As soon as she stepped foot on the legendary stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater, Carrie Underwood‘s star shone bright. The theater was packed with a couple hundred, lucky, die-hard Carrie fans who were fortunate enough to get inside for the Live on Letterman event, but the real crowd was at home, watching the whole event live online– probably dancing in their pajamas.

Carrie sang her heart out for almost an hour, but it felt like the entire concert went by in the blink of an eye. The power balladeer opened with her latest “Good Girl,” bu by the crowd’s reaction, you’d never know if was a new song. The girl power anthem blasted through the rafters and shook the crowd up and off their feet and got Twitter kicking too. After just two songs, #LiveOnLetterman was trending on Twitter worldwide, and the show was off to the races.

Carrie belted out a good mix of hits and new material. We were treated to some all time favorites like “Last Name,” “Jesus Take the Wheel,” “Undo It,” and “Cowboy Casanova,” mixed in with future hits, “Cupid’s Got a Shotgun” “Leave Love Alone,” and “Nobody Ever Told You,” before Carrie brought it all home with “Before He Cheats.” The crowd loved it all, but the Twitterverse really exploded when Carrie played “All American Girl,” and the song title trended worldwide too!

→ SEE MORE AT LIVE ON LETTERMAN

I was impressed by an article in this week’s Time Out New York that highlights a company which specializes in such out of the ordinary urban experiences.

SideTour, which launched in the fall of 2011, has organized lunches with musical legends, luge rides with winter Olympians and classes in “the art of butchering.”

They’ve also taken people on guided tours of “The Institute of Higher Burnin,” an outdoor graffiti gallery in Long Island City and arranged meetings with urban beekeepers. Who knew that they even existed?  They’ll even use a Cadillac Escalade to shuttle people around to culinary events.

It’s fun just to think about adventures that might come to a service like SideTour.

We love innovative local businesses at Altitude and SideTour is just that!

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Advertising Age: Where do great media strategies come from?

Marla Kaplowitz: Everyone has their own source of inspiration for creativity. Sometimes I have to walk away from the office. I love the MOMA design store and the MOMA catalog to look at objects that are askew or different, and it gets me to look differently at problems. When we are trying to come up with an idea for a client, we bring people from different disciplines together at MEC.

Ad Age: How do they then “make the ideas?”

Ms. Kaplowitz: It could be everything from what we call “blockage buster,” which is having people focus on the biggest barrier your brand has to achieving success and then solving that. It could be “brainwalking,” which is having people walk around and brain dump ideas based on words, stimuli.

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Read the entire interview at Advertising Age.

Also be sure to check out Ad Week’s entire interview with Kaplowitz from last year.

There are, of course, many ways to connect to consumers, but at Altitude we have a special focus on these strong local bonds. Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas and talking about Allstate, a company that has had great success in this area.

In recent years, Allstate has made a big splash with iconic commercials like “Mayhem” and a very customer and service oriented approach. In their initiative with us, Allstate ran a campaign in major radio markets, creating customized “Good Hands” traffic reports.

As you probably know, local traffic and weather is one of the major reasons that audiences come to news and talk radio stations nationwide. Such deep integrations allow Allstate to “own” the traffic report in a much more nuanced way than through more traditional sponsorships.

I had a great time at NAB and was happy to see old and new friends. If you have a chance, take a look at my talk below. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or send me an e-mail.

With the increase of media consumption across platforms devices and contexts, people who think that programming can only succeed on its platform of origin have a very short-sighted view of how media is evolving into the future.

As radio consultant Mark Ramsey points out, this shifts the focus of not where the programs come from, but how well they are made and how deeply they connect with local customers: “Control is in the hands of the consumers who demand content. We can create great content or mediocre content – that’s up to us.  But how consumers get it is very much up to them.  They don’t care about our heritage platforms and our monetization models…”

This is why we’re focused on creating great content that lures consumers through whatever platform they use, rather than pushing content through a single traditional channel. Consumers are great at discovering what they want, and what they want is great content.

How do you effectively steer a collection of storied local brands?

When should you swing for a home run and when should quickly get points up on the board?

And is it worth it to get emotional about your content management system?

Ezra Kucharz, President of CBS Local, recently answered these questions and more like it in the first of a two-part interview with Michael Depp of Net News Check.

Ezra came to CBS a few years ago and has been busy executing a new strategy that consolidates assets with a “portfolio” approach and bringing rigorous metrics to everything the company does. Under his leadership, CBS Local is blocking and tackling first and swinging for the fences second.

He also spoke about “disruption,” local search and the wisdom of launching in beta.

Check out the full interview over at NetNewsCheck and be sure to take a look at Part 2 when it comes out tomorrow.

