The folks that make Peeps, those little marshmallow-chick candies found nesting in Easter baskets each year, have tried to market their product to fit other holidays such as Christmas (snowman and Christmas tree Peeps!), Valentine’s Day (heart Peeps!), and Halloween (Guys: there are pumpkin, ghost, and cat Peeps!) Nice try, Peeps, but the enduring image of the candy is still poking out of Easter baskets, no matter what Just Born seems to do. After all, 700 million of the sugar-beeked things are sold around that time of year.  

Undeterred, Peeps is soldiering on and making another effort this year to break the wall down and market itself as a year-round sweet treat. The brand's holiday 2012 collection includes a new Peeps on Earth line of T-shirts, infant clothing, and water bottles, according to a press release.Continue reading...

As if Hurricane Superstorm Sandy preparations weren't enough to keep it busy, Google is all over the news this week:

• A new AMBER alerts project in partnership with The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children in the U.S. followed the launch of a crisis page and public alerts system for those affected by the wrath of Sandy. When using Google Search or Maps, you’ll see if an AMBER Alert is in effect in your area.
• A revamped iOS search app with Siri-like voice-recognition represents its "most advanced voice search" to date, greeting users with a "Try our new voice search" message above a microphone icon on the main page ready for tapping. "If it’s short and quick, like the status and departure time of your flight—Google tells you the answer aloud." 
• Google Earth 7 is now available with 3D Imagery on the desktop (can be disabled if you choose), and newest sites include Avignon, France; Austin, Texas; Munich, Germany; Phoenix, Arizona; and Mannheim, Germany. A tour guide flies over landmarks and offers stats and info from Wikipedia.
• Google Chromebook rocks with Slayer for Halloween.
• Google's still-in-beta universal analytics for websites lets marketers better measure impact of digital campaigns.Continue reading...

The Zombie Pub Crawl this year was shooting for a Guinness record. The event, in its eighth year, has grown from a disorganized group of 150 "zombies" traipsing between Minneapolis-St. Paul bars to a 2011 attendance record of 30,000. It is billed as "a cross between Mardi Gras and a George Romero movie."

And this year, local brewer August Schell produced an exclusive brew for the local undead, "Brain Belt," gleefully ripping the heart (in a loving way) in one of America's beer-savvier heartland states, and tapping into the ongoing love affair between marketers and zombies.Continue reading...

The latest brand to get into the "zombie" branding fad is gunmaker Ruger.

No kidding. Billed as "The Zombie Slayer," the Ruger LCP 380 ACP retails for around $460 and features neon green "Zombie Slayer" and "LCP Z" with a red slash branded on the side of the gun. The "Zombie Slayer" serial number prefixes are "ZOM," natch. For added quirk, the Ruger Zombie Slayer package includes the gun, case and lock accessories, and a copy of the book The Zombie Survival Guide.

Gun enthusiasts immediately ridiculed the stunt, leading some to question if Ruger's popular limited edition program is just lurching forward like the walking undead it's trying to cash in on.Continue reading...

Brand mascots are perennial Halloween costume favorites (count the number of Angry Birds you spot trick or treating this year!). But just when you thought there coudn't possibly be another way for commercial culture to tap into Halloween, major brands are haunting the occasion with spooktacular tie-ins, including the annual Halloween Google Doodle on the Google homepage today.

OnStar, Kraft, Progressive Insurance, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and Honda are among the legions of brands with Halloween promotions this year. It adds up to a phantasmagoric overload that makes it really difficult for any single brand, promotion or Halloween-themed marketing campaign to stand out from the rest, especially with so many Halloween messages in commercials and TV programming. But it's all in good fun, and hasn't stopped an array of brand marketers from joining the fun.Continue reading...

Apple trademark attorneys take out their grief over losing Steve Jobs by threatening German café.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the "Feel Bad Movie of Christmas," has a feel-good line of clothing at H&M.Continue reading...

This week is prime time to see retailers' annual mixed holiday marketing in action. Take Walmart, for example: it's been busy wooing shoppers with Halloween candy, costumes and decorations and laying the groundwork for the post-Thanksgiving Black Holiday and Cyber Monday preparations, while also tending what should be the biggest payday of the year — Christmas and year-end holiday sales.

Having already announced the return of its layaway program back in September, this week it heightened its seasonal appeal in consideration of shoppers stressed by job losses and the gloomy economy, by announcing a Christmas Price Guarantee — because "the greatest gift we can give our customers this holiday is great low prices on the things they want most," says Walmart's chief merchandising officer, Duncan MacNaughton.Continue reading...

The week before Halloween is always zombie week. This time last year, retailer Sears hit it big with a successful zombification campaign that turned the Sears website into a zombie-infiltrated .com of the walking undead, including the "Blue Zombie Crew, your trusty undead experts."

Emboldened, the retailer is back this year with an even bigger zombie Halloween campaign, this time enlisting its Craftsman tools brand. And, of course, braaaiiiiinnnnnssssss!Continue reading...