Special Section Introduction

I introduce the work of the finalists in the 2011.2012 Gary L. Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition, representing once again the best combinations of rigor and relevance produced by marketing scientists. The winning paper is by a team who developed an innovative approach to measuring the impact of a social media campaign for an Indian premium ice cream retailer, Hokey Pokey. The other two finalists are from a team that developed a category management tool for a leading wine brand, Beringer, and a team that developed a system called PROSAD, which determines optimal bids to maximize an advertiser's profit per search engine advertising keyword.