Manchester Arndale cemented its relationship with a new year of students last week thanks to its Great Student Giveaway. Last Tuesday, for just four hours, the center became a haven for students looking to shop.

Retailers at the center put together over 80 special offers, discounts and promotions for students. Brands like Levi’s, Nike, Topshop and more did their best to make students feel special.

The deals were even more accessible for the first 1000 students to register in advance: each received a £5 gift card to get started. Plus a snack—a Taco Bell crunchy Taco Supreme. Every gift card was claimed, with over 3500 students registering in advance.

No student party would be complete without entertainment, and Manchester Arndale had that under control. Shades and Mohawk, an all-guitar acoustic duo, kicked the night off, and MC and beatboxer Testament performed live. Woody and Kleiny brought their skills straight from the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent and entertained the crowd with their synchronised football freestyle act.

For more interactive entertainment, students enjoyed mechanical bull riding, giant Operation and Buzzwire, and a graffiti wall for young artists.

The U.S. election is a touchy subject, one that marketers need to navigate carefully. No matter how red or blue your customers are, there’s always the risk of alienating the rest with partisanship. But that doesn’t stop some companies from taking advantage of the topic that’s on every mind leading up to November 6.

JetBlue has gone a bit tongue-in-cheek with its election campaign. You probably know the people it’s reaching out to—the ones who are always about to move to Canada or Europe if their candidate doesn’t win. They never seem to go, do they? Maybe it’s because they need a little help—and if so, JetBlue is willing to provide it. Call it Election Protection.

To take part, JetBlue customers enter their candidate of choice and the country they’ll flee to if he loses. The airline has plenty of compelling destinations, and they’re more than happy to tout that fact—currently Costa Rica is in the lead. Come the moment of truth, 1006 winners with the losing candidate will get their trip to a (hopefully) friendlier climate.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that Call Me Maybe is getting a little played. But with Carly Rae Jepsen’s new album out this week, maybe we can give it one more listen.

After all, the video we’re looking at was made during the height of Call Me Maybe mania back in August. And it was made for a much better reason than most of the song’s parody videos: Kildonan Place Shopping Centre really did want shoppers to call it. And they really did need its number, because a big change was underway. Winnipeg was transitioning to 10 digit dialing, and the old way of calling was about to give out. Clearly this was an emergency of meme-ish proportions.

Thankfully, the folks at the center were ready to help solve the crisis. In this adorable video, we see retailers, management and guests all chime in. Check it out—and sorry in advance for the earworm.

We talk a lot about videos that get views in the hundreds of thousands or the millions. But here’s the thing about viral spread: none of these videos, no matter how big they get, can ever compete with the top music videos on YouTube for views. For every viewer checking out a cool viral ad, a dozen are currently listening to their favorite songs through the video sharing site.

But what if you hitched your wagon to one of those mega-sized video stars? That’s what the United Nations did last month for World Humanitarian Day. The organization worked with Beyoncé to tie its brand message in with the singer’s newest single, I Was Here.

The two couldn’t work better together. World Humanitarian Day is about doing something good for someone else. Something, anything, anywhere. And Beyoncé’s song is about living a life that brings value to the world and the people in it, that makes things better for the people around her.

So the UN took on Beyoncé’s message, making “I Was Here” the motto of the campaign. And in turn, the singer promoted the campaign. She starred in one video talking about the campaign and encouraging people to sign up. That one’s done fairly well, with views in the hundreds of thousands. She also released an official video for I Was Here, one that saw her performing at the UN to a backdrop that featured both the campaign logo and compelling scenes of people helping others. It also promotes the date and website for the campaign. That video has over six million views today, and that number will grow, and grow, and grow. And many of those views will help cement the UN’s message in listener’s minds.

Here’s the video that promotes the campaign message:

And here’s the music video. Judge for yourself—which one is more effective?

Intel and Toshiba have put together a fascinating online film project. It’s called The Beauty Inside, and it’s about a person who could be just about anyone. As such, just about anyone can star.

The series is directed by Drake Doremus, and stars Topher Grace as the narrator, Alex, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the love interest. But Alex can’t have an ordinary love life, because he never knows who he’ll be from day to day.

It’s a fascinating setup, and the brands are doing some very cool things with it. The film itself is professionally produced with professional actors—but the video blogs are created by the audience. Viewers take to Facebook to audition with their very own take on Alex’s video diaries. Some of the auditions lead to clips in the film. Others play Alex on the project’s Facebook page.

Take some time to peruse the Facebook page, if you can. Despite knowing Alex’s fictional status, and despite his lack of a consistent identity, viewers seem to be forging connections with him. He shares his stories, and they share their own—encouraging him, questioning him, asking for his advice. That “Alex” is so good about responding doubtlessly helps.

You can check out the trailer below. If you want to see more, click through to the Facebook page or YouTube where the links to the first few episodes are posted.