Feeling overwhelmed and out of the loop? Take a break and catch up with five fantastic stories from the worlds of online marketing and digital branding! Grab a coffee and enjoy our weekly list of five things you might have missed.

1.) Awareness, Orchestrated: In an effort to raise money, CRIS Against Cancer organized a classical music concert in Madrid. According to I Believe in Advertising, “The idea was that the orchestra played the 9th Symphony of Beethoven according to audience response. But, each bar of the score corresponded to a seat in the National Auditorium, therefore any un-sold tickets would mean an unplayed bar, and silence in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony score.” This incredible video shows what happened.

2.) Bestseller Blogs: If you are an indie author planning on using blog marketing to help sell your latest book, this article from Huffington Post is a must-read. In it, the Writer’s Relief staff outlines three essential blogging tips for any budding writer wanting to grab the attention of readers and publishers alike.

3.) Disappearing Ads: If, even as a marketer, the ads on Facebook Mobile drive you nuts, we have some good news. In a story you might have missed, Facebook mobile now lets users hide annoying and plentiful advertisements that pop up on our smartphones. The innovation comes right on the heels of an article from The Atlantic which griped about the irritating ads.

4.) Skinny Machine: “Never underestimate the power of style” is the moral of this little soda story. Diet Coke’s “Slender Vender” is one of those clever marketing ploys that plays perfectly with the brand’s image while producing a memorable visual. The thin, silver vending machine looks as cool and stylish as Diet Coke’s new bottles and cans. Plus, the song in the video is super catchy, too.

5.) A Mother’s Day Marketing Miracle: Finally, we think there’s no better illustration of how to use social media marketing to put your tiny, homespun business on the map than JumpSacBaby. This incredible article from Mashable is as inspiring as it is inspirational for anyone trying to use social media to grow their business and find ways to give your brand a social media makeover.

If you don’t read our weekly list of five things you might have missed, you could potentially miss out on cool blogging commenting innovation, some shocking news that will affect mobile marketing and the incredible brand engagement happening in Peru. And you wouldn’t want to do that now, would ya?

1.) SMS, Meet the FCC: If you’ve been using SMS text messaging to market to your clients, things just got a little more complicated. According to ClickZ, an updated ruling by the FCC now dictates that marketers must get written consent before sending sales messages via SMS text. “The ruling classifies text messages with auto-dialed ‘telemarketing robocalls,’ and requires ‘prior express written consent’ from the recipient. This consent can take the form of an ‘email, website form, text message, telephone key press, or voice recording,’” Melinda Krueger of ClickZ writes. Translation: The days of branded text blasts without permission are officially over.

2.) Widespread Comments: This week introduced a super-cool way for blog commenters to also share their thoughts on Google+. Google+ users who comment on Blogger-based blogs will now be able to post these comments on Google+ which instantly spreads the conversation — and the blog — to a huge audience. This innovation is good news for both blog readers and blog marketers.

3.) Twitter Tracks: Speaking of new products from social media giants, Twitter rocked the Internet this week by releasing Twitter Music. Think more Pandora meets MySpace and less iTunes and you’ll get the idea of this new service. Twitter Music seems like a hit already with artists and labels, but it remains to be seen if music fans will respond.

4.) LinkedIn Love: Having a hard time marketing on LinkedIn? You’re not alone. Getting a brand to break through on the crowded, schmoozy site is no easy task, so this article by Mike Delgado of Social Media Examiner is an essential read for marketers looking for LinkedIn love.

5.) The Power of Smiles: Lastly, we wrap up our list with this awesome photo booth marketing idea from Coca-Cola. The world’s favorite soda got serious Peruvians to crack a smile in photo booths posted around the country with the “Happy ID Project.” Armed with smile-activated cameras, the booths popped out IDs that give lucky smilers free Coke stuff and rewards just for turning their frowns upside down.

Looking for the best news tidbits from the worlds of content marketing and digital engagement? Then you, my friend, are in the right place. Please enjoy our five things you might have missed!

