PepsiCo’s archrival Coca-Cola may be sinking $5 billion into India, but it is finding a different way of reaching the international market: the Super Bowl.

Pepsi sponsored the Super Bowl’s halftime show back in 2007 when Prince and the Florida A&M marching band took to the field to entertain the masses. Since then, Bridgestone has been the sponsor of the halftime show. Now comes word that the beverage maker is returning to that sponsorship position, according to USA Today.

It's a significant move given that Pepsi ditched the Super Bowl in 2010, after spending $33 million on Super Bowl advertising a year earlier, in order to dole out more than $20 million in grants to non-profits and community projects via crowdsourced philanthropy under its Pepsi Refresh program.

Pepsi's return to the Super Bowl, where it's been a major sponsor over the years, comes as something of a relief to the NFL and its broadcast partners following GM's recent announcement that it's skipping the 2013 Super Bowl (and Facebook) ads in order to focus on China by sponsoring Britain's Manchester United football club.Continue reading...

Chrysler's latest TV commercial "Imported From Gotham City" riffs on its "Imported From Detroit" tagline and cross-promotes the Chrysler 300 with Batman: The Dark Knight Rises ahead of the movie's theatrical release on July 20th. Click here for details on the partnership, including a contest inviting fans to the movie's New York City premiere.

Chrysler is still a brand that seems to be comfortable with a dark and brooding urban presence, as exemplified in its "Imported From Detroit" campaign. But increasingly, the city it's representing isn't just Detroit. And now it's Gotham City — as in the New York of fables in the Batman comic-book and movie series.

For the July 20th release of The Dark Knight Rises, the final piece of the Warner Bros. prequel trilogy, Chrysler has launched an "Imported from Gotham City" contest that allows fans to help create an original co-branded TV spot featuring Chrysler and Batman. 

The Dark Knight Rises Director/Producer/Writer Christopher Nolan will select the winning ad, which will debut on TV to help promote the release of the film, and welcome the winner to the red carpet at the movie's NYC premiere.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...

JetBlue Airways and Air China are partnering in a landmark arrangement for both airlines. The agreement marks JetBlue's 20th partnership and its first partnershipwith a Chinese carrier.

Later this summer, Air China and JetBlue will launch interline connections between their networks at New York/JFK as well as at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Then, subject to government approval, China's national airline this autumn plans to enter into a codeshare with JetBlue and place its “CA” designator on flights operated by JetBlue.Continue reading...

In an unusual partnership, New York rap legend Jay-Z and Proctor & Gamble's billion-dollar Duracell brand are joining forces to market wireless charging systems and deploy wireless hotspots in New York, including one at the multimillionaire’s own 40/40 Club on Madison Square Park in Manhattan.

“Mobile devices have become essential tools in business, entertainment and managing our social lives,” said Jay-Z, an investor in the Duracell Powermat joint venture. “Being able to charge wirelessly is a necessary step into the future.”

The 24-Hour Power System contains a charging mat that serves as a wireless power transmitter and a portable backup battery with micro-USB output and iPhone connection when in between hotspots. The kit is designed specifically for the iPhone 4 and 4S, but Duracell is working on greater device compatibility.

It hits select retailers today (just as Apple announces its new iOS 6 features) and is also available online. The complete system costs $99.99, with additional (colorful) cases for $34.99 and additional batteries for $49.99.Continue reading...

First Coinstar counted your coins. Then it changed rental-video distribution with its Redbox vending machines. And now, Coinstar — working with Seattle's Best Coffee — wants to change the way Americans pick up their daily cup of coffee.

Coinstar and the Starbucks-owned brand are partnering to sell coffee in thousands of kiosks across the United States beginning this summer. The two companies expect the kiosks — placed in grocery, drug and mass-merchandise stores — to sell thousands of cups of coffee each year and maybe revolutionize coffee dispensing just as Coinstar expertise has caused big changes in the other two businesses.

Prices will start at $1 for a brewed cup of coffee up to $1.50 for fancier concoctions including espresso and mocha and vanilla latte. While there's nothing new about vendor-dispensed coffee, this stuff will be brewed to order from beans ground just for you.

"The quality of the beverages are going to be the quality you'd find more closely aligned with that of a hand-crafted beverage created for you," Jenny McCabe, Seattle's Best director of communications, told brandchannel. "It's just that no person hands you the cup." The machines will be called Rubi, which McCabe said was a moniker coined by Coinstar.Continue reading...

Disney recently held its first National Princess Week in the U.S. with Julie Andrews and Target as the co-sponsor, and it's gearing up for its next generation of princess in the new girl-power Pixar movie that opens on June 18th: Brave, the story of "the heroic journey of Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald), a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson)."

And despite the recent resignation of the creator of the Disney Princess product line and critics such as author Peggy Orenstein (her book's title says it all: "Cinderella Ate My Daughter") of the view of womanhood that Disney Princess represents, the female dream team at Disney is bigger than ever overseas. With that in mind, all young Disney Princess lovers, start begging your parents to play a holiday trip to London — Harrods has announced a partnership with Disney that will have the princesses dominating the store’s windows when the Christmas holiday season hits.

Of course, the princesses won’t be wearing any old get-ups. They’ll be outfitted in dresses created by such designers as Oscar de la Renta, Versace, and Elie Saab, according to a press release from Harrods.Continue reading...