Currently operating in 318 locations world-wide, Boston-headquartered Au Bon Pain is known for their convenient locations that include office buildings, hospitals, transportation centers, universities and malls. Voted one of America’s Top Five Healthiest Restaurant Chains, their menu offers a variety of signature items that include breads, pastries, sandwiches and salads.

“We are committed to connecting with our guests and believe Pandemic Labs is on the forefront of social media technology and strategies,” says Au Bon Pain’s SVP of Marketing, Ed Frechette. “We are already seeing the impact of their work on our business and look forward to making great strides in this area.”

“It’s such a pleasure to work with brands that we love,” says Matt Peters, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Pandemic Labs. “And it’s even better when we get to work with someone who is right across town. We’re thrilled at the opportunity to establish Au Bon Pain as a social media leader.”

Pandemic Labs will begin work with Au Bon Pain immediately, adding to the Boston agency’s already burgeoning workload. “We hire only the best people and put them in a position to do great work. These people come up with groundbreaking social media ideas and insights that make our clients very successful,” Managing Director, Brennan White, says of Pandemic’s secret behind the string of successful projects that include brands like DIRECTV, The Ritz-Carlton, and Canon. With this most recent win, Pandemic Labs is poised to continue its rapid rise as the secret weapon of the new-media marketing world.

About Pandemic Labs

Pandemic Labs is a dedicated social media marketing agency in the US and is based in Boston, MA. Co-founded in 2007 by young visionaries Brennan White and Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs works with a diverse client base, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. They have worked with high-profile brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, Dunkin’ Donuts, Puma, DIRECTV, Canon, Courtyard by Marriott, and The Wild Foundation.

About Au Bon Pain

Founded in 1978, Au Bon Pain (”the place of good bread”) has grown into an internationally recognized leader in the fast casual restaurant category. The chain offers consumers a wide array of delicious, nutritional foods and over the last three years has earned Health Magazine’s designation as one of America’s Top 5 Healthiest Restaurant Chains. Au Bon Pain operates in five key trade channels including urban office buildings, hospitals, universities, transportation centers and malls, with locations ranging from 300‐square‐foot satellites to 6,500‐square‐foot cafes with 100‐plus seats in the U.S. and internationally. Additional information about Au Bon Pain, which is headquartered in Boston, may be found at www.aubonpain.com.

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For more information on this release, please contact:
Erika Pearson, Senior PR Associate
(339) 222.7620
EPearson@PandemicLabs.com

“Guests of The Ritz-Carlton have always enjoyed the expertise of concierges who are the best in the business. Their local knowledge, VIP access and incomparable contacts make them an invaluable resource for travelers”, said Chris Gabaldon, chief sales and marketing officer, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Foursquare enables The Ritz-Carlton Concierge to travel with you. “It’s possible to access their destination knowledge instantly as you check in to multiple global landmarks,” added Gabaldon. “Starting today, Foursquare users across the globe are invited to access knowledge and valuable tips just by following The Ritz-Carlton on Foursquare. For the first time ever, the collected local knowledge of The Ritz-Carlton is available in your pocket.”

Foursquare users are able to find local information by visiting the profile of The Ritz-Carlton or by checking in to numerous locations of interest around the world. To receive tips as they go live you can follow The Ritz-Carlton on Foursquare. To start exploring, visit www.foursquare.com/ritzcarlton.

Alternatively, you can always connect with The Ritz-Carlton on Facebook and Twitter to see featured tips as they go live.

You can tap the full agenda here, and tweet along with us using #DIGIDAY.

Co-Founder and Creative Director, Matt Peters, will be speaking on June 23, 2011 at Digiday:Local in New York. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://www.digidaylocal.com/

Matt will be speaking on the following panel:

Checking in to Brand Loyalty: How do brands leverage location baed services and the “check in” from novel mobile game to driving actual brand loyalty and commerce? To date, daily deals have driven incremental foot traffic to local retailers and vendors for one-off dails, but to really reap rewards, brand loyalty needs to be developed. How do brands win repeat business and build long lasting relationships on the local level?