1.) Dos de Mayo: Before you bust out those margaritas and fancy sombrero, we thought you should know that Cinco de Mayo has moved. Or at least it will if the Most Interesting Man in the World from Dos Equis gets his way. Turns out the suave mustachioed know-it-all isn’t a fan of Sunday holidays and is rallying online to get it changed in a new video campaign. The brand is even throwing a Dos de Mayo party in Los Angeles to help their spokesman’s cause.

2.) Twitter Satisfaction: In other news involving salty old guys you just can’t hold down, this week the Rolling Stones rocked social media. The hashtag #StartMeUpWednesday dominated Twitter and Tumblr as the Stones announced new tour dates in the U.S. and UK. Sure, younger artists like One Direction or Taylor Swift would surely get more traction, but for a bunch of guys in their 70s, it’s impressive that the campaign got global recognition.

3.) Get it Right: Those smarties over at Oreo have figured out that while the customer isn’t always right, they certainly enjoy being right. The cookie giant’s SuperImportantTest.com makes both cookie lovers and creamy center fans feel like super geniuses when they answer this funny and clever online test.

4.) No Dummies: Here’s an unforgettable in store advertisement from Vivienne Westwood in Milan that slipped by us last fall. The boutique window featured mannequins with bruises and injuries to symbolize Italy’s growing problem with domestic violence. It’s a stunning and powerful campaign made even more so by a well-made video.

5.) From Pinterest to the Parking Lot: Imagine a Buick designed by Pinterest users. Well, it actually exists — and no, it doesn’t have a dashboard made out of pizza-muffins or an interior constructed from Vera Wang wedding dresses. The über stylish ride was the product of a closed contest conducted last October 2012. Buick invited ten of the top design, fashion, food and lifestyle bloggers to Detroit for an exclusive trip behind the scenes of the Buick Design Center. According to Buick’s YouTube channel, “After meeting the design team and exploring the vehicle, each blogger developed a Pinterest board showcasing how the Buick Encore speaks to their personal style and life passions. Blogger Michael Wurm Jr.’s pinboard was chosen in December 2012 as the inspiration for the Buick design team. His personalized, stylized Encore was revealed this week during the 2013 New York Auto Show.”

Looking for unearthed gems from the worlds of content marketing, online video creation and social media marketing? Then you, my friend, came to the right place!

1.) Happening Hangouts: Ever since we chatted with some folks over at Google+ last spring, we have been thrilled and excited about using Google Hangouts as an innovative and interactive content marketing tool. Hangouts — those personally curated and created live functions from your office or living room — are part live broadcast, part engaging online chat. So we love that CopyBlogger has come with 12 excellent (and easy) ways for marketing types to use this amazing tool.

2.) Grumpy Rules: Of all the celebrities, big-name product launches and social media marketing blitzes, only one brand emerged from SXSWi as the undisputed superstar. That brand, in case you haven’t heard, is Grumpy Cat. This ticked-off frowning feline rules the Internet with YouTube videos, memes and tweets. Now after an appearance at SXSWi, the cat with the sour puss is a genuine celebrity. Rock stars, actors, tech wizards alike all waited in line this week to get their photo taken with Grumpy Cat, who instantly went from online viral success to a brand all her own.

3.) Can You Do Better: Ever watched an ad and thought, “Jeez, even I could make a better commercial than that!” Now’s your chance to do just that! FreeCreditScore.com is asking fans to pick one of four endings to its new online commercial or they can upload their own “better” commercials for a chance at a $2,000 prize. The contest, for all of you wannabe mad men out there, ends on March 28th.

4.) About Face(book): Here’s a social media tidbit you might have missed… Facebook is changing up its design for the “About” page so users can expound on their likes and interests. Facebook hopes “About” becomes “a place for things you care about” — and, in effort to do so, the new pages have a more photoblog-type of layout with more images and interactive content. Anybody else smell Pinterest?

