The Top 10 Back-to-School Ads

1. Microsoft: PC or Mini-Fridge?
Agency: CP&B

The ad pits a mini-fridge that comes with a free ice tray against a Windows 7 PC that comes with a free Xbox 360. A robot emerges and blasts the former to pieces.

2. JC Penney: Turn your small change into Pennies from Heaven
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi.

JC Penney’s charitable Pennies from Heaven effort urges shoppers to round up their purchase totals to the nearest dollar to benefit local after-school programs. It’s the retailer’s most extensive cause-marketing campaign to date.

3. Crayola: Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons and Dry-Erase Board Sets
Agency: mcgarrybowen

Crayola promotes its dry-erase crayons and board sets, which combine “all that kids love about dry erase with all they love about crayons.”

4. Best Buy: Geek Backpack Intel
Agency: CP&B

With a geek attached to her back, this college girl can do just about anything with her new laptop.

5. Staples: Flash Drives
Agency: McCann Erickson

“Modern Family” star Rico Rodriguez wonders at the ability of a flash drive to store what once required huge computers.

6. Walmart: No Problem
Agency: Martin Agency

A mom shopping for back to school learns that Walmart stands by its ad-match guarantee, even when she doesn’t have the ad.

7. Walmart: Frat House
Agency: Martin Agency

In this second Walmart ad to make the list, when a library backdrop collapses to reveal a wrestling match, a college student using a smartphone to video chat with his Dad is caught off guard.

8.Chex: Fingertips
Agency: In-house.

“Choose the snack that gives back,” the ad states, promoting Box Tops for Education, which partners with Chex Mix.

9. Dell: Derek
Agency: Sid Lee

A student lauds his Dell Inspiron 15R for enabling him to “try new moves on and off the court.” Also promotes a free Xbox with the purchase of select PCs on Dell.com.

10. Best Buy: Geek Squad Backpacks
Agency: CP&B

The second Best Buy ad on the list touts the benefits of going back to school with Geek Squad because it offers 24/7 support. (www.adage.com)

CashCall Mortgage Renews Sponsorship of Top Cycling Team

• CashCall Mortgage is excited to announce the renewal of its sponsorship of the CashCall Mortgage Cycling Team for the second year in a row. The agreement to sponsor the team through 2012 was made official at the “Summers End GP” race in Ontario, California on Aug 14, 2011.
• The CashCall Mortgage Cycling Team has been a formidable force on the cycling circuit. With cyclists David Santos, Devan Dunn and Lee Muse on the top 5 Southern California Cup Standings for 2011 (Category 1-2). All together, the team earned 24 wins and 60 podium finishes over the 2011 season.
• According to Paul Reddam, President of CashCall, Inc., the sponsorship is a logical choice. “Our speed, expertise and efficiency are what allow us to undercut our competitors and offer lower refi rates than the big banks. We see the same characteristics mirrored in this team…these are qualities we like to nurture.”
• The CashCall Mortgage Cycling team will race next at the San Clemente Criterium in San Clemente, CA. (www.sponsorship.com)

Drugstore Chains To Formulate New Sponsorship Strategy

• As previously reported in IEG SR, U.S. health care legislation has resulted in new sponsorship activity on behalf of both hospitals and health insurance companies. And now drugstore chains could soon get into the act. Case in point: Walgreen Co. reportedly plans to begin selling health insurance products later this year by setting up its own health insurance exchange, according to a CNN Money report. The product offering would place Walgreen in direct competition with health insurance companies. (www.sponsorship.com)

Wunder Beer Becomes Official Craft Beer of Infineon Raceway

• Wunder Beer has become the “Official Craft Beer” of Infineon Raceway, the two companies announced today.
• Wunder Beer, a product of Casa Fuego Spirits Company, Inc., will be the exclusive craft beer at all Infineon Raceway major-event weekends in 2012, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. It will also have exclusive year-round signage at the raceway. The partnership is for three years.
• “We are honored and extremely proud to be associated with Infineon Raceway,” said Greg Olson, CEO of Casa Fuego Spirits Company, Inc. “We look forward to a long-term relationship with the track and all of the wonderful people that make up the staff at Infineon.”
• Casa Fuego Spirits resurrected the Wunder Beer name and brand in 2008 – Wunder Brewery, with its original roots in San Francisco, had been shut down since 1909. Casa Fuego Spirits, based in Elk Grove, Calif., introduced the Pale Ale and I.P.A. varietals earlier this year; they will be featured at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma this weekend (Aug. 26-28). (www.sponsorship.com)

