The annual indie-film extravaganza known as the Sundance Film Festival got underway Thursday night in Park City, Utah, and the New York Times noticed something there that had been missing at recent fests: many corporate sponsors.

Eight brands are officially sponsoring this year's festival, which launched as an offshoot of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute in 1978: Adobe, GE, Sprint, Yahoo!, Bertolli, Grey Goose, Time Warner, and Hilton. Last year, the festival had two — Honda and Trident — and neither of them are back.Continue reading...

Conde Nast's Social Sidekick got off to an iffy start this week when Business Insider dismissed it as a "non-starter."

"It's a nice little feature - one that will increase engagement a bit and allow advertisers some flexibility - but is it really changing anything? Nope."

Kicking the tires on the digital sidecar to Conde Nast's vast array of content, Gucci is the exclusive launch advertiser for Social Sidekick through the end of October.Continue reading...

Defying a down economy, Starwood Hotels plans to open six hotels in New York City in 2010, including its two newest brands, Aloft and Element.

Starwood will open Aloft New York Brooklyn and Element New York Times Square West, in addition to the W New York Downtown, a Four Points by Sheraton on Long Island, and two Sheraton hotels in Brooklyn and the Tribeca section of Manhattan.Continue reading...

Sheraton has been a brand in decline, unlike Starwood siblings W and Westin. The most recent Consumer Reports ratings ranked Sheraton as the worst in its category, based on value, service, upkeep, and problems; customers have blogged about the brand’s poor quality as recently as today; and even Hoyt Harper, Starwood’s senior VP of brand management, admits that “some of the hotels were substandard.” 

So to celebrate the brand’s multi-billion-dollar makeover, Sheraton is launching a campaign offering more than 2,000 free overnight stays at 86 of its freshened-up hotels in the US and Canada on October 23.Continue reading...