The upcoming James Bond film Skyfall is a marketing juggernaut for its tie-in partners as well as for the products that will actually appear in the film. These placed products include Coke Zero, Sony, Caterpillar, gunmaker Walther and, of course, most famously, Heineken. Even Turkey and China are associating with 007.

One of the firms responsible for some of Skyfall's product placement is Seesaw Media. Brandchannel spoke with Seesaw Media Founder and Director Darryl Collis about the hullaballoo over the product placement in Skyfall as well as how all of the negative media might impact future product placement deals.Continue reading...

How to use social media is still a mystery for some brands, especially luxury brands. As one recent study reveals, one in five luxury brands on Facebook still don’t allow their fans to comment on their Wall.

That’s all scheduled to change this August when Facebook says it will require branded FB pages to allow comments, a move the site has already promoted to pharma brands — a change that could help the social network better engage users, especially as its growth rate has slowed for the second straight month.

L2 recently studied 100 luxury brands on Facebook in such categories as beauty, auto, fashion, spirits and Champagne, and jewelry. Companies that asked for fans to comment ranked higher on an engagement scale than the ones that didn’t encourage such behavior, the study found.Continue reading...

It's getting to the point where one might consider LVMH the European Union of brands.

The French conglomerate, which legitimately calls itself a "world leader in luxury goods," owns 60 upper echelon brands, many of which have the kind of global cachet most brands can only dream about. These brands accounted last year for more than 20 billion euros in sales and 3 billion euros in profit.

The LVMH stable includes Dom Perignon, Krug and Hennessy in wine and spirits; TAG Heuer and DeBeers in watches and jewelry; Celine, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton in fashion; Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci and Fendi in perfumes and cosmetics; and beauty products purveyor Sephora in specialty retailing.

Add the one billion-euro Italian luxury jewelry brand, Bulgari to the list, acquired this week by LVMH.Continue reading...

Dom Pérignon is releasing a limited edition Andy Warhol tribute bottle. Rendered in the unmistakable Warhol style, the bottles retail for the same price as a regular bottle of Dom, about $150. On the surface this pairing seems sensible. Dom is the champagne of those with means, and collecting Warhols is another pastime of the rich. But look a little deeper and one wonders if Warhol wouldn't have been perplexed, if not disgusted, at the collaboration.Continue reading...

The "Power 100," an annual survey of the world's leading drink brands, has just released its 2010 ranking. Topping the list once again is Smirnoff, ahead of second place Johnnie Walker and third place Bacardi.

Last year was particularly difficult for premium spirits as consumer demand for pricey liquor and wine brands shifted to less expensive alternatives. In a clear sign of the times, champagne brands Dom Perignon, Lanson, Nicolas Deuillatte and Taittinger fell out of the Power 100.

Wines generally didn't fare all that well in the new ranking. Only two wine brands, Gallo and Concha y Toro, were listed in the top 20. Seven U.S. wine brands and five Australian labels made the Power 100, but only one European wine was on the list: Spain's Torres Wine.

Nine brands were added to the Power 100 for the first time this year, including Svedka, the Swedish vodka, which debuted at number 46.Continue reading...