Archive for April, 2012

Daily Buzz 4-30-12

Pepsi Debuts First Global Campaign Pepsi is preparing to launch a campaign, “Live for Now,” that positions the brand on the pop-culture forefront around the world. The campaign, its first global effort, launches in the U.S. on May 7. It is the result of intense consumer research carried out across a variety of markets over the past [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-27-12

Oxygen Tries for ‘Real Housewives’-Style Franchise Oxygen swathed New York City’s Dream Hotel in yellow Wednesday night and touted a 50% increase in original programming as it worked to impress media buyers at its upfront presentation. Outside the party, cheering women stood on an Oxygen van and blew down bubbles. On the hotel’s rooftop lounge, media buyers [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-26-12

Honest Tea Plans First National Blitz Since Acquisition By Coca-Cola Coca-Cola’s’s acquisition of Honest Tea just over a year ago gave the organic-bottled-tea company a major boost in national distribution. The brand is now focusing on a marketing plan to match. In the past several months, Honest Tea has hired its first agency of record in New [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-25-12

Top Chinese Brands Bet on Star Power of American Blockbusters Ambitious Chinese marketers are looking to Hollywood to lend glamour and cachet to their brands. Last year’s “Transformers 3″ featured the most-high-profile product placements yet for Chinese brands, most notably a mention in the script for Yili’s Shuhua milk. Marketers are now eager to re-create that type [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-24-12

Japanese Retailer Uniqlo Exploring Online Store for U.S. Uniqlo is exploring building an online store for the U.S., according to a document obtained by Ad Age. The request for proposal indicates the retailer is looking for partners to help build the e-commerce site, which, if it goes according to the document’s timeline, would go live in [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-23-12

Is Ronald McDonald the New Joe Camel? Is Ronald McDonald the new Joe Camel? It strikes some as ridiculous to compare a “smooth character” who extols smoking with a floppy-shoed clown meant to represent the joy of mini hamburgers. But to many activists on the frontline of the war on obesity, the McDonald’s mascot is pushing a [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-20-12

Taco Bell Sees Sales Turnaround After Product Rollouts Taco Bell is seeing a sales turnaround after the launch of its biggest product, the Doritos Locos Taco, and its breakfast rollout on the West Coast. Overall, Yum’s’s same-store sales in the U.S. increased 5%, with jumps at all three of its chains: Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-19-12

Tumblr Announces First Foray Into Paid Advertising Five-year-old microblogging platform Tumblr announced its first foray into paid advertising at Ad Age’s Digital Conference this afternoon. Founder and CEO David Karp said Tumblr will start offering the “Radar” post that appears on a Tumblr user’s dashboard as an ad unit on May 2. Radar is currently an officially [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-18-12

Honda Targets Pinterest Users, Asks Them to Take a Day Off With the launch of its official Pinterest page less than a week ago and a new social-media campaign targeting Pinterest users, Honda is one of a few auto brands to make a big marketing push on the platform. “It’s such a fast-growing social-media network and seemed [ READ MORE ]

Daily Buzz 4-17-12

Magazines in the Snack Aisle: Planters Introduces Men’s Health Mixed Nuts Media brands on grocery-store shelves typically take forms such as Dora the Explorer fruit snacks or SpongeBob SquarePants GoGurt — products using TV shows to reel in kids. But now there’s an effort to use a magazine brand to win adult shoppers: Planters Nut-rition Men’s [ READ MORE ]