I recently came across an amazing video from Tether, a talented group who build brand stories that are irresistibly true, by helping brands remember who they are and discover who they can become.

Some brand videos tell grand, sweeping stories that cover every nitty-gritty inch of the brand’s history. Others are more like chapters—offering insights into particular milestones that become interwoven into an even bigger picture—a bigger, richer story.

For Gatorade, we chose to focus on one 16-month period in time. A Tether-perspective on what it’s like to help evolve this global brand into what they are today.

In the end, we created a little over seven minutes of pure stop motion marvelousness. (Currently, there is no such word; but there should be.) A more intimate story. A story that is solely Gatorade’s. That simply captures the recreation of a brand in motion. One. Fantastic. Frame. At. A. Time.

The college basketball tournament is here and you can explore the games, schools, and 3D venues on Google Maps. Download basketball apps from the Chrome Web Store, set up your bracket with Google Docs and follow Realtime updates on the tournament.

Engage in some friendly rivalry with our College Basketball Brackets template. View the 2011 NCAA tournament bracket. Create and manage your pool in this online spreadsheet. Automatic scoring for up to 10 people. Publish a bracket as a web page. Both men’s and women’s tournaments.

Google also gives you access to get more from your game experience from the Chrome Web Store to get the latest content and games for your browser.

My favorite part of the website is the Hotpot Challenge, which is a simple game of click and shoot a basket. See if you can beat my top score of 220. Warning, this game can be addicting.

As an internet marketing consultant I find it more and more difficult to disconnect from the constantly connected lifestyle I have chosen. Soren Gordhamer the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference brings up an important question to ask yourself: Are you going to be constantly overwhelmed by “Stress 2.0,” or can you successfully translate this lifestyle into “Wisdom 2.0?”

The challenge is finding a balance, and living a healthy and rich life both online and off.

A post this morning by Mitch Joel points out that: Life balance is a three-legged stool.

Just like a stool, if you remove one of the legs or when one is shorter than another, everything comes crashing down. Figure out ways to find true balance without sacrificing where you’re at, where you’re looking to go and your plans to get there. Make sure that your goals (short-term and long-term) include tactics around personal, business and community.

Make rules.

If you don’t have rules about your life balance, all is (and will be) lost. Don’t have guidelines. Make rules… and don’t break them. Here are just some of my life balance rules (in no particular order):

1. Family first. Period. No exceptions. Friends next. Everything else after that.
2. Go to bed when I’m tired.
3. Wake up without an alarm.
4. Don’t stress over sleep. My body will sleep when it needs to.
5. Constantly be reading.
6. Creativity and great ideas do not keep office hours. Write as much as possible – especially when the mood hits.
7. I manage my technology. I do not let technology manage me. An example of this? I check email when I want to – not when it comes in. I turn off all email notifications (both online and mobile).
8. Don’t focus on the money. Focus on building wealth and what I’ll do to change the world once I get there (or along the way).
9. Never eat alone.

My rules look more like this:

• Take time to disconnect
• Breathe
• Eat healthy when you can
• Exercise

My Conclusion:

• Focus more on these Social Networking Time Management Tips and
• Learn to surf – “You cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

What are your tips for dealing with the stresses of social media and being constantly connected?

The event is a one-day, citywide social media challenge. Contestants will follow clues to check-in points and complete tasks ranging from simple to absurd, all while interacting with each other and friends on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare and other sites.

I caught up with Scott Hepburn, creator of the event, to get the story:

RM: First things first: Why would anyone want to play in The Panthers Purrsuit?

For starters, we’ve got some sweet prizes. Grand prize is a trip for two – including tickets, airfare and lodging – to see the Panthers take on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. There’s tons of Panthers gear, gift cards, and other cool prizes, too.

The Purrsuit is a one-of-a-kind event, and that’s a draw, too. No other city or NFL team has done anything like this. Scavenger hunts have been done, but nothing on this scale. The challenges are truly interactive, the sponsors are diving in from a social perspective, and contestants will have a chance to use over a dozen social and mobile apps. We’re shooting for a new type of social media experience.

RM: Where’d the idea for the Panthers Purrsuit come from?

Growing up, I was a fan of road rallies. Teams would navigate from point to point and visit historic landmarks, local businesses or locations to “check in” with race officials. The Purrsuit takes that concept and updates it with today’s social media angle. It’s a truly interactive event – a community event.

RM: How did the Panthers and Allen Tate get involved?

I’ve known Mike Mahoney of the Panthers for years via  – yeah, you guessed it – Twitter. Mike and I were catching up over coffee and I told him about this harebrained idea I was considering. He loved it. He asked me to pitch it to the Panthers, and it was a perfect fit.

Allen Tate is a Panthers corporate partner. They loved the idea, too. Their agents are passionate about social media and how they can use it to help home buyers and sellers. The entire organization has gotten involve in The Panthers Purrsuit, and their social media coordinator Genevieve Jooste has been a huge champion of the event.

RM: Any hints about the check-in spots or challenges.

30 LEGO kits. A giant chicken suit. Two superheroes stuck in a car wash. A rap battle. That’s all I’m gonna say.

RM: Seriously?

Chicken suit, Roy. Giant chicken suit.

RM: Okay…where do I sign up?