Taking the Buzz Out of the Beer

• When it comes to drinking, Spain is known for its Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines.
• But Spain also is a world leader in sales of nonalcohol beer and some of Western Europe’s biggest brewers are taking notice. To help combat flat sales at home, brewers are looking to Spain as a model for marketing nonalcohol beer.
• Netherlands-based Heineken NV has introduced at least 10 nonalcohol beer brands and varieties at home, in Italy and elsewhere since 2008. Denmark’s Carlsberg A/S recently introduced varieties of its nonalcohol beer in Norway, Finland and other countries. (www.wsj.com)

AT&T-Verizon-T Mobile Sets $100 Million for Google Fight

• Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T- Mobile USA plan to invest more than $100 million in their joint venture that lets consumers pay for goods with mobile phones, people with knowledge of the project said.
• The investment sets up a showdown between the venture, known as Isis, and rivals like a mobile-payment service from Google Inc. The amount of funding depends on how successful Isis is at attracting banks and merchants, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the financing is private.
• The carriers have created the alliance to grab a piece of the market for mobile commerce, which lets consumers buy things by tapping devices against a reader at checkout. The market may reach $670 billion by 2015, Juniper Research says. The carriers may invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the venture if it gains followers, one person said, helping it catch up with Google, which unveiled its own mobile-wallet service in May.
• “Over the long haul, operators have to create new businesses that derive value from more than access,” Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst in Issaquah, Washington, said in an interview. “It’s a given that people are going to be transacting more over cell phones. It could open a potential new revenue stream for them.” (www.bloomberg.com)

Giants Bring Twitter To Games, Broadcasts

• New cross-channel media initiatives are getting complicated. Take the latest social media push from the New York Giants, in partnership with Mass Relevance, covering social media, digital out-of-home video, broadcast TV and experiential marketing.
• Among other things, the football franchise will now begin integrating fan tweets on its “jumbotron”-style video boards, as well as other digital displays throughout the stadium, including LED video pylons by the entrances, “ribbon” LED displays between stadium levels and 2,200 flat screen TVs located around the venue.
• For fans watching at homes, the Giants will incorporate Twitter into TV broadcasts for the last two preseason games of the year. The team claims it will be the first to introduce live, real-time Twitter updates into its regular broadcast TV coverage.
• Mass Relevance is responsible for aggregating, curating and delivering Tweets to stadium displays, TV broadcasts and Giants.com. New Twitter-enabled features and events include online voting for the most important player of each game. Fans can then get discounts on the winning player’s associated merchandise at the Giants’ online store. (www.mediapost.com)

Tecate Gets Double Mileage From September

• Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is getting back in the ring this year to engage in a pay-per-view prize fight. Everyone wants to see Mayweather Jr. fight Manny Pacquaio. Even those who don’t follow the sport probably know Mayweather is unbeaten and lionizes that “0″ on his loss column like it’s the Hope Diamond.
• Beyond boxing, Mayweather has gotten his name out there on “Dancing With the Stars,” and dancing in and out of court. The interesting thing about the upcoming Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz fight on Sept. 17 is that it happens on the same evening as another big bout, with Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus The Contender winner Alfonso Gomez. And viewers will see both.
• As Alvarez, Canelo, Gomez, and Eric “El Terrible” Morales (the future Hall of Famer who fights on the Mayweather/Ortiz undercard) are all directly or indirectly from Mexico, and since boxing is one of the two most popular sports among Hispanics (soccer is the other), it makes perfect sense that Heineken’s Mexican cerveza brand Tecate will be involved as a sponsor.
• The good news for fans and for Tecate is that the sponsorship involves both fights under Golden Boy Promotion’s’ “Star Power” event on HBO Pay-Per-View, meaning that fans at the two arenas will see both fights, as will those who watch it on PPV and at movie theaters around the country. And they will also see Tecate branding. (www.mediapost.com)

