This afternoon, if you happened to be wandering in NYC's Soho neighborhood (where the temporary Apple store is located, in fact), you would have caught the opening of the Beats By Dre store.

What's interesting about this opening is that it appears that the only advertising or marketing that was used for this store was by way of pure social media. The special guest at the opening night party? Let's just say we'd be surprised if it didn't turn out to be Dr. Dre himself.Continue reading...

You want to look tough while cruising China’s roadways? Well, if you choose to do so on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, you can only do so on certain roadways due to varying regional restrictions that make it difficult for riders to spend extended time on their bikes.

Bloomberg reports that Harley is attempting to change things in the world’s most populated country and “is lobbying the Chinese to ease those laws in an effort to hike sales by as much as 40 percent annually through 2016.”Continue reading...

Vending machines, long the home of candy and sodas, are changing rapidly. Technology is now allowing for credit- and debit-card enabled machines to offer fresh fruit, yogurt, and other such healthy alternatives instead of just the sugarfests of old.

So consumers across the land can take a gander at this new generation of vending machines, the National Automatic Merchandising Association is taking 20 newfangled machines to six major cities to show ‘em off, according to Crain’s New York Business.

NAMA's "The Gratitude Tour" started in Boston, stopped off in New York and is due to finish up its travels in Madison, WI, today. Along the way, it also stopped in Atlanta; Austin, TX; Phoenix, and Minneapolis.

The idea behind the mobile branding campaign, according to the organization’s website, is to hit cities that have large university and Gen-Y populations.Continue reading...

Anheuser-Busch InBev is planning to market America's Heartland brew — Budweiser — to Brazil as a premium brand.

Its plan is do more than just tell Brazilians "This Bud's for you" in Portuguese. AB InBev is planning to sell the world's third-largest beer market (and other emerging markets) on the American Dream, as AB InBev CMO Chris Burggraeve comments to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The move also makes sense as beer sales in America have lost their momentum in the last five years. Imports and craft beers along with lower-calorie brews are taking away major chunks of the marketplace once dominated by some big-name brands. For companies such as MillerCoors and AB InBev, that’s meant the loss of beaucoup bucks.Continue reading...

Telstra celebrated the launch of 4G LTE services in Australia (the country's first taste of 4G, with Optus and Vodafone to follow next year) with a campaign called "The Fun Has Just Begun."

The communications giant brought some fun to Sydney's central business district. The public was treated to musical pop-up events including free performances by Friday phenom Rebecca Black in her first big endorsement deal.

Other free performances included a mariachi band and breakdancers around the Sydney CBD, while a flash mob removed their colored t-shirts in unison to reflect Telstra's bright new look. Watch more of the launch event marketing below.Continue reading...

If you’re sick of incessantly staring at your mobile while madly pushing buttons to virtually chuck wingless birds at pigs in various structures with giant slingshots, Angry Birds Live is here.

If you were lucky enough to be in Singapore over the weekend, you may have caught the debut of the Angry Birds live crowd game. Rovio, in partnership with Singapore telco SingTel, worked with Uplause Ltd. to turn 50,000 Formula 1 Grand Prix fans into live controllers in a gigantic game of Angry Birds.

The co-branded event (see shaky video footage here) was the first in an ongoing partnership between Rovio and Uplause that's coming to major events around the world. Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka commented, “We think this new form of gaming will give fans a great opportunity to form a strong emotional connection with the characters.”

And on the unlicensed live Angry Birds front, trust China to take this to a new level.Continue reading...

Cigna’s “Go You” campaign theme, “You were born an original. Make sure you stay that way,” is pitch perfect for an industry reinventing itself as consumers prepare for the health-overhaul laws that will require most Americans to carry health insurance by 2014.

Maggie FitzPatrick, Chief Communications Officer for Cigna, told brandchannel that their customers “want to be treated as individuals. Our surveys show that people place tremendous value on personalization and being in control.  This sense of control applies to both their health and health care costs.”Continue reading...

"That calls for a Carlsberg." That's what the innocent couples featured in the latest viral from Carlsberg must have been thinking after the brand's latest stunt. The viral video above, posted on YouTube on September 22nd, now boasts almost 1.5 million views.

The set-up: In a movie theater in Brussels, Belgium, Carlsberg filled a 150-seat theater with 148 of the scariest, meanest, and scruffiest looking bikers they could find, leaving the remaining 2 seats (located in the center of the theater) open for unsuspecting couples.

Hidden cameras were placed throughout the theater to film the couples' reactions. Some walked out, others made sneering remarks, and some had the courage to actually sit down. Once the couples sat down, a spotlight shined on them, followed by cheering and applauding from the entire biker crowd. The couples were then handed Carlsberg beers, with the screen in the theater reading "That calls for a Carlsberg." The look of relief on the couples' faces is priceless.

Find more "That Calls for a Carlsberg" videos on the brand's YouTube channel.