Lucha Libre Video Game Gets Ready to Tackle U.S. Market

• With the recent focus on Hispanic-targeted media and entertainment, one arena has remained largely untapped: video games. But that’s about to change as “Lucha Libre AAA 2011: Heroes del Ring,” a Mexican wrestling game from upstart publisher Slang, prepares to enter the ring next month.

• “Heroes del Ring” is the largest video-game project to be conceived and created entirely in Latin America, and Slang is the first Mexican publisher of video games for the Xbox, PlayStation (PS3, Play Station Portable PSP), Wii and Nintendo DS consoles. Only 2% of characters in current video games are Hispanic, according to executives at the Vox Collective, the New York-based independent shop handling advertising for “Heroes,” so this launch is a “cultural milestone,” said Roberto Ramos, CEO and president of the Vox Collective.

• In order to get audiences excited about the sport, Vox has created three trailers in both Spanish and English that each tackle various aspects of the game: the storytelling element of lucha libre, the characteristics of the sport and the gamer’s experience. Thirty-second spots will air on cable channels such as ESPN, SyFy, MTV, MTV2 and G4 starting next week, as well as on Hispanic media outlets. (www.adage.com)

Bounce Lets Moms Do the Talking

• Procter & Gamble is tapping into the power of consumer testimonials to promote one of its newest products, Bounce Dryer Bar.

• The packaged goods giant is kicking off an effort next month, consisting of a series of print advertorials and Web videos running in Meredith Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens and Better, a nationally syndicated lifestyle TV show. The goal is to drive trial and usage of Bounce Dryer Bar—which lasts 2-4 months and replaces the need for dryer sheets—via word-of-mouth and consumer recommendations, P&G said. (Bounce Dryer Bar launched last year.)

• Web videos, also anchored by Resnick and Renison, explain how Bounce can help make consumers’ lives easier. One back-to-school segment, for instance, has the two women offering tips on how to “start the school year off on the right foot.” (www.brandweek.com)

TBS’ Baseball Ads Take Over NYC Subway

• Turner’s TBS on Monday launched a Times Square/Grand Central subway shuttle takeover, including the first-ever in-car video campaign, to market itself as the exclusive TV home of all four of Major League Baseball’s division series and the American League Championship Series.

• The campaign suggests that New York City transit riders “Never Miss a Moment” of this year’s TBS post-season baseball coverage as they can get latest information on the screens. The campaign also involves branded subway cars designed to capture the look and feel of a baseball stadium. (www.brandweek.com)

Levi’s Tries On Another Sponsorship Style

When it comes to sponsorship, Levi Strauss & Co. can best be described as a dabbler, especially over the past 10 years. The iconic apparel company had a partnership with Live Nation predecessor SFX Entertainment early in the last decade, an associate-level deal with NASCAR Sprint Cup team Hendrick Motorsports and driver Jimmie Johnson from 2004 to 2007 and, until last year, sponsorship of a BMX cycling team. (www.sponsorship.com)

Grocery Retailers Stock Shelves With New Sponsorships

While traditional grocery retailers, primarily supermarkets, have historically represented one of the most active sponsorship categories, increased competition from mass merchandisers, warehouse stores and other less traditional food purveyors is driving sponsorship activity to record levels. Retail consultancy Willard Bishop expects dollar share of food and consumables sold by traditional grocery retailers to decline from 47.5 percent in 2009 to 44.1 percent in 2014. (www.sponsorship.com)

Energy Utilities Looking To Promote Peak-reduction Programs

In an already busy year for new sponsorships from utility companies and other energy providers, at least one player has found yet another good reason to partner with properties. On the heels of sponsorships prompted by smart grid initiatives, plus activity spurred by developments in solar energy and other renewable sources, comes a first-time partnership promoting a program to encourage consumers to reduce energy usage during peak demand hours. (www.sponsorship.com)

Aéropostale’s Two Chiefs Fight for Teen Dollars in a Hard Time

• Going into the all-important holiday season, shoppers are still waiting for bargains before deciding to part with their dollars, says Tom Johnson, co-chief executive of teen retailer Aéropostale Inc.

