MillerCoors Selling Gear Via Mobiles

Whether you are high in the Rockies, out on a fishing boat, or at a party at somebody’s house, if the mood strikes you to purchase some MillerCoors-branded gear, it won’t be hard to do (as long as you can get your Smartphone working).

MillerCoors has unleashed a mobile site to sell merchandise for its brands, according to Mobile Commerce Daily. “MillerCoors wanted a fast, stable, integrated mobile commerce site that could harness the real-time data of their ecommerce site, but also be a separate, distinct channel for engagement and sales,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston, which created the site, according to MCD.

Beware of drinking and shopping, of course.Continue reading...

At 30 million views, does it matter if it's real? Pepsi MAX's branded viral hit "Test Drive" is set to pass the 30 million mark on YouTube and the brand is beginning to roll out edited versions of the video for TV that will drive back to the longer original online. But at 30 million views, how many who would want to see a disguised Jeff Gordon take a used car salesman for a spin haven't yet seen it?

"Test Drive"—created by the TBWA\Chiat\Day LA agency—is Pepsi MAX's second branded viral to surpass 20 million views on YouTube. Two of the brands other videos are well over 10 million combined—an astonishing record of branded content success. branchannel spoke with the brand and the creator behind Pepsi's other viral hit, Uncle Drew, about branded content and their (secret) next project.Continue reading...

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‘It’s all about you!’ is the rallying cry for the new UEFA.com website, giving fans one-stop shopping for all things UEFA EURO 2012, delivering coverage of the upcoming Union of European Football Associations tournament in 12 languages and confirming the official 23-player squad lists.

Content for all UEFA digital/mobile platforms and publications for more than 160 journalists, correspondents, editors, photographers, coordinators, web producers, translators and interpreters working from eight host cities, combines with innovative features for the final tournament, kicking off June 8, including:

• Customisable MatchCentre - expert commentary, live photos and tweets, videos, polls, statistics, lineups and heat maps and a Tournament Map as an interactive guide to EURO.
• Player Browser - users can compare and contrast the 16 squads and browse the editorial and data profiles of all 368 players
• Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, YouTube and Twitter links, and fans can tweet questions in the continuing #Ask feature that has featured Xavi Hernández, Steve McManaman and Pierluigi Collina.

The International Broadcast Centre in Warsaw is the editorial, coordination and production hub, coordinating with UEFA HB and with ICT for hosting and live applications. The French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish sites are managed from the IBC and produced and monitored at respective agencies in Lyon, Munich, Milan, Lisbon, Riga and Madrid. The Chinese, Japanese and Korean sites will be taking the finals to Asian markets.Continue reading...

For some, soccer makes the world go round. For Danish brewer Carlsberg, soccer makes their accountants go around the bend. 

The 165-year-old brewer, the world’s fourth biggest, is making a major investment by sponsoring football’s UEFA Euro 2012 European Championships this summer and that financial commitment to woo sports fans has hurt Carlsberg’s first-quarter numbers. Also hurting its numbers in the quarter: a sales slump in Russia, where Carlsberg owns 40% of the beer market. 

"Our bottom line fell as a result of two factors: one being stock building in Russia in the fourth quarter, which led to significant destocking in the first quarter; the other was an increase in marketing efforts in Russia and connected to the European Championship," said CEO Joergen Buhl Rasmussen, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The stock buildup of beer in Russia occurred before Jan. 1 when a duty increase went into effect there. The company still expects to hit all of its targets this year, the Journal notes, but now will have to make up for the first quarter, which found the company having a net loss of 76 million Danish kroner ($13.3 million). Sales and distribution expenses went up 347 million kroner as well to 4.35 billion kroner on the quarter.

Things are rough all over, but the world’s fourth-largest brewer, Carlsberg, is hoping they will at least get a little better in northern and western Europe as well as Russia to help boost its sales. That's the guidance Carlsberg is giving to Wall Street, as it adjusts its financial outlook and warns investors that “operating profits would stall this year,” Reuters reports.

"We have taken a cautious view for northern and western Europe, and assume a slightly declining market in 2012," Carlsberg CFO Jorn Jensen stated at an investor presentation. "Consumers in Europe are assumed to remain under pressure from the macro economic situation." The beer market in Russia, where Carlsberg earns almost of its sales, should see “modest growth” in 2012 after a serious falloff last year.

Carlsberg CEO Jorgen Buhl said that the brand is working hard to build up its market share in Russia again. That plan includes taking “full control of Russian unit Baltika through an offer to buy the 15 percent it does not already own.”

While that would help its position in Russia immediately, the company admitted that the “challenging environment" in northern and western Europe would make things difficult there. The company is also looking for acquisitions in Asia, according to Bloomberg, where China is seen as the company's "growth engine."

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