Coca-Cola's Diet Coke sugar-free soft drink launched in the U.S. 30 years ago — on Aug. 9th, 1982, to be exact.

As Coca-Cola's Diet Coke brand page notes, "Within two years, Diet Coke had become the top diet soft drink in the world, a position the brand maintains today. Known as Coca-Cola light in some countries, it's now the No. 3 soft drink in the world" — following Pepsi at #2, and Coke at #1.

The brand celebrated by hosting 30-second parties for a few of its "biggest fans" who sent birthday wishes using the Twitter hashtag #DietCokeBday — check out a few of their reactions below — while The Guardian took a look this week at the beverage's "enduring appeal."Continue reading...

Lego turns 80 as the world's third-largest manufacturer of play materials, with 10,000 employees worldwide. Check out its 80th anniversary animated short film  ("The Lego Story") below, and find out more on its storied history in its press release today.Continue reading...

Question: What was the first hotel brand to offer a pool? A restaurant? A lounge? Free ice? A "Kids Stay Free" program? Online booking?

Answer: Holiday Inn.

With the first Holiday Inn opening in 1952, the iconic brand is very much alive 60 years later. Owned by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Holiday Inn has over 1,200 hotels worldwide; it was the first international midscale hotel brand to open in China in 1984.

So how does a 60-year old brand stay relevant? Brandchannel spoke with Jim Anhut, SVP, Americas Brand Management for IHG, who told us about how Holiday Inn made a "tough decision" to relaunch the brand several years ago, which included refurbishing properties and instituting a new brand identity.Continue reading...

PepsiCo today announced a multi-year relationship with the Pittsburgh Steelers to be the NFL team's exclusive "non-alcoholic beverage, salty snacks and sports fuel provider."

The deal marks the Steelers' first such partnership, and gives PepsiCo the rights to exclusive selling, dispensing and serving at Heinz Field; fixed stadium signage; venue and team sponsor assets; integration into the team's mobile, TV and digital assets; and local media and retail promotional opportunities.

The stadium conversion will be complete by the start of the Steelers' 2012 season. PepsiCo is also introducing a limited-edition commemorative Pepsi MAX can in honor of the Steelers' 80th anniversary, available throughout Pennsylvania beginning in the fall. That's not PepsiCo's only limited-edition commemorative can.

PepsiCo is preparing to roll out “a new malt-flavored version of its Mountain Dew soda” that will appear in select 7-Eleven and Kroger stores, according to CSPnet.com.

The gold-tinted premium version of Mountain Dew just received trademark approval to be called Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold and will appear in refrigerator cases in late August in a few Midwestern cities as well as Denver and Charlotte, N.C.Continue reading...

There's nothing new about crowdsourcing product varieties anymore, but Frito-Lay is bringing an interesting twist to a promotion that it launched today: offering the winner of a new-flavor contest the option of a prize based on sales of the new potato-chip flavor that he or she inspires.

In its "Do Us a Flavor" campaign headlined by actress and restauranteur Eva Longoria and Food Network Iron Chef Michael Symon, the PepsiCo unit invites fans to submit their potato-chip flavor ideas via a Facebook app for a chance to win $1 million in grand-prize money — or one percent of their flavor's 2013 net sales, whichever is higher.

"We [already] have a lot of flavors that would make the one-percent option a bigger payout than the $1 million," Ram Krishnan, Frito-Lay's vice president of marketing, told brandchannel. "We're opening it up so that consumers can have a winning proposition."Continue reading...

Chevrolet's Corvette is "roaring into its 60th year," having just turned 59. Now the iconic GM-owned car brand is getting ready to release its 60th anniversary limited-edition Corvette: the 427. Described as the most powerful Corvette convertible ever built, the first one sold at auction for $600,000 in January. Take a closer look at the 427 below.Continue reading...

It's 7-Eleven Day, so slurp it up! Highlighting the obvious tie-in between its brand name and event marketing manna from heaven, 7-Eleven stores long ago picked July 11 (7/11) at the height of North America's summer to throw a party and drive customers to the Slurpee machine.

To celebrate the convenience store chain's 85th year in business, 7-Eleven is giving away free 7.11 (of course) ounce Slurpee drinks between 11 AM and 7 PM local time (not, alas, 7 AM-11 PM) on 7/11/12. Last year, 7-Eleven handed out 5 million Slurpee drinks on 7-Eleven Day. This year, how many do you think they expect to distribute? Why, 7 million, of course.Continue reading...

Paris to Shanghai, by train. The concept alone dredges up an atmosphere of yesteryear, when Orient Express-style train travel was the luxury way to travel. And what two cities summon that fabulous yesteryear better than Paris and Shanghai, a city once hailed as "Paris of the East?"

That nostalgic sentiment is what Louis Vuitton is tapping into for its new campaign, "Louis Vuitton Express" — which kicked off this week with a teaser video, "Paris to Shanghai by Train by The Selby," — as the digital extension of an event marketing campaign that's rolling online, on YouTube and on Facebook from the brand's French HQ to its new China HQ.

But who or what, you might ask, is "The Selby?" And will "The Selby" be enough to get Vuitton back in the good graces of Chinese luxury buyers who have recently come to treat the the brand kind of like locomotive travel — a relic of the past?Continue reading...