Hi. This is Enzo F. Cesario with another edition of the Brandsplat Video Report. Today we’re here with Rob Schwartz. Hey Rob, how are you doing today?

ROB: Great, thanks Enzo.

ENZO: Why don’t you tell people out there what you do, what’s your specialty.

ROB: I’m a Brand Strategist, I help all kinds of companies and interactive firms come up with strategic initiatives to help grow their businesses.

ENZO: Maybe you can help some of our clients grow their business – or some of the people that visit our site and our blog. Can you give us some tips for the holiday season?

ROB: Absolutely. You know this has been a pretty robust holiday season considering all the trouble out there in terms of unemployment and the general economic challenges. There’s double-digit growth – on 2007 there was about 50% growth online with users and now this year there’s about 70% growth, so again, it’s a pretty good picture for online retail.

ENZO: Did you see those Black Friday numbers?

ROB: Yes, again, on pace for a very strong growth and surpassing all expectations.

ENZO: Yes. Can you give us an example of someone who is doing something for the holidays?

ROB: I’ll speak to a category and a couple of specific retailers. LCD TVs are really hot this season. On Black Friday their prices went down about 20% and their consumption has skyrocketed accordingly because people knew there were really good deals to be had. And then in terms of retailers – the Gap has done a tremendous job of using e-couponing and offline couponing through direct mail to drive website traffic and consumption.

ENZO: Don’t they have a huge Facebook presence too?

ROB: Absolutely. And another Facebook story besides the Gap would be DIppin’ Dots which is this little upstart ice cream brand that now has close to a million members.

ENZO: Wow, just for ice cream, right?

ROB: Yes, they’re a little know company that getting real traction online using Facebook. They are really socializing the opportunity – right now they’re doing a promotion with Planet 51, a contest where people can win a trip to Hollywood. And again, there’s a ton of borrowed interest around that.

ENZO: A little entertainment tie in there, that’s pretty smart.

ROB: Exactly.

ENZO: Aren’t they also doing a coupon?

ROB: Absolutely. They’re doing couponing and they’re really listening to their audience in terms of coming up with ideas concerning their own product. They really get it as far as using the online channel as a sounding board and a community exchange.

ENZO: Whoda thunk – ice cream, Dippin’ Dots… I wanna get me some. Hey Rob, thanks for being with us today. That was fantastic.

ROB: Absolutely.

ENZO: If you want more information, visit our site at Brandsplat.com and click on the blog section to get more tidbits of information. That’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time.