The Fairest of Them All

Let's hear it for the what is arguably the most successful print campaign of all time, Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue! 

As Dina Spector reports in Business Insider, this issue has spawned a $1Billion empire, will go to 3 million subscribers and will sell more than 1 million copies on the newsstand. On The Today Show Matt Lauer said this issue will be viewed by over 62 million.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sports-illustrated-swimsuit-issue-1-161000843.html

Last year SI offered the issue on four digital platforms including a tablet edition and iPhone app.
What a great opportunity for Time, Inc. and Sports Illustrated to evaluate the impact of print vs. digital with this property. Is there a spike in digital subscriptions as well? How does the viewer experience differ between print and digital?

All I know is I won't be seeing the digital version at my dentist's office. How do you measure the value of pass along readership to your advertisers in a digital format?

As for cover model Kate Upton, congrats on your second cover. It was worth the frostbite you suffered shooting in Antarctica!

Pop Culture and Social Media Success!

Two brilliant examples of pop culture and social media marketing happened this week which makes for a particularly happy PinkyonthePulse!

The Super Bowl is not only the biggest football game and advertising venue of the year, it's also the biggest social media event. We all get to be commentators via Facebook and Twitter. How many of you watched the game on a big screen and had your laptop and smartphone at hand? And a jumbo bag of potato chips? Maybe that was just me.

I admit, after the Calvin Klein Concept ad everything that followed was a blur until Beyoncé snapped me back to attention. She truly matched the mega-wattage exploding around her. The Twitter feed was equally dazzling.

Advertisers had instant feedback on how their dollars were spent. And then the power went out and one little tweet became the star. FOR FREE!

ChicagoBusiness.com reported:
"Power out?" Oreo posted to Twitter. "No problem. You can still dunk in the dark." The tweet was retweeted 10,000 times within one hour, according to AdAge, which noted that the Oreo graphic was "designed, captioned and approved within minutes."

Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130206/BLOGS08/130209861/why-oreos-super-bowl-ad-went-viral#ixzz2KASrJIVC

Hasbro scored a Social Media success story by announcing their new Monopoly token "A Cat," which will eventually replace the retiring "Iron." Hasbro sparked huge votes on Monopoly's Facebook page which boasts more than 10 million likes. Counter campaigns to save other tokens were also launched. The cost for this huge buzz $0. Read more from CBS News here: http://cbsn.ws/XNGeVp

Lastly, you probably never knew his name, but you surely knew and loved his product:
André Cassagnes, Etch A Sketch Inventor, is Dead at 86.

How many of you spent hours like me, dialing in intricate patterns only to have a sibling "accidentally" jiggle it and erase your masterpiece?  http://nyti.ms/12nCH5P

Share your pop culture memories with us!