5.) Chanel in Bloom: We love seeing how luxury brands use unusual advertising methods and digital marketing to reach even the common folk who may or may not be able to afford their products. Chanel has done a bang-up job of this recently, and its new Mother’s Day campaign in the UK is no exception. The brand has adorable flower carts all around Great Britain that not only sell bottles of Chanel No. 5 but also bouquets of the flowers that inspire the fragrance.

In this fast-moving world, it just isn’t possible to read all of the interesting online marketing and social media news stories. But each week, we round up a fivesome we like to call our “Five Things You Might Have Missed” list.

1.) From Facebook to Blog: We often preach the benefits of both social media and blog marketing in these pages. Yet rarely do we see brands pull off both seemingly without effort. So we thought the blogging and Facebook efforts of Power2Switch were worthy of making the top of our list this week. The electricity company landed a coveted spot on Huffington Post, discussing its own Facebook marketing lessons. This stroke of genius in content marketing not only outlines Power2Switch’s Facebook marketing efforts, it also puts the brand in front of a huge readership.

2.) Nazi TV: Hitler and the Nazi regime aren’t exactly hilarious subjects for ads, but this spot for the National Geographic Channel is downright hilarious. The ad, which touts that the channel is now available in several dialects, features Nazis talking like teenage girls. It’s a funny and surprising spot from a brand with a fairly stuffy image.

3.) Ink You Can Drink: We like to applaud brands who think out side of the box — or, in the case of winery Casa Mariol, outside of the bottle. In order to prove that wine and business deals do indeed mix, Casa Mariol created pens with special wine-based ink. It’s a kooky idea, but just the kind of thing marketing blogs love to chat about… and low and behold, these wine pens were everywhere this week. Mission accomplished, Casa Mariol, and cheers!

4.) Two-wheel Tweeting: Keeping your eyes on the road during South by Southwest just got even tougher. Digital agency Razorfish is populating the festival with 20 bikes fully loaded with remote tweeting capabilities. The bikes tweet their location, chat about festival events and give updates on local weather, among other things. The free bikes and their whereabouts can be tracked at usemeleaveme.com during the festival.

5.) Nontroversy: Sometimes an uproar over digital advertising is so silly that it fails to be a controversy at all. Closing out our list is the hilarious hubbub over Geico’s new ad featuring its pig, Maxwell, on a date with a human woman. The conservative watchdog group One Million Moms says the spot promotes bestiality and is “repulsive and unnecessary.” Uh, okay. The ad didn’t get pulled… but thanks to the silly headlines, it’s racked up thousands of YouTube.com views.

Drained for online marketing ideas? Totally tapped out when it comes to new blog creation strategies? And just downright pooped trying to tweet? Well, buck up, little camper. Our weekly list of Five Things You Might Have Missed has a quintet of stories sure to inspire, entertain and delight!

1.) Tumblr To Go: Hesitating using Tumblr as your blog marketing platform because it seems so locked to the desktop and not smartphone-friendly? Think again, says Tumblr’s own CEO David Karp in an interview with Mashable last week. Karp claims that Tumblr’s total mobile domination is “going to be either later this year or early next year ’cause it’s accelerating. We’re seeing 3 times the growth on mobile vs. desktop.”

2.) Waiting Room Wonders: Here’s a neat-o idea that uses tech to transform the somewhat tedious and tiresome hospital waiting room into a fun and distracting experience for kids who would certainly want to be elsewhere. Artist Chris O’Shea turned Royal London Hospital into an interactive real-life children’s book and made us believers in rebranding something most folks think of as boring.

3.) Twitter Ads Simplified: Good news for Twitter marketers looking to branch out into Twitter-based advertising. On its official blog, the company announced, “We’ve been testing the Twitter Ads API since January with our partners, and today we’re officially launching it. Marketers now have more tools in their arsenal to help them deliver the right message, to the right audience, on the desktop and on mobile devices — all at scale.”#TwitterMarketingForAll

4.) Stressed to the Max: Nivea pulled a fast one on some very stressed out German airport visitors in this hilarious and kinda cruel commercial. Striking viral video gold, the spot tricks travelers into thinking they are wanted by authorities by using newspapers with their pictures on them, news footage and airport announcements. It’s funny, primarily because it isn’t happening to you.

