AMC stages World Zombie Day to lobby Dish Network.

Audi contemplates minivan.

Best Buy plans to match online prices.

Bugatti goes social with its super-car brand.

Burger King seeks the next new big marketing idea.

Cadillac considers sports car.

Carrefour lifts recovery hopes.

Coca-Cola Hellenic, Greece's biggest company, quits the country.

Fila pursues Adidas market share.Continue reading...

7-Eleven, JetBlue and Bliss go presidential with "poll" promotions as Pizza Hut comes up with a controversial dare ahead of next week's debate.

Toyota recalls 7.4 million vehicles globally for power-window glitch and 2.5 million Lexus vehicles, as it plugs Prius on the Home Shopping Network.

Samsung signs TV deal with Spotify.

BAE and EADS terminate merger talks.

Bain Capital buys maker of Craftsman Tools.

Ballmer touts new era at Microsoft as bonus trimmed.

Cadbury tells bishop it's not precious about purple.

Chevron is rejected by Supreme Court in Ecuadorian case.Continue reading...

Lest doubters hold sway, General Motors turned in its best September in U.S. sales in four years and enjoyed strong performances in the important small-vehicle segments that are pacing the American market these days.

Overall, U.S. auto sales in September rose by about 13 percent compared with a year ago, continuing a moderate recovery that is providing much of the momentum behind whatever slow progress is being made by the American economy these days.

In fact, GM executives used their conference call with automotive reporters not only to underscore the positive results for September but also to declare that the company and its brands are on track to fulfill long-term goals that have been established for a while. "Things are working exactly as we designed," said Kurt McNeil, VP of U.S. sales operations.Continue reading...

General Motors' marketing has drawn a lot of attention lately. But everyone in the car business knows it's actually new products that make the big differences in sales and market share: The more and the better vehicle launches, the bigger bumps a brand gets in all the important metrics. Nothing else an automaker can do even comes close.

That's one reason savvy GMers are looking hopefully past all the company's recent marketing kerfuffles to some promising new developments in sheetmetal: the introduction of the acclaimed new Cadillac ATS, for instance, and how GM reportedly is developing a new small-car platform that will boost efficiencies worldwide.

GM is hoping that the new ATS finally will establish Cadillac as a legitimate contender in the global luxury-car market, a gee-whiz compact luxury sport sedan that underscores the company's recovery from the dark days and bailout of 2009. Cadillac has been hyping the model all year, including substantial advertising during the London Summer Olympics on TV. The first shipments of ATS are expected on U.S. dealer lots over the coming week.Continue reading...

It's been a long time since Cadillac enjoyed sales leadership of the U.S. luxury segment -- 1997, to be exact. But now, both Cadillac and its counterpart at Ford Motor, Lincoln, want to re-assert their relevance to an American premium-vehicle market where they're no longer even in the same ballpark these days with current volume front-runners BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus.

Cadillac executives said this week that they intend to double the brand's U.S. sales volume, to some 294,000 vehicles a year, within the next couple of years on the back of a portfolio overhaul that envisions the launch of 10 all-new or significantly upgraded vehicles within the next three years, starting with the ATS small sedan that is trickling into dealer showrooms right now.

"We are slugging it out in the right way for No. 1 in luxury" Don Butler, Cadillac's vice president of marketing, told auto journalists. Continue reading...

On August 15, Hollywood's The Lincoln Lawyer--about a shady attorney who uses his Lincoln's backseat as an office--opened in China's theaters with less than fantastic results or fanfare. Two weeks later, Ford announced that it would bring its Lincoln brand to China's booming luxury car market. One had nothing to do with the other, a bit of odd coincidence.

Ford is hoping to make a bigger splash than the film. But that is very unlikely to happen for a good number of reasons. Continue reading...

One more proof of Marshall McLuhan’s adage that "the medium is the message," The Huffington Post’s latest incarnation, HuffPost Live, launched yesterday. Proffering 12 hours of live weekday programming, the streaming web channel is a mash-up of hosted segments and user-generated content.

In combining the immediacy and reach of the Internet with the power of live television, the effort evokes buzz phrases like "engagement through second-screen vision." “We’re at this moment where people are much more interested in participating than they are in sitting back,” says Roy Sekoff, HuffPost’s founding editor and longtime Arianna wingman. “Engagement is more important than consumption. We decided to double down on that engagement, make it our North Star.” 

Huffington introduced the live stream with the hoopla of yore suited to a cable network launch, setting forth the mission and paying tribute to itself. “Seven years ago, HuffPost disrupted the way people engage with news. And now, with HuffPost Live, you’re invited to be part of a different kind of conversation, whoever you are, wherever you are.”Continue reading...

This will be the most broadcasted, most publicized, most branded, and most ballyhooed Olympics ever. Just when you don’t think stakes can go higher, they somehow suddenly do.

Athletes Must Now Stop Promoting Themselves

Wednesday marks the day when all self-promotion by Olympic athletes has been ordered to stop. No more gear sold with their names on it. No more ads featuring their faces to run — unless of course it is for a brand that has paid out the big bucks to officially align itself with the Games. The moratorium will last till Aug. 15, three days after the end of the Games. As NPR points out, "To understand what this means, consider Michael Phelps: Subway has long sponsored the Olympic swimmer, but it's not an Olympic sponsor. That means no Subway ads featuring Phelps can air between July 18 and Aug. 15. But this Head & Shoulders commercial of Phelps washing his hair is fine — Head & Shoulders is owned by Procter & Gamble, which is an Olympic sponsor." Blame the IOC and London 2012 organizing committee's drive to protect official sponsors from non-sponsors piggybacking on their efforts. “Ambush marketing seems to be an issue that continues to rear its head in every Games,” said Lisa Baird, the USOC’s chief marketing officer, according to the Washington Post. “There are ambush marketers out there that want to imply an association with the Olympics. They’ll take terminology; imagery, and they will get very close or crossing the line to really imply that they are a sponsor. That hurts us.” That hurts all of us, Lisa.Continue reading...