P&G's Gain brand enrolled comedian and actress, Wanda Sykes, to help consumers find their perfect scent match.

On the brand's YouTube channel an interactive video questionnaire features Sykes as a virtual matchmaker ("like Cupid, for your nose!"), guiding users through a tongue-in-cheek personality test to determine the Gain variety scent best suited to their likes.Continue reading...

Pepsi's biggest bid to re-assume brand and cultural relevance begins this week under the rallying cry and new global tagline of "Live for Now." PepsiCo is looking to this new pop-culture-based campaign to deliver on executives' promise to reignite growth in the company's flagship beverage brand.

Songstress Nicki Minaj will be the initial poster child for the campaign, which will get going with a homepage takeover of Yahoo.com on Wednesday by Pepsi, which will cross-promote Pepsi Pulse, as Pepsi's website is branded, reflecting the interactive hub that will serve as the social-media nexus for Pepsi's campaign.Continue reading...

Heineken tonight launches a three-week pop-up club in New York as part of a local event marketing push to attract Hispanic hipsters (just don't call them Hispsters) and other indie culture vultures.

Featuring music, food, art, film and other events celebrating downtown Latino culture, “The Spot” is curated by Remezcla, a local Latina media guide, and located at the Openhouse Gallery in Nolita. Check out a preview below.Continue reading...

In the last decade, the Cuban-American population has grown in every state (with some of the fastest-growing in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky), according to the 2010 Census.

Smucker’s — manufacturers of jelly and ice-cream toppings, among plenty of other things — has taken note. 

The company went out and purchased Rowland Coffee Roasts in May, which includes Café Bustelo coffee, an icon to Cuban-Americans in Miami.

Smucker’s spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher told NPR that the purchase is “part of a major effort to bring Hispanic consumers to the table.”Continue reading...

In the branding world, becoming a "lifestyle brand" is seen as something akin to grabbing the golden ring. If a brand can represent a particular lifestyle, the theory goes, it can gain a huge competitive advantage over other products in its category, because the lifestyle brand connects with consumers on a very personal level.

Harley-Davidson, for example, may be a motorcycle brand, but it embodies a lifestyle that creates fanatics who live and breathe the brand and what it stands for. Case in point: "Harlistas," the moniker for Latin American Harley riders, as highlighted on Harley's website and above.

As much as it may seem desirable to have consumers identify their lifestyle with a favored brand, now, it seems, that very strength can actually be a liability.Continue reading...

Things are changing so fast in the US auto market that brands are looking at an entirely different picture now than they were six months ago. And they may be looking at yet another new picture six months hence.

But this week, two esteemed handicappers of automotive marketing took snapshots of how car brands are doing in presenting themselves. The big winners: BMW, Cadillac, Ford, Honda, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.Continue reading...

With April the start of baseball season in America, Major League Baseball seems to garner most of the media attention. But there is a whole baseball subculture played out on Minor League Baseball fields around the country.

It is here, at smaller fields in smaller cities featuring "farm club" teams of the big leagues, that some 42 million fans attended reasonably priced games in 2009 — that's more fans than attend NFL football or NBA basketball games.

This may explain why Kraft American Singles brand of cheese has made Minor League Baseball part of its marketing strategy for the last two years, and this year is no different.Continue reading...

Count the Girl Scouts of the USA among the national organizations and advertisers who value the Hispanic population as having major growth potential.

The marketing-savvy Girl Scouts recently started a national media campaign that focuses on Hispanic and multicultural recruitment, for a very simple reason: Hispanic communities have one of the only girl populations in the Unites States that is growing.Continue reading...