky fans will be selected and will have their pantries stocked with $200 worth of their favorite Pacific Natural Foods products.

If you’re anything like me and care about what you put into your body, then you may want to venture over to Pacific Natural Foods’ Facebook page and enter for a chance to win some deliciously healthy foods. Of course if you’re not a fan already, then be sure to like their Facebook Page. You’ll be glad you did because they share lots of yummy foods and are great with engaging with fans.

For example, they recently shared a photo of tomatoes with a status update of “I’d say I had a successful tomato harvest this weekend! What are your favorite ways to use tomatoes?” and that prompted one of their fans to share a photo of her tomato harvest. In which, Pacific Natural Foods then shared the fan’s photo with other fans on its Facebook Timeline. It’s not only a great example of fan engagement, but a great example of a brand that appreciates its fans and customers. 

Congratulations to Pacific Natural Foods for reaching 100,000 fans! 

To promote its Greek Frozen Yogurt, Ben & Jerry’s has introduced a new Facebook app, Wanna Spoon?. It invites you to ‘spoon’ with your Facebook friends. The app’s algorithm finds things you have in common with your Facebook friends, from favorite TV shows and bands to foods and family members. It then finds your perfect spooning partner and let’s you download a coupon and share it with your spooning partner by posting a link on their Facebook Timeline along with a provided message, “Using a fancy algorithm, Ben & Jerry’s decided we’d make great spooning partners.” 

Ben & Jerry’s tapped ad agency Amalgamated and production partner Tool of North America to create the app, according to Mashable. 

Who doesn’t love ‘spooning’? Reconnect with old friends and spoon together with some Ben & Jerry’s Greek Frozen Yogurt. Now that’s an app that’s deliciously fun!

MINI and Vice Magazine have joined forces on a new campaign and travel series named “ALL THE WЯONG PLACES” where they’re looking for “co-pilots” to travel the world on five “unwise” adventures. The ALL THE WЯONG PLACES series will star the MINI, mission leader and MINI pilot Elliott Bambrough, and five winning adventurer co-pilots.

The campaign is being promoted on MINI’s Facebook Page where interested adventurers can apply to be selected as one of five co-pilots. The first co-pilot will embark on a mission in Japan. The remaining missions will take place in South Africa, Peru, Sweden, and the final destination is a yet-to-be announced “secret mission” location.

Also along for the ride will be VICE documentary filmmakers who will be documenting the “unwise” adventures, according to Mediabistro’s AgencySpy.

Those who are interested in submitting to become a MINI co-pilot and those who want to view the series will have to “like” MINI’s Facebook Page to gain access. There’s 14 days left to submit for the first mission to Japan. The video series will be shown on MINI’s Facebook Page starting in November.

This month Levi’s launched its Go Forth global brand marketing campaign on Facebook and has seen its Levi’s Facebook Page grow by over a million new fans (aka “likes”) taking it from 6.2+ million fans on August 10th to 7.2+ million fans by August 28th. According to Stylophane, an online marketing company focused on the fashion and apparel industry, Levi’s leads with the most “likes” among denim brands and its Facebook fan growth is “more than five times the number-two denim brand (Guess, with 1.2 million) and identical to the sum of the 90 other denim brands monitored,” as reported by WWD. However, Facebook is just one of many avenues for the Go Forth campaign.

Levi’s is an iconic brand and in its 138-year history, the Go Forth marketing campaign, surprisingly, is the first time Levi’s has launched a single campaign globally. The Go Forth campaign is being rolled out in 24 countries and in 19 languages. In addition to Facebook, the campaign will also include other media components — digital, in-store, print, outdoor, cinema, television and other social networking sites including twitter (campaign’s hashtag is #GoForth) — that are tailored to each market.

The campaign’s central message is inspired by people, especially young people, who not only have an optimistic outlook on how to change the world for the better but who are active in creating positive change. With so much access to tools, such as social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, people are better able to communicate with each other “their hopes, desires and actions,” said  Becca Van Dyck, global chief marketing officer of Levi Strauss & Co., in a recent interview with Forbes (see video below).

“We’re tapping into that and celebrating what we call the pioneering spirit because that’s close to our heart; but that’s also a value that’s important to young people today, this pioneering spirit of being able to actively participate in positive change,” Van Dyck added.

Van Dyck is at the helm of this global initiative. She joined the company in April and brings with her extensive experience working with two other iconic brands, both of which were also born in the U.S.A. — Apple and Nike. She most recently came from Apple where she was the senior director of worldwide marketing communications and advertising, and prior to Apple, Van Dyck was the global account director for Nike at Wieden & Kennedy.

Wieden & Kennedy was tapped to produced Levi’s first global advertising spot, Legacy, which appeared on YouTube on July 20, 2011 and already has 1.4+ million views on YouTube and it’s also embedded on Levi’s Go Forth landing page on Facebook. However, YouTube is just one media outlet where the Legacy spot has been viewed. According to Van Dyck, the Legacy spot in one day reached 325 million people around the world. Levis is already a global brand but Van Dyck says her role is to bring the brand into focus and give it consistency on a global scale.

As a huge fan of Levi’s, I really hope the Go Forth campaign brings voice to the brand in a new and inspiring way that helps turn around its sluggish sales by reaching a whole new generation that also becomes fans and customers of the iconic brand and in the process embarks on positive change locally and globally.