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 curated selection of images used to highlight notable or popular posts (usually images) from across the network.

Mr. Karp said that Tumblr has about 15 partnerships in which it has used Radar to promote content from brands, including The Cartoon Network, but that packaging it as an ad is an opportunity to make a campaign “repeatable.”

He began his announcement by quoting a 2010 interview he did with The Los Angeles Times, in which he said: “We’re pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs.” He said he had probably been an “idiot” to say so but that it was still a “fair assessment of digital advertising.”

While the Radar ad units represent the first time marketers will be able to pay Tumblr to advertise on the platform, Mr. Karp touted the creative ingenuity behind Tumblr accounts Capitol Couture (an account to promote “The Hunger Games” that features top looks from the fictional dictatorship); IBM’s A Smarter Planet; and his personal favorite, Warby Barker, an account from Warby Parker, the online eyewear retailer, featuring images of dogs in shades. (www.adage.com)

International Olympic Committee Launches Social Hub Ahead of Games

Social media will dominate this year’s Olympics. I know, you’re shocked. Following up on last week’s news that Samsung’s Olympic Genome Project is now live, the International Olympic Committee today launched the Olympic Athletes’ Hub, which aggregates Olympians’ Facebook and Twitter feeds into profile pages and lets users earn points and prizes for liking or following those athletes.

After users register by linking their Facebook or Twitter accounts, they accrue points for liking or following Olympians and can put those points towards virtual rewards like Olympic medal badges or handier prizes like training how-to videos starring past Olympians such as Mark Spitz, Nadia Comaneci and Edwin Moses.

The hub’s home page features a search bar that lets users search for an athlete, team, sport, discipline or event. Additionally, users can filter their searches to query only within certain categories: athlete, team (country), sport/discipline/event or game.

When the Olympics start, the IOC will add a section to aggregate Olympians’ real-time status updates alongside their results. The athletic body will also run chats with Olympic competitors during the games. The IOC’s head of social media, Alex Huot, said in an email that the chats will take place “where it makes the most sense for users and on the platforms that the athletes like to engage with.” Possibilities include an athlete’s personal Twitter account or the IOC’s @olympics account. The IOC is also looking at developing “chat widgets” that could simultaneously run the chats on the IOC’s Olympics Facebook page as well as on the hub, Huot said. (www.adweek.com)

Tough Mudder Joins Forces With 24 Hour Fitness

Tough Mudder announced today that it has partnered with fitness club industry leader 24 Hour Fitness, the Official Gym Partner of Tough Mudder.

Beginning in April 2012, 24 Hour Fitness will offer one-hour Tough Mudder ‘Boot Camp’ circuit training classes designed to build the all-around strength, stamina, mental grit and teamwork required to successfully complete Tough Mudder’s 10-12 mile military-style obstacle courses.

Those interested can log onto ToughMudder.com and sign up for the classes, which to start will be offered at two New Jersey and three New York City 24 Hour Fitness clubs. Classes will be free to all 24 Hour Fitness members and $15 for non-members.

“Tough Mudder is excited to partner with 24 Hour Fitness to create the ultimate Tough Mudder Boot Camp experience,” said Dan Weinberg, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Licensing for Tough Mudder LLC. “We feel this is a tremendous partnership, aligning the global fitness leader with the premier adventure challenge series in the world.” (www.sponsorship.com)

DHL Prepares OAR Project For Historic Journey Across The North Atlantic

DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, announces its sponsorship of the OAR Project (Olympic Atlantic Row), the first ocean rowing attempt on record to cross the North Atlantic from St John’s, Newfoundland to Bristol, England continuing through the British Inland Waterways. The 2,000 mile journey will challenge the two ocean rowers to reach London in time for the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As the official logistics partner of the OAR project, DHL will be transporting ‘Bojangles’, a state of the art ocean rowing boat, from San Francisco, California, to St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada, where rowers Andrew Morris and Roz Savage will begin their adventure through the infamous Canadian Grand Banks.