• He and his co-CEO, Mindy Meads, are facing stiffer competition at the mall, as more retailers discount their goods to woo shoppers who have gotten more frugal since the beginning of the year. Higher-priced teen retailers including American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. are marking down goods. (www.wsj.com)

Bonding With Fans Who Can’t Get Enough

• The Penguins decided to help rebuild ties with fans via cellphone, a campaign that the team says has resulted in a fivefold increase in sign-ups for its mobile fan club. That response prompted the team to offer more mobile options for its coming season in its new arena.

• “We did a lot of research, including focus groups, online surveys and arena surveys to see how we could best reach fans season round,” said Jeremy Zimmer, the team’s director of new media. The research helped the team focus on its fans who agreed to be contacted by cellphone, about one-fifth of its 1.5 million person fan base; the team defines its base as those who have watched, attended or listened by radio to at least one Penguins game in the last year, Mr. Zimmer said.

• The Penguins hired Vibes Media, a Chicago mobile marketing company, to help it create the Pens Mobile Club, where fans could receive news, recaps and commercial offers — including free tickets from Chevrolet to the Pittsburgh auto show and discounts on Coors Light beer at local bars — on their mobile phones. (www.nytimes.com)

Turkey ‘Pops Up’ on a Day Other Than Thanksgiving

• The old switcheroo is among the most-used tactics in marketing, particularly since Procter & Gamble mischievously exposed thousands of consumers to the “Folgers switch,” replacing the “fresh-perked” coffee served at high-class restaurants with instant Folgers.

• More recently, commercials showed the reaction of a driver who expected a Toyota Avalon getting a Chrysler 300 instead, and how diners in a restaurant in Rome reacted when they learned their meals were actually pasta dishes on the menu at Pizza Huts in the United States.

• Now, the Jennie-O Turkey Store unit of the Hormel Foods Corporation is starting a campaign that carries the theme “Make the switch” — to hamburgers made with turkey rather than beef. To bring the theme to life, Jennie-O operated a pop-up, or temporary, restaurant in El Monte, Calif., near Pasadena, on Sept. 2. The eatery became a literal Jennie-O turkey store, giving away about 2,500 turkey burgers for about four hours. (www.nytimes.com)

For Trop50, PepsiCo Seeks to Improve Odds for Success

• PepsiCo is taking additional steps to put behind it the mistakes made last year in marketing its Tropicana family of juices with a major campaign for the Trop50 juice beverage variety.

• The campaign is the first for Tropicana Trop50 since it was introduced in early 2009. It is scheduled to begin this week with humorous television commercials featuring the actress and singer Jane Krakowski.

• In the spots, Ms. Krakowski plays a version of the silly, vain character Jenna Maroney whom she portrays on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock.” Trop50 is aimed primarily at women ages 26 to 44 because it has fewer calories and less sugar than Tropicana Pure Premium juice.

• The commercials help promote a new bottle for Trop50 as well as a new variety, Farmstand Apple, that joins varieties like orange, pineapple mango and pomegranate blueberry. (www.nytimes.com)

Verizon Looks Beyond Mobile to 4G

• Verizon says it has already persuaded manufacturers including Eastman Kodak (EK), LG, Samsung, and Dell (DELL) to start developing products to take advantage of 4G data speeds. Branching out from phones is also an opportunity for Verizon “to leapfrog its competitors,” says Hodulik. AT&T (T) remains focused on upgrading its existing 3G architecture, and the commercial launch of its 4G network is still months away, according to John T. Stankey, president of AT&T’s operations.

• Verizon’s ultrafast fourth-generation network uses a technology standard called Long Term Evolution, or LTE. Tim Horan, a telecom analyst at Oppenheimer, estimates Verizon is spending about $3 billion to upgrade its network to 4G service, which will launch later this year. While current third-generation networks allow for average download rates of up to 1.7 megabits per second, 4G customers can expect to see average download speeds of about 10 Mbps—fast enough to download a song in about four seconds. That’s faster than many home broadband connections and zippy enough to stream live television to mobile devices. “Essentially we’re taking that desktop experience and allowing you to take that with you on the road,” says Verizon Chief Technical Officer Tony Melone. (www.businessweek.com)

Wal-Mart to aggressively roll out smaller stores

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning an aggressive push into urban markets with a new small format that’s a fraction of the size of its supercenters.