Over the years, a huge part of the Coca-Cola Company’s success has been its packaging. The Coke Bottle. The vintage vending machines.

Now Coke has once again wowed beverage enthusiasts and media folks alike with its new Freestyle Initiative.

This is the soda machine of the future.

With over 100 flavors, consumers can choose from flavors they have never heard of. Raspberry Diet Coke? Sure. Fanta Grape? Why not!

Kids will no longer have to resort to creating a suicide* drink to stand out from their friends.

*(For those who haven’t been around an 11 year-old in the past decade, a suicide drink is a mixture of all drink options at the soda fountain in one cup. Mmmm!)

Coca-Cola has found the individual in all of us. We are no longer one-size-fits-all soda consumers — or even six-flavors-satisfies-all consumers. We now have the ability to uniquely connect to flavors in ways we never could before.

Look for these innovative new vending machines in Duane Reade, Burger King, and Five Guys all over New York.

And speaking of connecting, it’s hard to connect more than through a good hug.

Forbes recently highlighted this amazing Coca-Cola vending machine at the National University of Singapore that dispenses beverages not in response to money, but in response to hugs!

In a statement as part of the company’s ‘Open Happiness’ campaign, Leonardo O’Grady, ASEAN IMC Director, The Coca-Cola Company, explained that: “Happiness is contagious. The Coca-Cola Hug Machine is a simple idea to spread some happiness. Our strategy is to deliver doses of happiness in an unexpected, innovative way to engage not only the people present, but the audience at large.”

Coca-Cola has once again changed how not only we look at its soda, but also how our soda consumption replicates life.

Brilliantly iconic!

Founded by social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto in 2002 and acquired by CBS two years ago, EcoMedia provides an innovative way to use ad dollars to fund environmental projects at the nation’s most effective nonprofit organizations — in effect turning advertising into an engine for social change.

Clients, from automotive to tech, banking to retail, local independent businesses and the biggest brands, are able to invest their ad dollars more efficiently and reap rewards that they simply can’t get from ordinary advertising.

We’ve found that the projects funded through our programs have substantial and lasting benefits for consumers  — and for our advertisers.

Some recent examples of CBS EcoMedia initiatives include:

• helping to fund a sustainable garden at a school in Torrance
• upgrades to a park lighting system in San Francisco
• installing solar panels at the Long Beach Airport

Yesterday CBS announced that it added two new kinds of advertisements — “EducationAd” and “WellnessAd” — to the program as options for companies looking to make a positive impact in the areas of education and community health.

EducationAds will carry a logo that reads “Ads funding education projects” and WellnessAds will have a logo that says “Ads funding wellness projects.”

I encourage everyone to look for the EcoAd, EducationAd and WellnessAd program logos on commercials presented across its many platforms. These three icons signify that the advertiser has provided funding for one of a number of urgent yet underfunded projects.

Keep an eye out for these icons on campaigns everywhere and be sure to learn more about CBS EcoMedia at its web site. And check out the video below to learn more about EcoMedia.

There are a lot of reasons for this price increase, not the least of which are the perpetual squabbles between subscription cable operators and networks over carriage fees.

And satellite, telecom video services like AT&T’s U-verse, tablets and web enabled TVs have already taken market share from cable industry as consumers are personally defining “pull” content.

But, there is an “unknown” lurking out there that will change the game: available broadband spectrum. The looming broadband spectrum crisis could make recent cable bill increases look like child’s play.

Spectrum is finite, so if you want to truly know where this industry is heading, pay close attention to this issue as $200 might end up looking like a bargain compared to your broadband bill.

Check out the full NY Post article.

There is no other golf tournament  that better epitomizes the tradition of golf than The Masters.

Hosted by Augusta National, the most hallowed of grounds for golf enthusiasts, the tournament begins today, and CBS will pick up the television coverage for Saturday and Sunday.

Of all the top story lines this week, the spotlight is once again on Tiger Woods. The question is obvious: Can he return to the level– dare I say perfection?– that won him four Green Jackets, that had him sitting on top of the golf world for a decade?

Having not won a tournament since 2009, Woods finally got the monkey off his back by winning in Orlando two weeks ago. Woods will be tested by a much stronger field at Augusta this week. However, if he wins, if he once again dons the Green Jacket over his Sunday red shirt, no one would be surprised.

Watch all the action live on cbssports.com

As an appetizer, here is a short selection of memorable moments from The Masters from past years.

In 1986, Jack Nicklaus became the oldest player (46) to win a major at The Masters.

Tiger Woods with a brilliant shot on 16 to help him win in 2005

And in 2010, Phil Mickelson with a miraculous shot off the pine needles to lead his charge to victory.