Moderator: Mike Shields, Senior Editor, Digiday

Speakers:
Nihal Mehta, CEO, LocalResponse
Brady Murphy, VP, Mobile, Transcontinental Interactive
Jay Samit, CEO, SocialVibe

Matt Peters, Founder & Creative Director, Pandemic Labs

Currently seeking (please connect with us via the contact us field below):

• Experienced PR Executives
• Experienced Marketing and Advertising Executives
• Experienced Marketing Directors and Leads of Key Accounts
• Social Media Consultants
• Executive Assistants who aspire to sales, marketing, and strategy roles

If you have a passion for social media, fit one of the descriptions above, and want to join a team growing over 100% per year, we want to chat with you today. Checkout our jobs page for slightly more info.

Please take a moment to watch this Disable Bullying video with “Glee” star, Lauren Potter

The homepage for the crucial initiative can be seen here.

You can download the full report here: Walk a Mile in Their Shoes: Bullying and Special Needs

Pandemic Labs could not be more proud to have role in the support of this important cause, and we are excited to help spread the word about this report, about which Tim Shriver says:

This important report confirms the presence of a silent epidemic in our schools and communities. Hundreds of thousands of children with differences are being subject to humiliation and isolation week in and week out around the country. It is time to bring this problem to light and marshal a call to action to our young people to put an end to it. This report shows us that what you say matters. I hope young leaders around the country will act on it by joining, sharing and leading the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign on March 2, 2011.”

It began in January 2010, and month after month, aspiring filmmakers were invited to pick up where the previous winning short film ended – on an evocative photograph. Contestants then reinterpreted that still, telling the story that lived beyond it in a short film of their own.

278 videos uploaded. Thirty finalists. Hundreds of thousands of views. Exposure in the millions. At the end, the six winners came together and wrote the screenplay for the final chapter.

All eight chapters have been cut together and the final film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on Vimeo simultaneously. The final film has also been submitted to the Academy Awards.

It was truly a pleasure to be a part of this amazing project. Below is the final film.

This amazing site was recently launched and is a unique online community for professionals and parents of children with special needs. AbilityPath.org combines expert content and social networking features to create an online destination unlike any other.

Pandemic Labs will be assisting AbilityPath.org in numerous forms of social media and online promotion.

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About Pandemic Labs

Pandemic Labs is the original dedicated social media marketing agency in the US and is based in Boston, MA. Co-founded in 2007 by young visionaries Brennan White and Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs works with a diverse client base, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. They have worked with high-profile brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, Dunkin Donuts, Puma, Canon, Courtyard by Marriott, and The Wild Foundation. Pandemic Labs focuses their attention on social networks, strategy, management, viral media, blogs, and mobile. Social profiles, websites, advertising, digital public relations, and online branding are measured and tracked with proven results. Pandemic Labs is driven by the belief that effective marketing strategies must fully incorporate emerging technologies in our increasingly on-demand world and maintains expert level fluency with these technologies. Pandemic Labs knows what it takes to succeed and will put that to work for you and your brand.

About AbilityPath.org

AbilityPath.org’s mission is to build a community that brings together professionals and parents of children with special needs from around the globe to learn, share and strengthen the process of supporting the ongoing healthy development of children and youth with special needs and disabilities. Content is available in English and Spanish and features advice, tool kits and other practical day to day living tips so families can learn, laugh and live a more balanced life. AbilityPath’s community blogs, forums, events and groups allow parents to connect and share experiences and stories, providing an outlet of support and encouragement throughout their parenting journey.

AbilityPath.org was created by Community Gatepath, a nonprofit with over 90 years of experience serving families and children with special needs. Community Gatepath fosters hope, dignity and independence among children and adults with disabilities. It is one of the largest providers of services for people with disabilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over 8,500 individuals annually receive support or direct care through Community Gatepath and its comprehensive menu of services including: childhood early intervention, a Family Resource Center, inclusive preschool, transition for young adults services, employment services and social business enterprises.

AbilityPath is funded through private donations, foundation grant support and corporate partnerships.

“When we asked Pandemic to review our business, and make suggestions on how we can improve our social relevance and positioning, they created a multi-faceted approach that enabled us to capitalize on short term initiatives while we devoted the time and energy need to build longer term strategic wins,” said Zinio Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jeanniey Mullen. “No other company we have spoken with created such a realistic and effective approach.”

“I got an iPad as soon as I could and Zinio was one of the first apps I downloaded,” said Pandemic Labs Co-Founder and Creative Director Matt Peters. “Working with such an innovative company in such a hot, fast-paced industry has really upped the excitement across our entire office. I believe there is incredible potential for Zinio to leverage social media to increase their overall success.”

