It's one thing to entreat consumers to change their behaviour for the better, but when corporate rewards are involved, the win-win turns into a win-win-win... or more. Much the way Plus 3 Network matches corporate sponsors with consumers who work out for the benefit of the charities of their choice, so Bolder works with businesses to sponsor a different challenge each week.

California-based Bolder teams up with businesses to challenge consumers to complete a certain action every week. This week's challenge, for example, is to “make a car trip a bike trip,” and it's sponsored by Timbuk2. Consumers who complete the challenge must then log it in along with a tweet-length story about their action; in return, they get the promised reward. In Timbuk2's case, that's USD 20 off a custom-made bag. Such stories also go to the site's action feed, meanwhile, where the Bolder community can see them, comment on them and vote for them. Those voted “boldest” will be featured on the Bolder blog and may receive extra special rewards.

At a time when change needs to happen, consumers need motivation, and companies need to show more generosity, Bolder seems to be positioned nicely to satisfy all three needs—and benefit itself in the process. How can your brand help consumers do good....? (Related: Site uses social media to raffle off free, sponsored prizes — Drink maker features socially minded partners on its packages.)

Website: www.actbolder.com
Contact: feedback@actbolder.com

Spotted by: Henry Mason

There are now countless places out there for consumers to voice their opinions about brands large and small, and hotels are by no means exempt. In fact, online reviews are now the most critical measure of guest satisfaction and the top factor influencing where travelers decide to stay, according to Revinate. That, in turn, is why the San Francisco company recently unveiled a hotel-specific service that aims to bring structure, performance tracking and actionable guidance to that never-ending stream of social media.

Launched in March, Revinate collects every review, news story, blog post, photo, video and social media mention of its client hotels and presents them in a single intuitive dashboard that's accessible online. Revinate can also do the same for competitors' reviews and social media activity, giving clients new competitive insight into their relative strengths and weaknesses. Its Social Media Scorecard, in turn, converts those online reviews into a detailed guest satisfaction report, tracking key performance metrics and competitive benchmarks. The tool's powerful analytics, meanwhile, provide real-time, easy-to-use reports that highlight what's important, with charts, exportable data, competitive intelligence and flexible options.

Finally—and perhaps most important—is that, similar to Brands in Public, Revinate also makes it easy for hotels to join the conversation by responding to reviews and communicating with consumers via social media. TweetConcierge, for example, is Revinate's hotel-specific Twitter client with features designed exclusively for hotels, including the ability to track Twitter campaigns and measure click and sales activity generated across multiple promotional tweets. Revinate clients include Peninsula Hotels, Trump Hotel Collection, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels, InterContinental, Andaz, White Lodging and Peabody Hotel Group. A video tour is available on screenr. The service's pricing is based a hotel's size and average daily rate, approximating the value of one incremental booking per month, Revinate says.

There can hardly be any brands left that doubt the power of social media. Will they be the victim of that transparency tyranny, or will they turn it into transparency triumph and—indeed—foreverism, as our sister site would call it? That's up to them, and how actively—and proactively—they get involved. As Revinate says, “millions of travelers are talking, and hoteliers must listen.” (Related: SeatGuru for hotel rooms — Analytics tools help music bands uncover local demand.)

Website: www.revinate.com
Contact: www.revinate.com/contact

We've seen airports engage consumers with everything from free dancing lessons and light therapy to a four-storey slide that rewards duty-free spending. The latest innovation? Gatwick Airport's Runway Models contest.

Launched in late May by the UK airport and Storm Model Management, the Runway Models contest invites Gatwick travellers to submit a photo of themselves either online or by taking advantage of the dedicated photo booths in the airport's departure lounges. The closing date is 12 July; all entries are posted online, where they're available for public voting. Once all the entries are in, Storm's model scouts will choose four guys and four girls to go through to the next stage, while public votes will choose an additional guy and girl to advance; those chosen by the public will also win GBP 500 in Gatwick retail shopping vouchers. The Final 10 will then be invited to a “model bootcamp” and photo shoot where they'll spend the day with industry professionals learning the modelling basics as well as having their hair and makeup done. The guy and girl that impress Storm the most will be selected as the final winners of a year's “New Faces” contract and a debut at London Gatwick Fashion Week in August. Gatwick, meanwhile, will donate GBP 1 to the Great Ormond Street Hospital charity for every photo uploaded.

There are myriad ways to impress and engage consumers, but sometimes there's just nothing like a good, old-fashioned contest; if it can tap into consumers' vanity, so much the better. Beat that, traditional advertising! ;-) (Related: Lottery contest appeals to dog owners' gravanity — Contest replaces ad campaign for Nissan launch — Contest asks fans to design their own doughnut.)

Website: www.gatwickevents.com/runwaymodels/
Contact: feedback@gatwickairport.com

Spotted by: airlinetrends.com

There's no doubt consumers love free samples, as evidenced by all the tryvertising stores, services and even vending machines we've seen emerge in recent months. The latest spotting? Raffle Dog, a site that raffles off free, vendor-sponsored products.

Launched this past spring, New York-based Raffle Dog offers different raffles every week for local and national companies. Brands begin by signing up with Raffle Dog—it's free through today. Consumers can then participate in any raffle, with the option of entering three times: once by simply commenting on the Raffle Dog page, another time by sharing the raffle on Facebook, and a third time by sharing via Twitter. Raffle Dog also taps Twitter to give followers the opportunity to participate in secret raffles as well. Raffle Dog itself, meanwhile, promotes each raffle on the streets, handing out flyers in targeted locations; it also hosts a YouTube video on its site showcasing the vendor's product or service. When the raffle draws to a close, Raffle Dog emulates the contests of the past by picking its winners live online from a fishbowl filled with tickets. Winners are notified via email, Twitter or Facebook and have seven days to claim their prize, which gets mailed out directly.

Raffle Dog donates 5 percent of its earnings to cancer-related charities. Currently, however, it's open only to U.S. consumers. One to bring to a market near you? (Related: Free products for bloggers at invitation-only events.)

Website: www.raffledog.com
Contact: info@raffledog.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

Stock art subscription services have been around for some time, but earlier this year Getty Images introduced Thinkstock, which offers millions of select royalty-free images, vectors and illustrations from multiple providers. Now, Thinkstock is testing Social Art Buyer, a service that uses Twitter to help subscribers find the images they need.

Thinkstock brings together more than 5 million user-generated and professionally art-directed images from Seattle-based Getty Images, iStockphoto and Jupiterimages. Priced at USD 149 for a week, USD 249 for a month or USD 199 per month for an annual subscription, Thinkstock lets subscribers download up to 25 images a day or 750 images a month; legal protection against copyright claims is included. Now, with the Social Art Buyer service, users can submit an image request to @Thinkstock. The Thinkstock team will then begin by checking the Thinkstock library for a match; if it's not there, they'll look outside for an image that fits the requester's needs.

It seems fair to say that once a product array is established—whether it's the books on Amazon or the images on Thinkstock—the next step is curation and/or help zeroing in on the right ones. Most sites focus on improved search algorithms, but personalized search services could be a compelling option. One to try out or emulate for your own overwhelmed consumers...? (Related: Marketplace for custom advertising images.)

Website: www.thinkstockphotos.com
Contact: sales@thinkstock.com

Spotted by: Rosalie Berns