“As a company that is certainly no stranger to achieving monumental challenges for its customers – particularly those on a global scale – DHL is proud to sponsor this historic journey for the OAR Project,” said John Cornish, Sr. Vice President / General Manager – Western USA. “We wish these two ocean rowers a safe journey as we track their incredible voyage every step of the way.”

The boat has been on display in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park on Hyde Street Pier since her maiden voyage across the Pacific in 2009. She will enjoy a send-off celebration on April 23 hosted by OAR and the British American Business Council of Northern California at the British Embassy Building, One Sansome in San Francisco, California. Immediately following the ceremony, DHL will carefully transport ‘Bojangles’ on her 4,500 mile journey to Eastern Canada to hit the water for the next phase of her journey to London. (www.sponsorship.com)

Davidoff Announces Major Sponsorship With Art Basel

The Oettinger Davidoff Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is pleased to announce its major sponsorship with Art Basel, which stages the most prestigious international modern and contemporary art shows. The significant relationship elevates Davidoff into the top tier of Art Basel sponsors. Present sponsors include leading and renowned brands, such as UBS, AxaArt and Netjets.

Under the agreement, Davidoff will be an Associate Sponsor to Art Basel, at both its shows in Basel, Switzerland, and Miami Beach, Florida, where it will operate a 100 square meter (approx. 1,000 sq. ft.) VIP hospitality space within the Art Collectors Lounge. This Davidoff Lounge will feature a walk-in humidor and a master cigar roller from the Dominican Republic who will demonstrate the art of blending and rolling of a Davidoff cigar. In addition, two outdoor Cigar Lounges will be situated adjacent to the Art Collectors Lounge and next to the shows’ public area, to offer fair visitors a relaxed venue for discussion, reflection and enjoyment of a fine cigar.

With its enhanced profile at the annual fairs and related art sponsorship activities, Davidoff intends to collaborate with Art Basel over the long term as it expands the orbit of its influential art shows beyond Europe and North America to Asia.

In making the announcement, Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, President and CEO of Oettinger Davidoff Group, said: “Davidoff and Art Basel is a perfect fit, building on a well-established relationship between two organizations with joint roots in Basel. With historic ties to European markets, both companies have expanded rapidly in the US in recent years, while actively developing new markets around the globe, especially in Asia. Our customers share many common interests with Art Basel’s patrons. As we forge closer ties with the world of art, Art Basel is the ideal partner, and we look forward to a long-term collaboration as our brands evolve worldwide.” (www.sponsorship.com)

Coors Light Brings Fanaticos Del Frio To Mobile

Coors Light, the official U.S. beer sponsor of Mexico’s Primera Division, has gone digital in its outreach to legal-drinking-age Hispanic consumers, giving soccer fans “on the go” access to in-depth and exclusive articles on the Primera Division, the latest scores, stats and highlights and much more.

The brand launched www.FanaticosDelFrio.com last year and now is bringing the site’s benefits to fans with smart phones and tablets.

“Coors Light is as passionate about Primera Division soccer as the millions of fans across the country, which is why we’re investing so much in Mexican soccer,” said Cris Rivera, Coors Light Hispanic marketing manager. “Other brands might be willing to settle for having their logo on the sideline during games, but we wanted to do much more for legal-drinking-age fans. We launched “Fanaticos del Frio” last year to bring consumers top-tier, exclusive content, and now we’re making it even better by adding the mobile site and app so fans can share our enthusiasm for the sport no matter where they go.”

The newly launched “Fans del Frio” smart-phone application allows fans to add scheduled games directly to their smart-phone calendar, while reminding them to catch the game and to purchase The World’s Most Refreshing Beer to enjoy with friends while watching the game. (www.sponsorship.com)

Clearasil Signs On As Official Title Sponsor Of Six Flags 2012 Summer Concert Series

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation today announced a new partnership agreement with Clearasil, a leading brand of skin care products, to be the title sponsor of this summer’s concert series held at participating Six Flags parks across the nation.