5.) Touch My Chromebook: We round out today’s list with the latest product announcement from Google that proves the company is serious about taking the wind out of Microsoft’s sales. The Chromebook Pixel is a touch-based laptop which could elevate Google to the big leagues. Stay tuned to see how this branding battle turns out.

Hooray! It’s Friday! To celebrate, we’ve cooked up five tasty dishes from the world of online marketing. Enjoy!

1.) Nobody Doesn’t Like Pinterest: Food — and specifically food porn — is a big reason a lot of people spend hours on Pinterest. So we think brands like Sara Lee actively participating on Pinterest is nothing short of genius. Cheesecake and dessert empire Sara Lee has filled its Pinterest boards with the kind of mouthwatering, drool-worth deserts that Pinterest users love and re-pin. For small-time food companies and indie chefs, boards like Sara Lee’s can also serve as an inspiration on how to do the Pinterest game right.

2.) Feed the Birds: What do you do when your bird sanctuary experiences a dip in attendance, threatening to leave hundreds of our feathered friends hungry? Well, if you’re World of Birds in South Africa, you make some clever billboards and signs out of birdseed. This innovative campaign got major coverage on Twitter for being so clever and, as a result, the birds didn’t go hungry and the doors stayed open. Aww!

3.) Tweet Time Travel: Last week Twitter rolled out a new feature you might have missed: the ability to search tweets more than a week old. Twitter marketers and analysts have been itching for this innovation for years, so it’s actually pretty big news. How does it work? According to an official Twitter blog post, “As we roll this out over the coming days, the tweets that you’ll see in search results represent a fairly small percentage of total tweets ever sent. We look at a variety of types of engagement, like favorites, retweets and clicks to determine which tweets to show. We’ll be steadily increasing this percentage over time, and ultimately aim to surface the best content for your query. For now, enjoy your trip down memory lane!”

4.) Beckham in Beverly Hills: The recipe for instant viral success: Add one David Beckham in underwear, mix in action movie-style directing (courtesy of Guy Ritchie), pour over millions of views and enjoy!

5.) Immaturity Rules: To wrap up the list this week, we’d like to leave you with something juvenile. Never underestimate the power of sophomoric humor in your online marketing. This ad from Playtex illustrates this theory brilliantly.

Keeping up with the latest news from the content marketing universe is an exhausting endeavor and could almost become a full-time job. But since you already have a job, our Five Things You Might Have Missed List is a quick and easy way to get all your headlines while staying gainfully employed!

1.) Blackout Tweets: Talk about the ultimate in turning lemons into lemonade. Social media savvy marketers for Oreo, Audi, Tide and VW took to Twitter during the Super Bowl blackout last Sunday. These fast-on-their-feet brands showed that Twitter is the ultimate platform for impromptu marketing. Tweets like “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark” from Oreo creatively rolled with the punches and got retweeted thousands of times as a result.

2.) Home Sweet Homepage: Looking to give your blog a facelift? Read Hubspot’s 12 Inspiring Examples of Beautiful Blog Homepage Designs first! This post that you might have missed profiles the best blog homepages in the business and how you can infuse some their style into your own work.

3.) Ain’t it Grand: In recent months, Google has really taken to imaginative online video creation and has come up with some truly cool campaigns. The latest, which shows how Google Maps went off-road to create stunning panoramic shots of the Grand Canyon, is another example of how Google is mastering video to reach even more customers.

4.) Supply and Demanding: A new study from About.com and Latitude proves what marketers have suspected for years: Consumers demand more engagement from brands. Seventy-nine percent of consumers polled agreed with the statement: “My relationship with brands is much more personal than ever before,” while 68 percent of consumers concur with the assertion that “Shopping today is less about the brands/products themselves and more about me — what I’m feeling or needing.” In other words, not only is the customer always right, but they also want you to post that on their Facebook wall.