Zinio is currently one of the top three free apps in the News category.

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About Pandemic Labs

Pandemic Labs is the original dedicated social media marketing agency in the US and is based in Boston, MA. Co-founded in 2007 by young visionaries Brennan White and Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs works with a diverse client base, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. They have worked with high profile brands such as Dunkin Donuts, Puma, Canon, Courtyard by Marriott, and The Wild Foundation. Pandemic Labs focuses their attention on social networks, strategy, management, viral media, and blogs. Social profiles, websites, advertising, digital public relations, and online branding are measured and tracked with proven results. Pandemic Labs is driven by the belief that effective marketing strategies must fully incorporate emerging technologies in our increasingly on-demand world and maintains expert level fluency with these technologies. Pandemic Labs knows what it takes to succeed and will put that to work for you and your brand.

About Zinio

Zinio, the world’s newsstand, is revolutionizing reading. Through digital products and services, the company creates better ways for people to discover published content, get more of it, and do more with it. Zinio works closely with publishers worldwide to reinvent reading. For consumers, Zinio enables the ability to shop for, search inside, read, share, and save digital content in new ways and on many devices. With more than 60,000 digital magazines and books, and e-stores localized in 15 languages, zinio.com is the largest newsstand in the world. Founded in 2001 and privately held, Zinio is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Taipei.

Chapter 7: Exit Interview from Tony Leech on Vimeo.

Chapter Six: Fool Circle from Marc Jonathan de Jesus on Vimeo.

Chapter 5: Miracle from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Check out the contest website (http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill) to view and vote.

We’ve also included the new set of finalists here (they’re in no particular order).

Missing

Missing from EyeQ Films on Vimeo.

The Seer

The Seer from Wandering Hat on Vimeo.

Miracle

Miracle from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

The X Factor

Chapter:5 The X Factor from Alejandro Guimoye on Vimeo.

Leverage

Chapter 5: Leverage from jelani memory on Vimeo.

Check out the winning video:

Chapter 4: Allison from Jeff Turick on Vimeo.

You can also watch the Director’s commentary and technical notes on the piece:

Allison: SBTS Chapter 4 Commentary from Jeff Turick on Vimeo.

Check out the contest website to view and vote.

We’ve also included the finalists here (they’re in no particular order):

The Greater Good

Enter the Detective

A Gift from Artemis

Divergence

Allison

Check it out.

Check out the contest website to view and vote.

We’ve also included the finalists here (they’re in no particular order).

Chapter 3 has now started, based on the final still of “Job Security” and entries will  accepted through March 22, 2010. What story to you see beyond this latest still?

Credits:

Credits for “Job Security” from Runner Runner on Vimeo.

To check out all five and vote, please visit the contest homepage: http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill

We’ve also included the five finalist videos below, but remember, you have to go to the contest website to vote!! Please note that these are in no particular order.

“The Story Beyond the Still” challenges photographers to interpret a still image and communicate the story behind it using high definition video. The winning entry from each segment of the six-part contest will set the still image to be interpreted in the following chapter. The story begins with a video shot by acclaimed photographer and Canon expert Vincent Laforet, entitled “The Cabbie.”

Five finalists will be selected for each chapter by a panel of judges that includes Rick McCallum (Producer, “Star Wars”), Russell Carpenter (Director of Photography, “Titanic”), Rodney Charters (Director/Director of Photography, “24”), Shane Hurlbut (Director of Photography, “Terminator Salvation”), Stu Maschwitz (Senior Visual FX Supervisor, “The Spirit”), Blake Whitman (Director/Editor, founder of Vimeo.com), Nick Childs (Director/Producer/VP of Grey Advertising), Director/Director of Photography Philip Bloom, and Mr. Laforet. Entries will then be voted on by the public to produce a winner. The creator of each winning chapter will each receive a prize package that includes a choice of Canon EOS 7D or 5D Mark II, a choice of select Canon lenses, a trip to shoot short film with Vincent Laforet, and a year-long Vimeo Plus membership.

About ViaCord:

Being a leader in cord blood banking and research means providing the highest quality service, care, and science.