SiriusXM Tries To Lure Back Listeners

• Remember when anti-drug advocates would warn against the drug dealers who would give the first hit for free in order to reel in new users? SiriusXM is taking that approach with an offer to lure back former subscribers.
• In a mailing that went out late last week, the New York-based satellite radio company is offering two free weeks (Aug. 30 – Sept. 12) of access to 60 channels. The promotion, with the theme: “Bringing Your Radio Back To Life,” includes a laminated card featuring the free stations.
• After the two weeks is up, former subscribers are offered the change to re-sign for five months of programming for $25, which is more than a 60% savings off the regular subscription price. The deal includes the waiving of the activation fee and ends Sept. 30. A dedicated website is also promoting the offer.
• SiriusXM did not respond by post time to several requests for details on the promotion, including how many former subscribers were receiving the mailings. (www.mediapost.com)

Best Buy, Sears, Target Lead In Cross-Channel

• While Best Buy, Sears and Target came up tops in a recent survey on successful cross-channel selling, retailers are surprisingly behind the curve in what works and what doesn’t, according to a new survey.
• The study looked at the capabilities of some of the largest cross-channel retailers (excluding Walmart), and found that just 12%, for example, had the capability to access a customer’s pending web order in store.
• “And two years ago, when we did this study, only a small percentage of retailers allowed customers to purchase an item online and return it instore,” Mark Fodor, CEO of CrossView, which provides cross-channel solutions and which conducted the survey, tells Marketing Daily, “and while it was 100% of companies this time, it illustrates how slow retailers can be in moving to deal with crosschannel capabilities.”
• Another area where retailers lag is using collaborative filtering, which provides tailored recommendations to customers, with only 52% taking advantage of it. “These are things that should be no-brainers, and they’re not. You hear the words ‘multichannel’ and ‘crosschannel’ often, but very few retailers can deliver it.” (www.mediapost.com)

British Airways Reveals New Advertising Campaign

• British Airways is to launch a new advertising campaign to try to get people proud of the British brand again. The row it has had with union Unite over the past few years, causing strikes and planes to be grounded for 22 days in total, cost the company over £150 million. However, this cost of lost flights was not the only thing they lost, as people are now less happy towards the brand as they were in the past. They hope that by reminding the public of the heritage of the brand, it will bring back some of their old customers and encourage new ones to try them out.
• The campaign has been created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty and will cost £1.5 million. It will be launched next month, according to a report in Marketing Magazine. The campaign will centre around a 90 second film which focuses on the role that the company has taken in the history of British Aviation and it will include things like the merging of British Overseas Airways Corporation merging with Imperial Airways in 1971, which formed the company as well as Concorde.
• It is hoped that potential passengers will feel more committed to the brand when they are reminded about its roots. However, an incident that happened very recently may lower the opinion even more of potential customers. A man, Tom Bradley form America was arrested after he threatened to stab staff on a British Airways plane with broken glass. According to witnesses he was drunk and threatened staff when he was refused more alcohol. Police were waiting at the gate to arrest him when the plane landed at terminal five. (www.compareaway.co)

Dove Fresh Spin Videos Promoting go fresh Products

• Dove go fresh Deodorant and Body Mist and MTV have created the Dove Fresh Spin video series, featuring female DJs Jessica Who, Chelsea Leyland and Diamond Kuts. The trendsetting DJs share personal stories, style secrets and music insights in the spots.
• The 20-something DJs will represent everything that is ‘cool and fresh’ at the ‘2011 MTV Video Music Awards,’ NY Fashion Week and ‘O’ Music Awards. Fans across the country can follow the Dove go fresh DJs as they mingle with the hottest stars and spin at exclusive parties.
• The three DJs made their debuts with MTV at the annual pre-VMA tour, held July 28 through August 5, and will appear at the MTV U Campus Invasion Tour in October. While on tour they will be spinning at local stops around the country and greeting music fans face-to-face. (www.popsop.com)