• The expansion, expected to be spelled out next month at the retailer’s meeting with analysts at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is aimed to pump up sluggish U.S. sales.

• Real estate executives said that over this past summer, the world’s largest retailer has been scouring for small locations, around 20,000 square feet, in urban areas including New York City, San Francisco and other cities. That size is larger than a typical drugstore but smaller than a supermarket. (www.salon.com)

TIAA-CREF Urges: ‘Become Your Future You’

• TIAA-CREF is launching an integrated marketing campaign, urging clients and potential clients to “Become Your Future You.”

• The company, which is a financial services provider to the academic, government and non-profit fields, is seeking to “fight the inertia” surrounding retirement savings by asking viewers to imagine their futures.

• The campaign will run throughout the fall in TV, radio, print and online. The TV spot launched Sept. 18 on the CBS “TIAA-CREF College Football Today” pre-game show and the national telecast of the Florida-Tennessee NCAA Football game. (www.mediapost.com)

Perdue Employs Local Branded Entertainment

• A new Perdue Farms effort is demonstrating that branded entertainment — most often associated with national scale — can be employed on a local level to connect cost-effectively with targeted audiences and support retail partners.

• Perdue’s first foray into local branded entertainment, created and implemented with New York-headquartered advertising agency RJ Palmer, focused on a local tie-in with one of the brand’s key, ongoing causes, breast cancer-fighting organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure. (Perdue has contributed more than $275,000 to the national organization over the past two years.)

• The brand worked with Boston CBS TV affiliate WBZ to create a video segment for local half-hour lifestyle show “What’s In Store,” which aired on Channel 38 in prime time on Sept. 8 and also following the late news on WBZ on Sept. 11. (www.mediapost.com)

Hot News: Cream Of Wheat Partners With Cinnabon

• Cream of Wheat is bringing the smells and tastes of Cinnabon home, with the release today of a co-branded version of the hot cereal.

• “We’ve been looking for new opportunities to bring new and exciting things to breakfast,” Jordan Greenberg, vice president of marketing at Cream of Wheat parent B&G Foods, tells Marketing Daily. “When we spoke to consumers, the Cinnabon flavor profile ranks very, very high.”

• The Cinnabon-flavored hot cereal marks the first time that Cream of Wheat has added another company’s flavor profile to its signature hot cereal. (The company has previously had a licensing agreement with Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Squarepants character, but that didn’t involve a specific flavor profile.) Although Cream of Wheat offers a “Cinnamon Swirl” flavor, the new product incorporates Cinnabon’s cinnamon flavor, as well as the frosting used on its signature pastries. (www.mediapost.com)

Belvedere Launches a Global “Dream Job” Competition

• Belvedere Vodka announces the launch of a worldwide search for its next Global Brand Ambassador. Aptly called the Belvedere “Dream Job”, vodka aficionados and amateurs alike are invited to compete for a chance to win a one year, $100,000 contract working directly for Belvedere and gaining international recognition for his or her creativity in cocktail creation and brand advocacy.

• In this newly created role, the new Global Brand Ambassador will travel around the world alongside Head of Spirit Creation and Mixology, Claire Smith, to educate bartenders on how to best enjoy Belve and make the most innovative and exciting cocktails. (www.popsop.com)

Campbell’s Gets Dads off the Couch and on the Field

• Campbell Soup is enlisting the power of NFL pros to create a game-winning strategy for dads who struggle with eating right and being active. To address this challenge, Super Bowl winners Tony Dungy and Jerome Bettis are teaming up to launch the Campbell’s Chunky soup “All Pro Dad” pledge, which encourages dads to make small changes that can make a big difference at home.

• In addition to being one of the NFL’s most successful coaches, Tony Dungy founded the All Pro Dad® organization to provide men with the resources and encouragement they need to be better fathers. Built on a football theme, All Pro Dad features more than 50 NFL players, coaches and alumni who speak on the importance of being a good father. (www.popsop.com)