The History Channel is riding its biblical success into car restoration with the return of its wildly popular Counting Cars series.

Star and self-taught mechanic, Danny “The Count” Koker, owns 58 cars and 78 motorcycles. This season, he’ll work with Ziggy Marley to restore and customize Bob Marley’s last car, a 1980 Mercedes 500SL Euro and customize a soap box derby car for a youngster. 

To build up enough hype around the series, a mobile marketing tour is showcasing a 1966 Cadillac Coupe de Ville—customized by Koker and filled with thousands of miniature cars—is scheduled to stop at auto shows, NASCAR races and festivals nationwide giving car enthusiasts the opportunity to guess the amount of miniature cars in the vehicle for a chance to win the Cadillac. Fans at home can submit a guess online thanks to interactive photos of the car.Continue reading...

As the world embraces a new Pope, and arguably a new papal brand, the coincidence of religion, branding and social media have reached new heights.

The History Channel’s 10-part miniseries, "The Bible," garnered 14.1 million viewers last week, more than any other show on cable television in 2013. Produced by Mark Burnett, ("Survivor," "The Apprentice," "Shark Tank") and his wife Roma Downey (who portrays the Virgin Mary), the miniseries looks to target those with general knowledge of Scripture. 

"It’s also packaged with enough bloodlust to capture channel surfers," notes Business Week. "In that regard, the series resembles Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, a movie bloggers called The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre—and which raked in more than $600 million at the box office."Continue reading...

Subway still has the most restaurants of any U.S. fast-food chain. And probably even more important, it still has the most buzz.

At least according to the mid-year review of U.S. Buzz rankings by YouGov BrandIndex. Subway once more stands atop the rankings for all brands, followed by Cheerios, Amazon, History Channel, Ford, Discovery Channel, Lowe's, Olive Garden, YouTube and Google.

Subway "has consistently been teh top Buzz generating brand in BrandIndex over the last three years," YouGov's analysis of its results says. "Equally impressive to the No. 1 position is the brand's unique ability to keep marketing and advertising 'fresh' as scores continued to improve in 2012 while most other brands in the top 10 have trended lower through the first six months of the year."

Among other things, YouGov cited Subway's "ever-popular" $5 foot-long promotion, its "celebrity roster" of brand ambassadors — which lately have included NBA star Blake Griffin and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps — and new breakfast offerings.Continue reading...

As the world's biggest stage for marketers, we'd have to give Super Bowl XLVI, generously, a B-minus. While the game was compellingly competitive right until the last play, and Madonna acquitted herself pretty well for a 53-year-old halftime-show attraction, America's brand marketers barely held up their end of the extravaganza.

For one thing, there was no genuine stand-up-and-cheer advertising moment during NBC's telecast as there was last year, in Chrysler's spot featuring Eminem and its new Chrysler 200 "Imported from Detroit," although Clint Eastwood was a worthy successor.

In fact, stand-out moments in the ads were almost non-existent; the humor that carried most of the ads didn't come close to an outbreak of hilarity; and a few spots manifested jump-the-shark syndrome, such as an NBC promo that cameoed Betty White.Continue reading...

Al Gore promotes "sustainable capitalism."

Apple aims to reimagine TV and how we consume media, while graphic novel imagines Steve Jobs' design thinking.

AT&T's dream to acquire T-Mobile's US operation may be over.

Barclays enables charitable giving with the tap of a card.

BT files patent suit against Google.

Disney and Atlanta Braves are involved in a trademark dispute.

Facebook sues a different Mark Zuckerberg, sees profits hit $1B ahead of IPO.

Goldman Sachs rises as finance powerhouse.

History Channel struggles at the top.

Jersey Shore's Snooki sued by branding partner.

Morton's steakhouse chain finds a buyer.Continue reading...

In America, everything remains political, and that includes brand preference. According to YouGov BrandIndex, Republicans and Democrats (surprise!) do not completely see eye to eye on brand trustworthiness.

But there is hope that our nation's partisan divide will be healed… with Cheerios.Continue reading...

Remember Four Loko, the "blackout in a can" that was pulled off US store shelves last year? It's back (in trouble).

Below, celeb chefs, celeb photographers and more.Continue reading...

Maria Shriver (who recently hinted she's in transition) and Arnold Schwarzenegger prepare to divorce as he announces movie comeback and their son Patrick responds on Twitter.

Bristol Palin lands reality show on History Channel's BIO cable channel.

Facebook asks to be exempt from US political advertising rules.

Audi launches roadside assistance app.

Australian advertisers face opposition on self-regulation and children's marketing.

BMW launches eBay store in the UK.Continue reading...