Register at http://bit.ly/purrsuit. The Panthers Purrsuit is a two-person team competition, so find a partner. The more team spirit, enthusiasm, and rockstar fandom you display, the better. Good luck!

A social media sponsorship is a rapidly emerging word of mouth strategy that enables brands to provide material compensation, such as cash, coupons, products, points, trips, etc. to social media publishers to promote and/or review their products and services through blog posts, status updates, checkins, or other unique experiences.

“It not only validates that social media sponsorships are becoming an increasing important tool for marketers, but the projected rate of growth indicates that brand marketers will continue to become part of the conversation and build relationships with consumers through their social networks, whether that be on their computer or mobile device.” Said Ted Murphy, Founder and CEO of IZEA.

“The cascade of new media platforms and technologies have led to significant changes in consumer media use, which has forced brands to rethink long-held beliefs about effective strategies to reach target audiences,” said Patrick Quinn, CEO of PQ Media. “The availability of content through the internet, mobile devices and social networks, the difficulty of reaching more elusive target consumers, and the transformation of personal communications due to these developments have made it more important than ever for brands to invest in strategies to engage target consumers in captive locations for extended periods of time through the power of emotional connections.”

A recent Social Media Sponsorship Forecast spotlights on a clear consumer brand marketing trend toward increased adoption of Digital Sponsored Conversations, Digital Brand Ambassador Programs, Digital Seed/Viral Campaigns and Digital Marketing Agencies.

Social media sponsorship spending is expected to jump 23.6% in 2010, reaching $56.8 million, propelled by an improving advertising and marketing environment, increased social media usage as a share of time spent online, and more brands requiring WoMM campaigns to include a social media proponent. Non-cash sponsored social media will continue to demand the lion’s share of spending, but cash-sponsored social media will exhibit faster growth, driven by new services, particularly those linked to mobile phone applications. Similar to the 2009 results, social media sponsorship will significantly outperform the single-digit growth expected for the overall advertising and marketing industry, as non-digital media segments continue to struggle.

The next Susan Boyle may have come from the Ukraine. Kseniya Simonova is not a singer. Instead she is an amazing artist and storyteller. Her means of conveying a story is not with words, but by running her hands through the sand.

Kseniya Simonova is a sand animator, who was the winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent for 2009. More than 14 million viewers have seen her YouTube video of the moving depiction of the Nazi invasion of Ukraine during World War II.

There is something very hypnotic about watching her fingers flying over the sand, creating then destroying images, morphing one image skillfully into another and telling a story with her fingers and the sand.

Learn more about Kseniya Simonova here.

How are you telling your stories online?

Check out this clever dental advertisement I came across.

As more and more Americans flock online to find information, should the US Government should give everyone their own webpage as they are contemplating this in the UK.

After reading a recent article on Softpedia – UK Government to Give Everyone Their Own Web Page, the Prime Minister states that the government plans to have broadband available to 100 percent of the British people by 2020. A much more interesting proposition, though certainly not one without its detractors, is the move to have as many government services online as possible.

The idea is to enable UK citizens to go online for all of their needs, things like apply for schools, get a new passport, pay council tax or even register a car. Further down the line, UK citizens will each get their own unique identifiers and web pages. The government believes this will save up quite a lot of money by closing down plenty of offices. Critics claim that the last thing the UK needs in this economy is more people losing their jobs.

Would this work in the United States?

Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy.

Last year I did a post on Things you can do for Earth Day. With Earth Day a month away I want to highlight more eco-friendly tips to make you learn to reuse, recycle and rethink your daily routine. It’s time for people to think about the consequences of our choices? What products are better for the earth? and what should we avoid?

I want to challenge each of you to take the Ecological Footprint Quiz (it takes less then 5 minutes) and see what your impact on the Earth is – you might be surprised. Start your quiz now.

What is the Ecological Footprint?
The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool that measures how much biologically productive land and sea is used by a given population or activity, and compares this to how much land and sea is available.

What does the Ecological Footprint measure?
Ecological Footprint accounts answer a specific research question: how much of the biological capacity of the planet is demanded by a given human activity or population? To answer this question, the Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and water area an individual, a city, a country, a region, or all of humanity uses to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates with today’s technology and resource management practices.

Learn more here and please take a moment to post a comment on your favorite Earth day tips.

It was 25 years ago today – March 15, 1985, that the first dot-com domain name: Symbolics.com appeared on the Internet, ushering in the commercial age of the World Wide Web. Globally, .com and .net domain names are still the most popular accounting for more than half of the 200 million domain names registered worldwide. With 99.9% of the Internet’s growth occurring in the past 15 years, I congratulate the commercial Internet on hitting your 25th birthday; you’re just starting to enter the prime of your working years.

Here is my list of 25 sites that changed the Internet. (In no particular order)

1. AOL
2. Wikipedia
3. Google
4. Pirate Bay
5. Geocities
6. Webcrawler
7. Amazon
8. Ebay
9. Paypal
10. WordPress
11. Facebook
12. Youtube
13. Craigslist
14. Yahoo
15. Myspace
16. Twitter
17. Adobe
18. Pandora
19. The Drudge Report
20. ESPN
21. CNN
22. Digg
23. Napster
24. Weather.com
25. Godaddy

Attack this list all you want, but these sites however big or small: changed the Internet, mostly for good, in substantial ways. Did I leave any out?