Our Mission: To provide the highest quality stem cell preservation service and care to our patients, families, and their physicians. We at ViaCord believe these words are much more than just a promise. They are the commitment we live by.

Our Origins: ViaCord was established in 1993 to give expectant parents an opportunity to bank their children’s cord blood with comfort and security. Prior to launching our Cord Blood Banking Service, ViaCord conducted extensive research and validation studies to set high standards regarding the collection, processing, and storage of cord blood.

ViaCord’s headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts; a recognized global hub of biotechnology. All cord blood collections are processed and stored at our state-of-the-art cord blood cryopreservation facility outside of Cincinnati.

You’ll hear from our experts, families and staff with an insightful and unique perspective on stem cells and cord blood. Please join in the conversation as we journey together into an exciting new era of stem cell medicine. We hope to connect with you.

About ViaCord:

Being a leader in cord blood banking and research means providing the highest quality service, care, and science.

Our Mission: To provide the highest quality stem cell preservation service and care to our patients, families, and their physicians. We at ViaCord believe these words are much more than just a promise. They are the commitment we live by.

Our Origins: ViaCord was established in 1993 to give expectant parents an opportunity to bank their children’s cord blood with comfort and security. Prior to launching our Cord Blood Banking Service, ViaCord conducted extensive research and validation studies to set high standards regarding the collection, processing, and storage of cord blood.

ViaCord’s headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts; a recognized global hub of biotechnology. All cord blood collections are processed and stored at our state-of-the-art cord blood cryopreservation facility outside of Cincinnati.

Specifically designed to capture the interest of their target demographic as well as the younger demographics, the videos are scheduled to be released in series. Pandemic will be seeding, promoting, and engaging infuencers on behalf of Purolator and the purisms.

Unhappy with their previous social agency, the executives at the emerging ecommerce site, RockyBid.com, decided to tap Pandemic Labs to drive their Social Media Advertising campaigns across all channels. In the first month of testing, CPAs were down significantly, site traffic was up and the site is on target to beat their aggressive growth goals.

OutOfYourLife.com is a division of Lippincott, LLC, a nationally-recognized leader that for almost 20 years has offered customers a fast, friendly and reliable way to sell diamonds, gold, platinum, watches and other fine jewelry items. The company is headquartered in Narberth, PA.

Stay tuned for an update.

About Planet Eureka!:

The USA National Innovation Marketplace is a service of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and is a national network comprising hundreds of specialists who understand the needs of small and medium-size manufacturers. They have worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.44 billion in cost savings annually and $10.5 billion in increased or retained sales in year one. As a part of their National Innovation Marketplace, they are a field force that can help businesses and individuals connect and accelerate their growth. They can help use and interpret the Merwyn Business Simulation Research Report, help you negotiate with potential partners and help you create and find new ideas to grow your business. MEP is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Pandemic Labs was on hand to record the event in HD video and to conduct interviews with each of these legendary barmen. Some of the party footage can be seen here:

The event was a hit with local and international travel press and helped spread the word of the modern-yet-classic hotels and venues of The Dorchester Collection.

Stay tuned for the videos.

About The Dorchester Collection:

The Dorchester Collection is the successor to the Dorchester Group, originally established in 1996 to manage a portfolio of some of the world’s foremost luxury hotels in Europe and the USA. By applying its unrivaled experience and capability in owning and operating some of the world’s great individual hotels, the company’s vision is to become the ultimate hotel management company, with a passion for excellence and innovation, honouring the individuality and heritage of its iconic hotels. This will be achieved through acquisition as well as management of wholly-owned and part-owned hotels.

About Hawkins International Public Relations:

Innovative, experienced and teeming with talent, Hawkins International is a boutique, results-oriented public relations firm specializing in global luxury travel, real estate, wellness and lifestyle clients. Located in the heart of Manhattan, with a satellite office in Los Angeles, we specialize in executing creative and strategic national media relations campaigns for our clients. As the agency of record for several renowned upscale resorts, hotels and spas, we are dedicated to approaching public relations in a spirited and pro-active manner.

Fans of the company’s first game, Amazer, had taken online video, forums, and the community surrounding the game into their own hands via various online videos that were out of Challenge You’s control.

In beta, Howsthebar.com helps party-goers find the right bar for them dynamically in real time.

