A Ford ad ties into the NBC series The Smash. So far, the show has brought lackluster ratings.

The Middle, Smash and Portlandia offer three examples of the growing seamlessness between product/brand placement and the creative content of TV series.

On ABC's The Middle this week, the episode was practically an ode to two brands: iPad and Red Lobster. The youngest child in the Heck family, Brick, pines and pesters for an iPad until his parents, Frankie (played by Patricia Heaton) and Mike, finally relent and buy him a restored model on eBay. Until they do, a huge chunk of the script is devoted to Brick's description of the wonders of the iPad.

Much of the rest of the story depicts the family at a Red Lobster, naming the restaurant repeatedly and including a shot of a juicy lobster. (A Red Lobster ad also aired during the episode — though there was no commercial for iPad.)Continue reading...

Famous mouths opening up — isn't that what the Grammys are all about?

Miracle Whip has just posted a teaser video on its YouTube channel (watch above) hinting at some of the gold-plated throats that will help the brand promote its sponsorship of Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS, recording a song (a title guess: "We are the Swirl"?) and using the tagline — "Keep an Open Mouth" — that the Kraft-owned brand introduced during another awards show: the 2012 Academy Awards.

Participating musicians include Scottish singer Susan Boyle, country legend Wynonna Judd (who's been tweeting about the launch—see below), former 'N Sync vocalist Lance Bass, '80's pop star Tiffany, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke (who tweeted an Instagram photo of Boyle with his motorcycle; thanks, Fairacre, for the Twitter tip), and members of the Village People (who posted photos from the video shoot on Facebook), all seen in a behind-the-scenes video during the taping at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood.

The teaser ends: "Famous Mouths Are Opening Up for Miracle Whip" and promises an "epic video" (update: watch it here) that will be "opening" on Sunday. Ahead of Sunday's debut, the campaign is being promoted on the brand's Facebook page and on Twitter with the hashtag #KAOM, an acronym for the "Keep an Open Mouth" tagline.Continue reading...

LUNA Bar is rebranding itself as a “thought leader” on women’s nutrition, and expanding its reach to include dieters.

Its six "Debunking the Diet" webisodes, hosted by "Funny or Die" writer/actor Erin Gibson and nutritionist Tara DelloIacono Thies, premiered this week with a focus on weight gain and late-night eating.

The spots support the brand's new tagline, "Feed Your Strength," and are appearing on Luna's Facebook and YouTube pages as well as health-related websites, The Huffington Post and Daily Candy.  Other campaign messages include “Moderation, not deprivation” and “Strong beats skinny.”Continue reading...

It's not exactly James Bond and his Aston-Martin. But British TV star Damian Lewis is just fine with playing a co-lead role with the new Jaguar F-Type sports car in a new promotional mini-movie for the new model.

Called Desire, the film is being made in collaboration with director Ridley Scott and features music by Lana Del Rey. Appearing alongside Golden Globe winner Lewis, who stars stars in Homeland, will be American actress Shannyn Sossamon. Jaguar is slowly revealing aspects of the mini-movie with behind-the-scenes featurettes, the latest of which (above) was posted this week.

The production echoes how BMW innovated in branded content about a decade ago with an online-only series of short films for the web.Continue reading...

Any doubt that the BlackBerry 10 is central to the survival of Research In Motion was likely erased on Wednesday as the company not only unveiled its new operating system and phones, but changed its corporate name to "BlackBerry," too. "We have a fantastic brand, BlackBerry, and we are known as such all over the world, except in North America," CMO Frank Boulben commented in a video interview at the launch. "We wanted to take full advantage of that global, iconic brand."

"We have redefined ourselves inside and out," said CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking from New York to launch events held across the globe, including one held at the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, in its $650-a-night Armani Hotel. "RIM becomes BlackBerry. It is one brand, it is one promise." He declined to specify the company's marketing spend for the corporate rebrand and a global launch of BlackBerry 10 that includes Sunday's Super Bowl ad buy, but characterized it as in the "hundreds of million dollars."

That was partially evident at the New York launch with the introduction of Grammy Award winning singer Alicia Keys as the company's "global creative director." It's a trend that follows Lady Gaga's arrangement with Polaroid, will.i.am with Intel, Victoria Beckham with Range Rover, and Keys' husband Swizz Beatz with Reebok — and no doubt annoys creative directors.Continue reading...

The Onion's stature as a leading satirical pseudo-news source, with its hilarious and sometimes provocative headlines, has long been well-established. Less known to the general public, however, is the existence of its own in-house and marketing agency created to serve leading brands.

That changed to a degree on Monday when The New York Times reported on Onion Labs' latest project: a website for Hilton Hotels and Resorts that helps users detect whether they have "vacationitis" and provides various suggestions on how to combat it.

"Some of our most popular satirical editorial content in The Onion surrounds the workplace and everyday stresses, so it's been exciting to work with Hilton Hotels & Resorts to illustrate diagnoses of vacation blues around the world," stated Grant Jones, The Onion's head of marketing who oversees The Onion Labs. "The cartoon memes aim to inspire workers to fill their 'prescriptions' with a much-needed break from the office."Continue reading...

Ron Howard has wanted to be in the marketing business for decades now, but his wife told him that if he had time to take away from his work as a famous director, producer, and actor, he better fork it over to his wife and kids.

Well, the kids are all grown up now and Howard must have gotten buy-in from his wife because the partnership of Howard and producer Brian Glazer – the duo behind such classic films and TV series as Splash, Apollo 13, 8 Mile, A Beautiful Mind, Friday Night Lights, 24, and Arrested Development – are bringing their storytelling savvy to the marketing world, according to Fortune.

The appeal of working with brands, Howard told Fortune, is that marketers are “wide open” about their how they deliver content, using "long form, short form, live events.” They're also eager for better quality storytelling, and eager to bring Hollywood-honed creativity to their brands. Down the road, Howard says, "We could bring in an Academy Award-winning screenwriter to work on a brand."Continue reading...

Louis Vuitton recaps its 2012 digital efforts, including live-streaming, Instagramming, photo-blogging, interacting and engaging in a chic video that serves as a runway for its mobile, social and online forays (watch below). The description: "As an innovative and creative fashion brand at the forefront of digital, Louis Vuitton aims to produce qualitative and diversified content, highlighting the different aspects of the House, its values, heritage and the Art of Travel."Continue reading...