The world of the Disney Princess—which faces competition from moms and fairies even as it continues being a cash cow for Disney by captivating many girls until the age of three or so—is aiming a bit older with its "I Am a Princess" manifesto.

The video is the latest in a campaign that debuted in the third quarter of 2012, touting the values that the Disney Princess embodies. (B will this new breed of empowered, self-award Disney Princess grow up to be hipster Disney Princesses?)

Check out Disney's earlier "I Am a Princess" videos below, along with another new campaign: an international push for the upcoming Disney Infinity console, starting with this UK commercial:Continue reading...

Ron Howard has wanted to be in the marketing business for decades now, but his wife told him that if he had time to take away from his work as a famous director, producer, and actor, he better fork it over to his wife and kids.

Well, the kids are all grown up now and Howard must have gotten buy-in from his wife because the partnership of Howard and producer Brian Glazer – the duo behind such classic films and TV series as Splash, Apollo 13, 8 Mile, A Beautiful Mind, Friday Night Lights, 24, and Arrested Development – are bringing their storytelling savvy to the marketing world, according to Fortune.

The appeal of working with brands, Howard told Fortune, is that marketers are “wide open” about their how they deliver content, using "long form, short form, live events.” They're also eager for better quality storytelling, and eager to bring Hollywood-honed creativity to their brands. Down the road, Howard says, "We could bring in an Academy Award-winning screenwriter to work on a brand."Continue reading...

Call it Babes in the Woods — Burberry is wooing fans to its Autumn/Winter 2012 collection with a new "Woodland Adventure" trailer, featuring models parading its fashions along with "magical woodland creatures" and a sprightly sountrack: "Numb" by Marina and the Diamonds.

The British luxury brand revealed its new face for Sping/Summer 2013, the offspring of two of Britain's biggest brands in their own right: Romeo Beckham, the second son of Victoria and David Beckham:Continue reading...

The two billion people who watched the 12-12-12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief at New York’s Madison Square on Wednesday night may have tuned in (or streamed) for the chance to see music legends — Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, the Who, Roger Waters, Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, Dave Grohl, Alicia Keys, Eddie Vedder — but the heart of the show was the stories of people whose lives were impacted by Sandy, and who were asking the world to care and help.

As the Los Angeles Times commented, “Critiquing the broadcast of the 12-12-12 Sandy benefit concert on Wednesday night is like assessing the food at a bake sale: Maybe the muffins are oversalted or the cookies are stale, but that's not the point. The point is charity and drawing attention to the cause.”

So  kudos to Madison Square Garden (and New York Knicks) owner Cablevision, not to mention Clear Channel, Miramax's Harvey Weinstein, Chase, State Farm and other sponsors and volunteers for putting on a story-driven night of music and social compassion (the #121212concert hashtag is still lively on Twitter) to raise proceeds for the Robin Hood Relief Fund.

And in a similar (if less glitzy) vein, the American Red Cross has some stories it would like to share with you, too.Continue reading...

Target recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, but don’t think this retailer is getting old and stuck in its ways. Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Jones, who joined the organization earlier this year, is planning to put a good deal of energy into digital content rather than simply in pushing out marketing campaign after campaign.

“In the past, marketers would make campaigns, they would put them in the world, and they would wait to see what happened,” Jones said in a video released on the brand's A Bullseye View website and YouTube channel. “In today’s world, it happens hourly. It happens daily. And this is a brand that has such enriched deep content that our guests want to hear from us on. So if we can create content and share content and allow our guests to speak on our behalf, that’s really beneficial for them to deepen their engagement and it helps us amplify our message as well.”Continue reading...

Cheerwine is the last soft drink brand in America still owned by its founding family after four generations. The bubbly, wild cherry-flavored soft drink has a cult following and a distribution deal with Pepsi Beverages to be available in all 50 states by their 100th anniversary in 2017.

It’s known as the “Nectar of the South” by loyal fans, including indie rockers, The Avett Brothers, who performed a charity concert in October called Legendary Giveback: Tour of Duty, to benefit three family aid organizations: Big Brothers Big Sisters, Operation Homefront and the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, as part of an overall campaign called “Legend” created by NY-based agency Woods Witt Dealy & Sons. 

The marketing objective of “Legend” is to leverage an existing fan base and grow brand awareness from the regional to the national level. Fans unable to attend the sold-out concert in person were invited to go online and pledge their time to volunteer with any charity or community organization through Cheerwine's website or Facebook page in return for an access code to view a livestream of the concert. 

Nearly 28,000 entered a related sweepstakes offering a grand prize of a VIP trip to the concert and a meet-and-greet with the Avett Brothers, as well as other prizes including pairs of tickets, Giveback T-shirts, posters and Cheerwine coupons. In addition, the town that pledged the most hours (Bristol, Tennessee) was awarded Cheerwine merchandise and cash to host live Legendary Giveback viewing parties, and more than 2,000 people pledged to give back over 30,000 hours to their local community.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...

"Keep Good Going" is the tagline and rallying cry for New York Life's new campaign. The Facebook announcement includes a Twitter hashtag and the call to action, "What inspires you? There is good all around us, and at New York Life, we believe in perpetuating that good. The people, words, videos and stories on this page have touched and inspired us. #KeepGoodGoing"

The Facebook and Twitter push promotes to a microsite featuring "found" video and photographs in "Snapshots" that highlight a cross-section of ages and customers. The digital hub for the campaign also invites visitors to ponder life lessons such as "#27 Be the man your dog thinks you are" and then share the life lessons that means the most to them.Continue reading...