BMW on Saturday wrapped its BMW i global Born Electric Tour's New York City pit stop, which featured a digital window that turned the reflection of cars passing by into its own electric vehicles, the all-electric BMW i3 and plug-in hybrid BMW i8 concept vehicles. Find out more below, along with interviews from the automaker's execs who turned up to the Big Apple.Continue reading...

It's the summer of mobile marketing in America, with brands including P&G and Walmart hitting the road to engage consumers with roadside pit-stops.

Back again this summer, Ben & Jerry's scoop truck has been wending its way across the U.S. And for ice-cream fans in New York City through August 3rd, the truck can be found by following its Twitter feed as it makes stops at local businesses, non-profits and community events to give away samples of its new Greek Frozen Yogurt.

Nothing so new for the Unilever-owned ice cream brand, but what is new this summer is it's social media fans will determine the stops. “Traditionally, when companies sample their product they stay at one spot, serve tiny little samples, and hope that consumers can find them,” said Jay Curley, Integrated Marketing Manager at Ben & Jerry’s.Continue reading...

P&G and Walmart aren't the only brands putting the "mobile" into their marketing mix by hitching their brands to the food truck craze.

A new kind of chuck wagon hits New York City today as financial services brand Charles Schwab invites locals to their “Oh, Chuck! Truck” on June 13-14 for the chance to win $10,000 in a Schwab Brokerage Account. 

The campaign is part of Schwab’s YouTube video series, “Oh, Chuck! I Blew My Cash,” which features Chuck proffering financial advice to people confessing to unfortunate purchases causing regret and angst.Continue reading...

With the price of gasoline easing off, and summer upon us, it's no wonder that more brands than ever seem to be hitting the road. And just like Hope and Crosby, those two buddy behemoths, Procter & Gamble and Walmart, are out loading up their wagon once again. Well, not exactly a wagon. This time around the two oft-cooperating brands are teaming up in a month-long marketing effort in New York to promote online and mobile shopping and free delivery from Walmart with a food-truck-like mobile initiative.

@PGMobile — also the Twitter handle to follow the mobile truck's whereabouts — will visit a dozen popular locations around Manhattan this month, featuring QR codes for several P&G and Walmart product and brands including Bounty paper towels, Head & Shoulders shampoo and Iams dog food — and that's just on one side of the vehicle.Continue reading...

What’s the second act for a a runaway hit with legs — and cute, chubby legs on rollerskates, no less? If you're the brand marketers at Evian, you look to keep your Live Young social marketing rolling with in-market events in 2011 to keep with your break-out viral hit boogying.Continue reading...

Mercedes-Benz brings a lot of things to mind: quality, tradition, engineering. Now a Berlin performance artist is associating the brand with something unexpected: hitchhiking.

Street photographer and former Hugo Boss model Stefan Gbureck says he is following the Beat Generation tradition of the freedom of the road — only in Europe, and in luxury vehicles.

In the past few weeks, he has set out to hitchhike Europe with only one plan: to hitch a ride in Mercedes-Benz cars only. He is blogging about his experiences at Tramp a Benz, including a 2-day stopover in Montpellier, France ... until he found a Benz willing to take him on (there could be worse things).

While Mercedes-Benz isn't sponsoring the adventure, it has mentioned Gbureck's adventure on its Facebook page (with more than 2,800 "likes" for the post), while the Benz backpacker is also posting updates on his Facebook page from the road.Continue reading...

Brand marketers have found a new way to get their messages out in an increasingly saturated marketplace: hit the road.Continue reading...

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division is bringing the rural farm experience, in a nod to the local potato farmers behind Lay's chips, into the heart (and summer heat) of six U.S. cities.

The Lay's Mobile Farm tour kicked off yesterday in New York City's Times Square and will be rolling to Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.

The potato chip king feels that urban consumers don’t have a clue about the food-chain that goes from potato in the ground to chip in the bag. So the 70-foot-long, 10-foot-wide, 14-foot-high traveling greenhouse sports interactive displays and real, honest-to-goodness Lay’s potato farmers, some of whom are fourth-generation suppliers to Lay's.Continue reading...