Working with trusted video production partner out of Boston, coBRANDiT, Pandemic Labs is managing the production and seeding of the entire daily series of videos into 2009.

“We’re excited to be working with such a seasoned team of business professionals at the outset of such an exciting company,” says Brennan White, Co-Founder of Pandemic Labs. “Daily Grommet is going to be such a great online location for people to find rare, handmade products and is definitely going to be a great success.”

About Daily Grommet:

At the heart of it, we’re a bunch of regular folks with a passion for finding Grommets; wonderful products–with interesting stories–that people would love to know about. We’re independent—no one pays us to select a product. In fact, the best thing is, lots of people help us by sharing their own favorite discoveries. In that way, our “team” is anyone who believes that we can make a difference by celebrating the useful, innovative, and beautifully crafted Grommets we collectively discover.

The leader in the burgeoning cord blood banking space, ViaCord wants to be able to track new mentions of the brand across blogs, forums, social networks and the general internet. Working with Pandemic Labs, ViaCord is also tracking the general cord blood banking discussion across the internet to determine exactly how their marketing efforts affect their share of online buzz.

Pandemic Labs’ is using its internal online reputation management tools to track ViaCord and a host of other brands. Concurrently with these brand tracking initiatives, Pandemic Labs is heavily into the roll-out of this program as a standalone software tool.

“We’ve used each of the many brand tracking tools out there and not a single one can compare with the accuracy and depth of a skilled team doing it manually,” says Pandemic Labs Co-Founder Matt Peters. “With our tool, we’re automating 99% of the online brand tracking process, overcoming the accuracy and depth issues of the other tools and completely revamping the subjective parts of the process like keyword and sentiment. So far, it is making our clients extremely happy. There is no question that it’s going to be extremely useful to brands and agencies alike.”

About ViaCord:

Being a leader in cord blood banking and research means providing the highest quality service, care, and science.

Our Mission: To provide the highest quality stem cell preservation service and care to our patients, families, and their physicians. We at ViaCord believe these words are much more than just a promise. They are the commitment we live by.

Our Origins: ViaCord was established in 1993 to give expectant parents an opportunity to bank their children’s cord blood with comfort and security. Prior to launching our Cord Blood Banking Service, ViaCord conducted extensive research and validation studies to set high standards regarding the collection, processing, and storage of cord blood.

ViaCord’s headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts; a recognized global hub of biotechnology. All cord blood collections are processed and stored at our state-of-the-art cord blood cryopreservation facility outside of Cincinnati.

Working with video production partner, coBRANDit, Pandemic Labs seeded, tracked and promoted a series of documentary-style videos of Puma-sponsored runner Usain Bolt during the Olympics. The videos were promoted across a network of video sites and were featured on the front page of YouTube receiving over 700,000 views for the campaign over the two weeks of the Olympics. In addition to a tremendous response in view count, the promotion created over 100 “secondary seeds” (unique new instances of the same video content) of the video as well as generating over 2500 comments, and receiving over 900 channel subscribers. This effort created a significant, positive branding impact for Puma and the largest single day traffic spike to any Puma web property ever.

The official Usain Bolt YouTube channel can be viewed here.

About Puma:

PUMA has the long-term mission of becoming the most desirable Sportlifestyle company. The aim of Phase IV of PUMA’s long-term oriented business plan, which was launched in 2006, is to reinforce its position as one of the leading multi-category Sportlifestyle brands.

We will achieve our goals by continuing to do what we have always done – harnessing our resources and experiences to provide our consumers with innovative products that successfully fuse the creative influences from the world of sport, lifestyle and fashion.

Cooks Compass provides a unique service to foodies and cooks that will first be offered in the Greater Boston area and followed-up quickly by more national exposure. The brainchild of a team of cooks and techies, the site allows foodies and cooks to compile information on local ingredients and local food stores. Soon anyone looking to find rare ingredients such as Kewra Water or Black Truffle Oil, will soon not only be able to find the closest store to their location, but also read reviews on quality and service.

Pandemic Labs has been tapped to manage the Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and provide online strategy among other more specific promotions.

If you’re local to Boston, take a peek at Cooks Compass for local info on interesting ingredients you won’t find at your chain supermarket!

myUsearch LLC

About myUsearch:
myUsearch is an unbiased online resource dedicated to objectively matching students with colleges and providing fair and accurate college enrollment information.