P&G's new "Everyday Effect" campaign may not be quite as inspiring as the company's inspiring "Thank You, Mom" campaign during the London 2012 Summer Olympics, but it comes close with its uplifting language about the power of everyday acts to inspire big changes, a theme expanded on its Facebook page.

The description for the video, above: "As we begin another year, we embrace the notion that the biggest impact in our lives comes not in the grand gestures, but in the everyday acts. We remind ourselves that the greatest changes begin in the simplest moments — the conversation over breakfast with your 10-year old, or your baby's first steps. At P&G we see the power that these everyday acts have in defining our lives, our families' lives and the life of our planet. We call this the power of The Everyday Effect."

Now that the NHL has reached a tentative deal that could see the players (finally!) hit the ice as soon as next week, let us now praise Nike's role in egging the league to put on its skates and cut a deal.

For years, Nike has ridden on the parade floats of champion athletes, signing big names to sneaker deals in order for fans to covet what the stars wear and to showcase their powerhouse athletes in a wide variety of advertisements (and add their names to buildings on the Nike campus in Oregon, too, of course).

However, the athletic wear giant struck a chord last summer when it touted a more populist message ("Find Your Greatness") during the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Nike hadn’t signed on to sponsor the Games but its name became forever aligned with England’s big event when it aired a commercial that featured everyday athletes competing in other Londons around the globe and urged those watching to find their own greatness.

As winter rolled around in the Western hemisphere, Nike duly hit another nerve for the average fan and athlete. With more than half of the NHL season cancelled due to a stand-off between wealthy owners and wealthy players, Nike launched a campaign on Dec. 19th keying in on the fact that hockey fans were fed up with the lockout and salary cap war — and the sport and its fans didn't need the NHL to survive.Continue reading...

The U.S. Olympic team raked in 104 medals in last summer’s London Games, 16 more than its closest competitor, China. The U.S. team also led the medal count at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. So things are on a good path athletically for America.

Obviously, there’s nobody at the United States Olympic Committee who is superstitious and afraid that any change could hurt the team’s performance because when the U.S. Olympic team takes to the slopes and rinks of Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Games, they’ll be wearing a new logo.

The USOC has introduced a new five-ring logo that “now feature the United States flag and the Olympic Rings in the designated IOC colors,” according to a press release.

When tested with consumers this past summer by SRI International, “consumers strongly identified the marks to stand for patriotism, inspiration, leadership and dedication.” What else could the USOC want in a logo?

This is part of a rebranding that’s been going on for two years now. "This redesign of our five-ring logo continues to build our framework for a consistent look and feel for all USOC assets as well as our desire to work collaboratively with the IOC,” said USOC Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird. “Additionally, since the American flag is the most recognized symbol of our country, putting it at the center of our marks signifies the importance of identifying with the history, spirit and symbolism of our country."

That’s all well and good, Baird, but can it finally bring curling gold to America? We’ll have to wait till 2014 to find out.

It’s been about two and a half years since nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil was dumped into the Gulf of Mexico as the result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the owners of that particular well – BP – would love it if the world would just forget about the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

Now a key piece has been settled with its $4.5 billion fine, the energy giant is returning to full-on “advertising (in the UK) next year with a campaign showcasing the contribution the company makes to society,” as Marketing Magazine reports. The corporate citizenship-themed push will note its cultural partnerships with the London Royal Opera House and the British Museum as well as its sponsorship of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Even while the oil was gushing into the Gulf, BP spent nearly $100 million on advertising, CNN reports, three times the amount of cash it had laid out in the same time period the previous year. BP claimed that the increase was partially due to ads it bought in the Gulf Coast region to inform people there about the recovery effort.Continue reading...

It's amazing it's taken The Onion this long to create a video spoof of social marketing, with a mock social media TED Talk, above, featuring a social media charlatan talking about how he scammed Cheetos, Shell and Speed Stick. Below, watch some other classics of the social/digital guru takedown genre, including Adobe (which has a couple of horses — Adobe Analytics and Omniture — in the social ROI race), whose "BS Detector" video is featured on the Onion's homepage today; the BBC's London 2012 "Perfect Curve" mock digital agency; and the 2009 (NSFW) classic, "The Social Media Guru."Continue reading...

Pepsi has been marketing itself as the cola of choice for music lovers for years now, but Coca-Cola has decided to go all out in horning in on its territory this year. For the Olympic Games in London, Coke launched its “Move to the Beat” campaign, which featured Grammy award-winning producer Mark Ronson creating a catchy anthem with British singer Katy B.

Now Coca-Cola is going all-in on the music front by investing $10 million in streaming-music service Spotify, according to the New York Times. Coke, of course, likes to point out its music cred throughout its history, such as sticking its logo on sheet music way back in the 19th century, sponsoring radio shows in the early days, and creating some of the marketing world’s best-known jingles. Prominently displayed on Coke’s site right now is a contest to send lucky consumers to the American Music Awards.

"At Coca-Cola we have long recognized the power of music to connect people around the world," stated Joe Belliotti, Director, Global Entertainment Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company. "As we step up our activation through Coca-Cola Music, we are excited by the innovative music technology platform created by Spotify and the opportunity to create a truly global music network. The potential for this partnership is limitless."Continue reading...

The New York Times' Stuart Elliott broke the story this morning about Coca-Cola relaunching its corporate website. Armed with that revamped website, Coca-Cola now wants to break more of its own stories.

While maintaining the same website address for the Coca-Cola Company, the content is now arranged and commissioned to resemble a slick magazine or digital media brand's website, with the emphasis on storytelling from around the world. The inspiration came from the top, as Elliott recounts, when chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent charged his marketing and communications executives to refresh the company's old employee magazine, Journey, which ran from 1987 to 1997, for the digital age.

Having spent 2011 celebrating Coca-Cola's 125th anniversary, they were inspired to tell the forward-looking journey of the Coca-Cola company's multitude of brands in a more engaging, digital fashion — taking a page from Journey to reimagine the company's online and digital presence in a fresh, more engaging way that incorporates social media and blogging from around the world. The relaunched website (its first relaunch since 2005, after being launched in 1995) is described by NYT's Elliott as "the company's most ambitious digital project to date" for good reason.

Ashley Brown, director of digital communications and social media for the company, walked Elliott through what's new on the more editorially-focused website, which creates, aggregates and curates content while maintaining the core functions of a corporate website (careers, investor relations, press releases, executive bios). It's not just content marketing, either, with a focus on original content that's not just self-promotional.

Brown says the goal is to spark a debate, and host differing points of view, while showing the totality of Coca-Cola in a way that surprises and establishes a lively brand voice, one that Brown says had to be created "from scratch" with this launch. So how would he sum up that voice, as expressed through the new digital home of the Coca-Cola brand? "Smart, fun and fearless" — not exactly words you'd associate with the world's biggest brand. And that's the whole point.Continue reading...

Last weekend, the latest leg of MINI's "The Chinese Job" contest was broadcast live on China's video sharing site Youku. The winner of the ongoing driving contest wins the use of a special-edition MINI for a year.

The third annual "Chinese Job" — a spoof of The Italian Job, the film that made the Mini famous, of course — comes as more and more of the distinctive cars are seen on China's roads. BMW, Mini's parent, hopes that the trend will continue, opening China's first ever Mini dealership in Beijing just weeks ago.

But with VW's Beetle going hard for the same China millennials market, and its own BMW parent pushing its 1 Series, will MINI be able to find a market beyond a small niche of quirk?Continue reading...