Coca-Cola held a "secret gig" in London on Friday night, featuring producer Mark Ronson and singer Katy B promoting "Move to the Beat," the anthem and youth-oriented integrated marketing platform for the London 2012 summer Olympic games.

Those watching the NBA Finals (or any one of a number of male-oriented programs) over the weekend may have seen the perplexing, if high spirited, ads for tall cans of a beverage called Jeremiah Weed.

On the surface, there's nothing unusual about these spots for the the malt liquor brand extension of the Kentucky-distilled bourbon. Just more entries to an already full, if lucrative, party.

Indeed, nothing unusual here (other than that gigantic burger) until a closer look is taken at the ad. UPDATED Continue reading...

What becomes a legend most on its 125th birthday? If you're Coca-Cola, you share the wealth.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola today kicks off its teen-centric global Coca-Cola Music campaign, expanding the "Walls" commercial (above), which debuted in Germany in January, worldwide. The track, "Can you feel it" by British band One Night Only, contains Coke's sonic signature, similar to how K'naan's World Cup "Waving Flag" subtly incorporated the brand's audio mark.

More details on the campaign (which includes a Maroon 5 tie-in on March 22nd) our earlier story, and in Coke's press release. Scroll down for a behind-the-scenes look at the commercial.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola has long celebrated music as the heart of its brand, but the days in which it would like to buy the world a Coke are long past. It's stepping up its musical courtship by specifically wooing Gen Y, the young demographic that in the next nine years will grow to about 2.5 billion people world-wide.

It's been making a bid to stay modern and contemporary, including tapping K'naan for its World Cup anthem last summer, and the French avant-disco duo Daft Punk for a current collaboration that includes a new tune (above) and limited-edition packaging.

Next up: a live event in London on March 22 that will team the brand with the band Maroon 5 in a global crowdsourcing project to further attract young music lovers to connect Coke with music.Continue reading...

College marketing is hotter than ever, as brands vie to be Big Brand on Campus this fall (case in point: KFC's sweatpant-logo campaign at right). Peer-to-peer student reps, hyperlocal promotions, and relevance to student lifestyles are now Marketing 101 for brands going to college.

Just ask Matt Britton. The CEO and founder of Mr. Youth is considered an expert in marketing to millennials, those socially savvy young consumers who typically eschew traditional media in favor of all things digital. 

“College marketing used to be block and tackle. Now, college students are immune to those tactics and expect something much more deeply intertwined in their lives,” comments Britton, whose agency’s tagline is: “Fresh ideas, grown-up thinking.” 

"College students are wary of old-school marketing," adds Paul Himmelfarb, managing director at Youth Marketing Connection.Continue reading...

The poorly-attended Tokyo Motor Show provides a sneak peek into just how little gas is left to fuel that country’s once dominant auto industry. According to Reuters, this year carmakers will showcase just 19 cars, down from 37 last year, taking up less than half the floor space of last year’s show. Toyota’s sales are so low that it has prompted Toyota president Akio Toyoda to publicly apologize for the company’s poor performance.

As Japanese auto makers struggle to make their cars relevant and appealing to Japanese consumers, with ever-more environmentally friendly and experimental, futuristic models, for now it’s clear they've got a tough battle on their hands to win back the public. Like their American counterparts, today’s Japanese youth just aren’t interested in cars – in fact, many find them vaguely distasteful.Continue reading...

Detroit's year of bad news just got worse: the car industry isn't only losing sales from current buyers depressed by the economy -- it's losing the future.

A new J.D. Power report says teens and twenty-somethings lack what was once thought to be the genetic desire to own a car.

The study, which analyzed hundreds of thousands of conversations on blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, showed young people have a poor image of the auto industry. The bad economy and high gas prices could be to blame. But J.D. Power blames social media itself: "with the advent of social media and other forms of electronic communities, teens perceive less of a need to physically congregate, and less of a need for a mode of transportation.”

Of course, research done among social media diehards that finds social media is more popular than driving may be suffering from an echo-chamber effect. People chained to Facebook and Twitter may indeed be too busy to go out. But the trend is real, and has been building: The New York Times reported last year that fewer 16-year-olds now rush to get their licenses as soon as they're eligible.Continue reading...