Look out Audi, BMW and Mercedes, Lexus is coming to eat your lunch. The Toyota-owned luxury brand's new campaign features the blistering sports model LFA at its core.

The limited edition model has already sold out, with fans saying they wanted "a different car that exudes performance and prestige without being flashy or overwrought… a refreshing contrast to the haughty elitism of rival brands." So, they wanted a super-car with all the performance but doesn't look like it cost $375,000 (which is the LFA price tag).Continue reading...

You’ve got to give the folks behind the 7UP brand some credit: They keep trying. In their latest bid to grow their marginal soft-drink brand, 7UP’s owners are reformulating the lemon-lime-flavored soda and clothing it in new graphics.

Jim Trebilock, CMO for 7UP parent Dr. Pepper Snapple, says the company is using new technology to give The Uncola a “crisper” lemon and lime taste. The newly “restaged” 7UP also will get a fresh look on its packaging before it hits U.S. stores in September.

Marketing 7UP has always been somewhat quixotic. The brand has offered consumers a clear alternative to Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other dark soft drinks -- and, for many years, that was its chief point of differentiation.Continue reading...

Everybody loves Sharpie. It’s hard to believe the original Sharpie marker, a fine point all-surface black pigment ink permanent marking pen, first hit the market in 1964. Flash forward to 2010 and Sharpies are now available in seven varieties, 40 colors, with tips that range from Magnum to Ultra Fine.

It's so ubiquitous it's easy to take it for granted. That's why a new image campaign is aiming to position the brand as “a creative force in making ordinary things extraordinary.”

Across print, digital and broadcast, the campaign Sharpies add color to a broad swath of pop culture icons – jeans, skateboards, electric guitars, motorcycle helmets - as an answer to the question, "What would the world be like without self-expression? There'd be no purpose, no passion, no putting it out there for everyone to see."

The tagline reinforces the self-expression messaging: "Sharpie. Uncap what's inside."

A "Sharpie Squad," an appointed group of dedicated brand ambassadors, will encourage people through a social media PR and word-of-mouth campaign to show their  own creativity by submitting videos and images to a dedicated site, SharpieUncapped.com. The home page's virtual drawing section, Web Ink, lets users can make their own Sharpie art.Continue reading...

Bill Cosby is bringing the giggles back to jiggling desserts. The comedian is reteaming with Jell-O after after a decade-long break as its pitchman, only this time around he's not in front of the camera, as he was from 1974 to 1999.

Cosby is executive producing its new "Hello Jell-O" campaign which kicks off today with a new logo and series of spots, a multimillion-dollar effort that's the gelatin and pudding brand's biggest marketing effort today.

"You watch TV, all these reality shows and profanity and things like that, we need to show the heart and the laughter that children have," Cosby told AP. As part of the reformed partnership with Jell-O, he will off a 22-city US tour next month to find America's best giggle.

Jell-O is inviting fans to "spread the happy" on its Facebook page, and is updating its logo with a smiling, new face that's a little reminiscent of the smiling new logo for Seattle's Best Coffee.Continue reading...

Last week, brandchannel reported that Kodak was relying on defending its patents to secure a cloudy future. Well, that was last week.

This week Kodak is launching a new campaign designed to reinvigorate its brand, redefining the archetypal "Kodak moment," a phrase first used in 1961 that was meant to represent a special slice of life worth capturing on Kodak film.

Only this time, the campaign suggests, "The real Kodak moment happens when you share."

Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, chief marketing officer for Kodak, tells the New York Times that the new campaign focuses on "emotional technology" and demonstrates how Kodak wants to "come back to the core of who we are."

The real issue for Kodak, of course, is that the company holds an albatross squarely around its neck: the legacy of traditional film.Continue reading...

With the rebirth of the Brough Superior brand, it is official; we are living in the golden age of the motorcycle. Well, it's a reproduction golden age, but who's keeping track? Actually, thousands of people are keeping very close track. And thousands are buying. Brough Superior is just the latest iconic motorcycle brand to capitalize on a general retro design craze that has swept all sorts of marketplaces over the last decade or so.

"It is better than all the riding animals on Earth. Because Boa loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him." That's a real endorsement from T.E. Lawrence, aka "Lawrence of Arabia" – not a shabby spokesman.

While only 3,000 were ever made, Brough Superior remains a legend of motorbiking. Now, after securing the rights, a British fan named Mark Upton is producing new Brough Superiors with nearly identical designs and materials to those used in the original design.

Don't expect to start seeing a lot of Brough Superior bikes on the road, however.Continue reading...

Gatorade is choosing tonight’s NBA playoffs to unveil a new TV advertising campaign meant to regain traction for the brand after last year’s lackluster repositioning around the “G” theme. The aim will be to get consumers used to the idea of drinking Gatorade products before, during and after workouts and other athletic activities – not just for hydrating during them.

The isotonics beverage brand is invoking its glorious past as the creator of, and predominant brand in, its category since 1965. Its new spot (above) evokes a sepia-toned, reaching-into-the-vaults nostalgia for that 40-plus year past, including its most iconic spokesman of all time, Michael Jordan. Another spot links Gatorade’s heritage to its attempt to redefine sports drinks today with its G Series product line.Continue reading...

Among car brands, Peugeot has, of late, been a non-starter. As The Economist laments, "too many recent Peugeots, although well-made, have been dull to drive and ugly to look at."

That's why Jean-Marc Gales, who manages PSA's Peugeot brand, is excited about the launch this month of the RCZ coupe, which he says is "intended to announce a return to the virtues that made Peugeot great in the 1980s."

Indeed, the RCZ is just the first of a flurry of product introductions; 14 new Peugeot models will be launched over the next two years, according to Gales. It's a good thing, too, because it may be Peugeot's last chance to catch up to its competitors.Continue reading...