Though my college career may have ended several years ago, I vividly remember how my shoulders ached after long days of lugging textbooks all over campus.

But now that Apple has debuted the “textbooks” category in its iBooks app, it’s only a matter of time before book-induced muscle pain is a thing of the past. As Mashable reported, Apple users downloaded 350,000 books from partners McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the first three days the category was available. And with book prices starting at $14.99 or less, it’s no surprise that cash-strapped students find this option appealing.

To me, the most intriguing aspect of the story is that another 90,000 users downloaded the company’s e-book authoring software, iBooks Author, which allows people to create their own textbooks that incorporate multimedia and 3D content. Although Publishers Weekly reports that the digital self-publishing market has seen steady growth for several years now, the college textbook niche has been mostly untapped.

I’m interested to see whether the increasing availability of digital textbooks will make more students spring for the iPad or other tablets. If I were back in college, I’d be tempted. And I’ll be watching to see whether publishers take this as a cue to employ innovative marketing strategies to set themselves apart from others in the marketplace.

What do you think? Will brick-and-mortar college bookstores – and the weighty tomes they sell – eventually go the way of computer punch cards and library card catalogs? Or will they continue to be staples of the college experience?

Mary Tindall is a staff writer at Costa DeVault. She shudders to think of how much she spent on textbooks while earning her journalism degree at the University of Central Florida.

The column inches have been tallied … and the results are in!

In 2011, Costa DeVault garnered more than 55,750 column inches – and hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad equivalency value – for our clients. Shanon Larimer, vice president of global marketing at Baker Barrios, had the closest guess, and as a result, he had the honor of naming the Central Florida nonprofit that will be receive a free mobile website. We’re happy to announce that we’ll be working with the Orlando Downtown Arts District to create a mobile website that will keep all their members informed on the go.

Thank you all for your participation – and stay tuned for more promotions from us in the future.

Today, The Wall Street Journal had an interesting forecast section regarding ad trends for 2012. Predictions include advertising executives flexing their technology muscles, consumer-made customized products, more foul-mouthed ads and the marketing world embracing the mobile experience.

Christian Haas, executive director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, stated, “In 2012, advertising will be more than ever the intersection of technology and storytelling.”

We’ll be looking for these trends while watching the ads in the Super Bowl this year. With a 30-second ad going for $4 million, will the dollars be worth the touchdown for the companies? Let’s see if technology and storytelling can make it happen.

From our Costa DeVault family to yours … Have a wonderful holiday season!

If I had to guess which Facebook pages are the most popular, I would chose Justin Bieber, Disney and MTV (not in that order). While they are on Facebook’s Top 100 Most Popular Facebook Pages In The World list, the chart toppers surprised me.

Currently, Coca-Cola^® is the most popular brand page on Facebook. Companies such as MTV and Starbucks aren’t even listed in the top 20. A recent USA Today article examined the ways in which Coke^® has begun to dominate the social media realm. Through the creation of smart phone applications and the use of contests and giveaways, the brand reached an unparalleled level of online intricacy.

While only a part of the company’s overall $2.9 billion advertising strategy, their efforts have clearly paid off. Wendy Clark, the company’s senior vice president of integrated marketing says that Coca-Cola places great emphasis on social media because consumers who follow their brand online are 10 times more likely to purchase their product. And it’s working: Coke’s beverage sales are up 6 percent worldwide year-to-date.

Coke has also earned respect on other social networks including YouTube, where its videos have been viewed 33.5 million times and Twitter, where it has 400,000 followers. While speculation is to be expected, Coke’s online success is nothing short of a well-calculated marketing takeover.

Earlier this month, Coca-Cola was named “Marketer of the Year” by Advertising Age, citing it as an example of how small and mid-sized brands also “can use creative stunts and strategic partnerships to get a lot done on a smaller budget.” This recognition further solidifies their claim as one of the best in online conversation. Coke’s secret? “Letting fans be fans,” says Michael Jedrzejewski, one of the pages’ original creators. “People are savvy enough to know when a Facebook page is contrived and manufactured.”

What are some of your favorite brand pages on Facebook? What sets them apart from the rest?

Kristin Serio is a social media coordinator at Costa DeVault. She enjoys piña coladas, long walks on the beach and a daily Diet Coke (or two).

The Costa DeVault team took a break last night to have some fun together at our annual holiday dinner at Enzo’s on the Lake. The night was filled with good food, great conversation, lots of laughs – and even better company! It’s safe to say that it was the perfect way to round out the 2011 year. All of us at Costa DeVault wish you and yours a happy, healthy holiday season!

For photos from last night’s dinner, visit on.fb.me/CDHolidayParty2011.

Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle we now enjoy, everyone’s had the opportunity to hear about Alec Baldwin’s latest Words With Friends snafu. (As a big Jack Donaghy fan, I am going to avoid comments about Mr. Baldwin personally and go right to my favorite development in this very newsworthy saga.) When asked about the incident, he responded saying, that the flight attendants have made flying a “Greyhound bus experience.” 

When I read his comment earlier this week I cringed a bit for Greyhound. Dragging them into the fight seemed unfair regardless of how off-the-cuff the statement may have been. Well, it looks like Greyhound’s CEO, Dave Leach, didn’t appreciate the shot either and decided to very tastefully stand up for his company, sending an open letter to Mr. Baldwin touting Greyhound’s service. The best sections of the letter were  summarized in this CNN article – http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/09/travel/alec-baldwin-greyhound-response/index.html?hpt=hp_c2 – including the CEO’s offer to meet Mr. Baldwin in New York and accompany him on a free trip to Boston so he could experience Greyhound’s service for himself. 

Touché, Mr. Leach. Whether it was his idea or that of some very astute PR advisor, this response was pitch-perfect. It would have been easy to ignore it and let the “Greyhound bus experience” perception persist. Instead, Greyhound took this as an opportunity to change the conversation and has gotten national attention as a result.  Who knows – maybe next time Mr. Baldwin will decide to go Greyhound.