Kicking off in May, the Clearasil Summer Concert Series will host approximately 25 to 30 shows encompassing a diverse mix of talent including Cobra Starship, Gavin DeGraw and Colbie Caillat as well as top and emerging recording artists in the genres of Pop, Rock, R&B, Country, and Christian.

“With its consistent position among teens, Clearasil is a great brand to partner with on our summer concert series,” said David McKillips, senior vice president of corporate alliances. “We look forward to using our effective in-park media and experiential marketing benefits to complement Clearasil’s goals this summer.”

As title sponsor of the concert series, Clearasil brand messaging and communications will be featured in park media and promotions touting the concert series, as well as throughout Six Flags Media Networks, including commercials on Six Flags TV, out-of-home signage and experiential sampling in parks. Additionally, Six Flags and Clearasil will partner for a national sweepstakes – a consumer engagement initiative hosted on the Clearasil Facebook page (facebook.com/clearasilUS) in which one lucky winner will win a VIP fly-away grand prize to a Clearasil Summer Concert at the Six Flags park of their choice. Support for the sweepstakes will include social media, online advertising, in-park promotion and retail support. (www.sponsorship.com)

Need Research on Generation Y? There’s a Film for That

NBCUNIVERSAL is forming a unit called Curve Films, but there is no intention for it to compete with siblings at the company like Universal Pictures or Universal Television.

Unlike those units, whose output is meant for millions of moviegoers and video viewers, Curve Films has a far more defined target audience: Madison Avenue.

Curve is the brainchild of the NBCUniversal integrated media group, which helps sales executives at NBCUniversal peddle commercial time and ad space on their myriad broadcast, cable and online properties that extend from Bravo and iVillage to NBC and the Weather Channel.

The goal of Curve Films — the name is supposed to evoke the phrase “Ahead of the curve” — is to find new, more interesting ways to deliver materials like research data to advertising and media agencies and marketers. So rather than publish a white paper on trends in consumer culture, Curve Films produced a handsome, 108-page book, titled “The Curve,” that would not look out of place on an office coffee table. (www.nytimes.com)

Digital Notes: Coke and Spotify Team Up to Go Everywhere

Can Coke help bring Spotify to all the corners of the world?

That was the intriguing suggestion made by both companies while announcing a partnership on Wednesday. In comments that were long on bold predictions but short on details, executives from the Coca-Cola Company and the fast-growing online music service Spotify said at a news conference in Manhattan that they would work together in a range of music-related projects and would use their respective brands to create new experiences for listeners.

“This is as much of a special day as that day in 1928 when we decided to partner with the organization called the International Olympic Committee,” Emmanuel Seuge, the head of global sports and entertainment marketing for Coca-Cola, said at the news conference, at a video studio in Chelsea.

When stripped of marketing-speak, the bottom line appears to be that Spotify users can expect to encounter a lot of Coke branding soon, and Coke customers all over the world may soon be encountering Spotify branding — and maybe Spotify itself. (www.nytimes.com)

BMW Preps 2012 Olympics Campaign

BMW North America is preparing its largest-ever national retail and advertising push aligned with its sponsorship of Team USA. The campaigns will include national and local television ads; digital advertising; and a new version of a retail program launched last year to get people to test drive BMW vehicles, a program that also raises money for Olympians. There will also be promotional elements dangling trips to the games.

At retail, BMW is running its second “BMW Drive for Team USA,” which invites consumers to go to BMW dealers to test drive the new 3 Series. For each test drive BMW North America will donate $10 to Team USA, for a maximum donation of $200,000.

The automaker did this program last year as well, but Stacy Morris, who handles marketing and culture communications for the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based BMW North America, says this time around the program expands from 277 test drive events last year to over 300 events. The events will include appearances by U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, former athletes, and other Olympics personages.

The automaker’s Mini USA division will run a separate program called “Mini Takes the States,” a series of events for Mini enthusiasts benefitting the Paralympic Team. (www.mediapost.com)