Candy Dish Blog

The Official Candy Blog of the National Confectioners Association

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans just released a Facebook app that allows you to make custom pictures of jelly beans. Even better, you can win some money or jelly beans as a reward for a great design. The top prize is $500, one 50-flavor gift box, and a 35×16 print of your work. Although only one lucky winner will receive a cash prize, the top 150 will receive jelly beans as prizes.

Entries will be judged in four categories: Best Overall, Most Creative, Funniest and Best Use of Color. In addition, there will be 4 Honorable Mentions selected by Jelly Belly.

What are you waiting for? Go get creative on the Facebook!

08_ssWe’ve been previewing new candy items all week and now you have a chance to win a prize pack full of new stuff. We have five prizes to give away and this time it’s going to be a random drawing. All you have to do is leave a comment below and you’ll be entered.

If you want to stack the odds in your favor, do any of the following:

1. Blog about the Candy Dish blog or our candy giveaway contest

2. Tweet about us

3. Follow us on Twitter (CandyUSA)

4. Join our Facebook Group (CandyUSA)

5. Post a candy or chocolate photo to our Flickr Pool (CandyDish Blog)

When you do any of those things, post an additional comment letting us know (include the blog link, tell us what name you’re following us as on Twitter or Facebook, share your tweet or link to your Flickr photo).  It’s that simple.

The winners will be announced on Tuesday, May 26 when we all return from the EXPO.  Look for Carl to post a few things next week about the show and be sure to check out our Tweets to see what we’re up to in Chicago.

facebook

Yes, we have finally stepped up and fleshed out our Facebook presence a bit. Not being on Facebook, as you know, is sooooo April 2008. You can check out our networked blog page and also join our CandyUSA group. We love Facebook, also known as “The Facebook” to some of my colleagues who are still learning about online social networking. Have a Facebook account? Come join us! We’d love to see you there.

I admit to being a little late to the game with this one, but maybe you’ve been living under the rock next to my own.  This week, Carl and I were lucky enough to attend a conference about social media with other folks from some trade associations where we spent two days talking about blogs and Twitter and Facebook and You Tube and just about every other platform out there.  One of the groups addressing the audience was CrossTech Partners and they started their presentation by showing a video.  Of a gorilla.  Playing the drums.

Have you seen it?  There’s a surprise ending and I’m going to give it away, so you should watch the video before continuing.

So we have Phil Collins, a gorilla, a rock-star drum solo and an advertisement for Cadbury Dairy Milk.  Makes sense to me.

Here’s the most amazing part.  The original upload to You Tube had three million views, and then someone posted it again and the re-post had three million views.  And then someone made a remix, and then more people made more remixes and now that silly gorilla has been viewed I can’t even begin to count how many times.  That’s social media and viral marketing at work, folks.  I’ve always found that most things in life are better with a little chocolate at the end.

Had you already seen this video or one of the remakes?  Do you prefer the Total Eclipse of the Heart version?  Deep Purple?  Nirvana?  The spoof with the little stuffed animal?  Or do you just love Cadbury?