5.) Locked and Loaded: Finally, to see examples of Twitter tantrums to avoid, look no further than the current bickering back and forth between celebrities who are pro-gun control and those against it. This kind of social media preaching, regardless of what side you’re on, makes one miss the good old days when celebrities spoke only through their publicists.

More than four years after the iPhone took the world by storm, branded smartphone apps are still a hot commodity in the world of content marketing. Companies large and small are using apps as a way to help clients find their products, use their products in new ways and even find out where their products come from. This week’s Five Things You Might Have Missed is devoted to the best, brightest and most popular branded smartphone apps that might inspire you to create an app of your own!

1.) Where Do Big Macs Come From?: McDonald’s Australia has come up with an innovative iPhone app that answers the age-old question: Where does McDonald’s get its food? The app, TrackMyMacca, shows users where the fast food giant gets its produce, dairy and meat as well as how it arrives to stores across Australia. As a global brand, Micky D’s is trying to get more honest about its food and how it’s manufactured, and this app is a step in the right direction.

2.) Less Taxing: Some companies use apps to show you how its line of products and services have updated to the smartphone and tablet era. H&R Block’s At Home app for iPad does just that. By making income tax services “to go,” H&R Block isn’t just staying current with TurboTax, it’s also creating a new marriage between tablets and taxes.

3.) The Newspaper Rides Again: Japan, like the rest of the world, has seen the newspaper edge toward extinction. Readers of the Tokyo Shimbum newspaper were primarily of the older generation, so the publication came up with an app which translates adult news stories from the paper to kid-friendly versions for a phone or tablet. This sort of cross-generational reach is the kind of thing branded apps do so brilliantly.

4.) Just in Time: Luxury watchmaker Montblanc uses its nifty iPad app to give accessory lovers a glance inside its world-famous timepieces and users can literally see what makes them tick. High-def photography goes behind the gears of 40 different watches for a fascinating and educational look at what we wear on our wrists. The app even lets users virtually try on different watches.

5.) Get with the Program: Can’t make it to the Super Bowl this Sunday but still want a souvenir? For $9.99, the NFL has created an iPad version of the big game’s program. Filled with tons of interactive content and football history, this app is a genius way for the brand to get those of us who can’t make it to New Orleans in on the action.

What are our favorite stories from the worlds of online marketing, social media management and digital engagement? Why, we’re so happy you asked! Here now are five recent campaigns and curiosities we think are worth another look.

1.) Q&A, Twitter style: Last week the #PowerfulAnswers hashtag from Verizon caught our eye for being a smart Twitter-based campaign that answers provocative technical and societal questions while encouraging discussion from followers. It’s Twitter marketing with heart and smarts.

2.) Market Like the Movies: How has Hollywood managed to have its biggest year ever despite declining ticket sales? A new infographic from Bit Rebels breaks down how online marketing techniques like  have truly saved the movies (and might even give your own business a few ideas).

3.) Nerd Worlds Collide: Fans of both Star Trek and the Big Bang Theory, you better sit down. Online travel czar Priceline has melted both geek cultures in one smash hit bit of online video creation. A new spot unveils Captain Kirk’s — uh, we mean The Negotiator’s — daughter, who is played by none other than Kaley Cuoco of Big Bang Theory. The result is a funny and clever viral hit with appeal that spans generations.

4.) Surgery Goes to the Dogs: “Is your dog a total dog?” asks a Sunset Boulevard billboard promoting canine plastic surgery. Gotta love Los Angeles. Thankfully, the clever campaign is actually a spoof and an ad for Comedy Central’s new sketch comedy show The Kroll Show starring comedian Steven Kroll. For added authenticity, the marketers have even set up a phony website, www.puppylift.com.

5.) Mean Tweets: And finally, we round out this week’s list with the 3rd installment of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.” Not only does this video make for a hilarious time killer, it also says a lot about the trash we talk on Twitter.