Adobe pivots to target marketing departments.

Amazon adds lab and industrial goods to offerings.

American Airlines cites progress in labor talks.

Apple may be losing to Proview in China iPad trademark battle.

AT&T earnings rise as new wireless subscriptions stall.

Facebook sees revenue soar and passes 900M active monthly users, though growth slows right before IPO.Continue reading...

When the Olympics kick off this summer, sports fans across the globe will be gathering at their local pubs and watering holes to take in some synchronized swimming and canoe racing, among other things. Plus, there will be quite a few tourists wandering around London in search of a good stiff pint. 

With all that beer drinking expected to be taking place, Anheuser Busch InBev wants the world to know that it is ready for the expected uptick in consumption.

"We saw the impact of the last [soccer] World Cup in the U.K., which was outstanding, especially for Budweiser brands," said the company’s CFO, Felipe Dutra, Nasdaq reports. Bud sponsored the 2012 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and has since extended its sponsorship of the event to 2022.

To be clear, InBev doesn’t have any kind of official deal with the Olympics. Instead, Dutch rival Heineken NV “is a 'third-tier' sponsor for the Games, allowing it sell its beers and ciders including Bulmers, Foster's and Kronenbourg, at official sporting venues and hospitality events in the U.K.,” Nasdaq reports.

Still, InBev is expecting consumption of its products to go up and wants to be ready to provide parched souls with some thirst-quenchers. We'll drink to that.

Image VIA Shutterstock

The European Forum for Responsible Drinking — whose members include Bacardi, Diageo and Pernod Ricard — this week launched a new campaign promoting responsible practices for marketing alcoholic beverages. 

Targeted to alcohol brand marketers and agencies, the campaign is the result of a joint initiative last year by the EFRD and America's Distilled Spirits Council to offer self-regulatory guidelines for advertising alcohol ads on social media sites.

The new guidelines include Facebook-specific strictures: a commitment to remove inappropriate user-generated content from brand pages in 48 hours of posting; restrict Facebook users under 18 from accessing alcohol brand pages.

Both Diageo and Heineken inked ad deals with Facebook last year; now, they can consult the EU voluntary guidelines, such “your marketing communication should be decent, honest, truthful; should not offend prevailing standards of taste, decency and more generally prepared with a due sense of responsibility.”

The guidelines contain the following series of questions marketers should ask themselves before launching a social campaign, including:Continue reading...

Apple slashes iAd pricing again as mobile ad share declines as its stock price and size cloud analysts' view of the rest of the economy.

Avon names new CFO to steer it through scandal and layoffs as it woos HSN CEO Mindy Grossman to take over.

Boeing locks in biggest order with Lion Air.

Carnival Cruise social-media strategy examined in wake of Italy disaster.

Embraer shows off Jackie Chan jet in China.

Heineken to cut costs, invest in emerging markets.Continue reading...

Call it awww-gmented reality: Starbucks has updated its Cup Magic augmented reality app, introduced before Christmas, in time for Valentine's Day. Send and receive 3D virtual messages by scanning limited edition love heart adorned cups — more info here.

More Valentine's brand love below, from Pizza Hut, Heineken and more:Continue reading...

James Bond has long been known as a martini drinker – shaken, not stirred, Moneypenny – but it appears that he may be continuing his fascination for another alcoholic beverage in his next film, Skyfall. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No, though Ian Fleming’s famed books started hitting shelves in 1953 when Casino Royale was published.

Don’t be shocked If you see Bond, as played by Daniel Craig, tipping back a Heineken when Skyfall hits screens. Heineken has announced that it “will introduce an unprecedented and innovative global marketing campaign to support the launch of the new film.”

While this is the sixth Bond film that the beverage will be associated with, it will be the first time that Craig will be directly involved — for instance, co-star Eva Green did the honors for the beer's tie-in with Casino Royale.Continue reading...

This February marks the 36th annual Black History Month in America, and the marketing geniuses at Nike are showing that the brand's got the spirit by releasing three different BHM-themed shoes that are tied to three of their biggest basketball endorsers: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant.

Nike Blog reports that the release date and prices for the James and Durant shoes haven’t been named yet, but for only $140, fans of Black History Month can show it off all year long with a pair of Kobe shoes.

Of course there are plenty of other ways that marketers think you could be showing your BHM pride, too. 

And don’t think Heineken US doesn’t have the BHM spirit! The brand is sponsoring its second annual Black History Month art competition, which will garner the winner five grand and the opportunity to “have their artwork showcased in an upcoming marketing campaign” for the brewer, according to TrendHunter.com. We’re talking placement in national print, digital, in-store point of sale, and out of home advertising in 2013. And all you have to do to submit art is “like” the Heineken US Facebook page.

The judging of the submissions, of course, will be on originality and creativity as well its “representation of black history,” naturally, and, of course!, “the spirit of the Heineken brand,” TrendHunter reports.

U.S. cable TV networks (beyond BET) have long jumped on Black History Month for programming. This year, naturally, social and digital marketing is coming into play, too.Continue reading...

Beer me! Or, as they are saying in Ohio, "Yuengling Me!" The Dayton Business Journal reports that Ohioans have been gulping down so much of the Pennsylvania-made beer that D.G. Yuengling & Son is now America's largest brewer. (Suck it, Boston Beer Co.)

But Ohio boozehounds appear to be the outliers. Last year was a sobering year for beer sales, with shipments at their lowest level in the US since 2003. Global beer shipments flattened out by 2.9 million barrels, a drop of 1.4 percent from 2010. So brewers are looking to that same group everyone looks to for a bailout: China. Continue reading...