Carnival Cruise Lines sees brand perceptions drop to all-time low.

J.C. Penney losses snowball as boost in ad spending can't reverse sales declline.

Facebook inks deal to show ads based on shopping habits.

AC/DC rocks their own signature brand of beer.

American Express pushes e-commerce to TV commerce.

Apple preaches patience.

Boeing apologizes for Dreamliner fiasco.

Caesars looks to web gambling for financial help.

Flowers Foods set to buy Wonder, other Hostess brands for $390 million.Continue reading...

The question of adding brands has become a hot topic for auto companies these days as they revisit strategies from before the Great Recession. Fiat, Chrysler and Volkswagen are among car makers that have become bullish on new brands while General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai are among competitors that haven't moved in that direction.

It didn't seem that this would be an issue as recently as three years ago. GM famously shed Saturn, Saab, Hummer and Pontiac (a few years after killing Oldsmobile) as it shrank down for the 2009 bailout, while Ford finally deep-sixed Mercury after decades of keeping it on life support. Going lean with brand architecture, the thinking was, would be the future as automakers focused on globalizing product platforms and marketing to keep things simpler, more cost-efficient and, they argued, less confusing to consumers.

Though lately, some players have been throwing that logic out the window—seemingly to good effect.

Chrysler, for instance, spinned off Ram from Dodge, began adding Fiat to its brand stable in the U.S., created an SRT performance sub-brand and announced that, soon, Fiat will be bringing Alfa Romeo to the United States again. Meanwhile, it has been bulking up its other brands with new products, such as Jeep, which just announced that it is resurrecting the venerable Cherokee nameplate for 2014. Continue reading...

As promised, a slew of new ad campaigns made their red carpet debut during the Oscars telecast Sunday night on ABC and in local markets. Below, check out new campaigns for Samsung Mobile (starring director Tim Burton and a unicorn), Kristen Chenoweth for Royal Caribbean, Jennifer Aniston for Aveeno, Naomi Watts for Pantene and more. Then tell us which (if any) you think deserve best in show—and which marketers should have saved a million dollars or so.Continue reading...

Little do the stars know, by the time it comes to Oscars night, the most important performances are on the little screen, not the big one.

During the "Super Bowl of the entertainment industry" on Sunday evening, the ABC telecast of the Oscars, Hyundai and a handful of other advertisers will be leveraging the big stage in big ways for their brands. The prospect of the largest TV audience for the Academy Awards in several years would make achieving their goals easier.

Hyundai, for instance, will be running seven commercials during the telecast—the most of any advertiser—and it has the sole automotive rights to the automotive ad category during the show. Keeping with the show biz theme, it's fitting that Hyundai's voiceover talent is, once again, its longstanding brand voice: Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges. At a time when Hyundai continues to dimensionalize the brand along both luxury and performance lines, the Oscars are at least as important a forum for the carmaker as for any actor or director.

"We're bullish on the chances for ratings this year, with the combination of films that were critically acclaimed and that also did big box office," Steve Shannon, CMO for Hyundai of America, told brandchannel. "We just like the feel of the Oscars."Continue reading...

Reader's Digest files for bankruptcy for second time.

Starbucks bets on Asia-Pacific growth.

Maker's Mark restores alcohol content after public uproar.

BMW recalls 30,000 SUVs for brakes.

Biggby Coffee has big plans to expand regional coffeehouse chain into national brand.

CBS buys into cable TV.

Coca-Cola says reached Twitter-imposed ceiling as reason for stopping tweeting during Super Bowl.

Danone may be targeted by activist investor who prodded Heinz.Continue reading...

The NFL has moved on to preparations for this spring's draft. CBS is licking its wounds a bit after game ratings fell short of the 2012 Super Bowl. Beyonce has moved on to begin her new world tour. Even the city of New Orleans is trying to move on from Super Bowl XLVII, taking credit for throwing a great party while deflecting blame for the power outage that left half the stadium in the dark for more than a half hour during the third quarter of the game.

And the brands that famously advertised on CBS during the Super Bowl? Many are still trying to leverage the marketing platforms they launched in association with the game, while others are still defending themselves. And all are trying to figure out what they did right or wrong, memorable or forgettable, to apply to the next go-round: Super Bowl XLVIII on Fox.

Among the biggest group of advertisers, car companies, Lincoln, Hyundai and Toyota have been generating some of the most impressive follow-up interest from consumers, based on the findings of analysts of online traffic. Samsung's ad featuring comedians Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen discussing the conventions of Super Bowl ads (above) now tops viral interest, according to some measures, squeezing past Toyota's pre-game lead in online buzz among Super Bowl advertisers.Continue reading...

Mercedes-Benz appears to have capitalized on its Super Bowl involvement.

Chrysler and Toyota have garnered the consensus nod for creating the most enjoyable Super Bowl XLVII spots for viewers to watch. But when it comes to drawing interest in vehicles, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai already are emerging on top. And that means they're all winners of a mega-event that car marketers increasingly dominate.

Most reviewers appreciated the all-American sentiments and the magnanimity expressed by Chrysler's pair of two-minute anthem ads, "Whole Again" and "Farmer," the latter of which received attention for being based on a 2011 ad about the farming life. And Toyota's "Wish Granted" spot, starring Kaley Cuoco, scored as the most effective humor displayed by any of the eight car brands that advertised during the Big Game.

But Edmunds.com established on Monday that the Mercedes-Benz CLA Class model advertised during the game garnered the biggest jump in web traffic afterward, as measured by visits to the site's own home pages — a whopping 23,067 more product pageviews compared with the previous four Sundays on average. And on AutoTrader.com, Hyundai generated the top statistic of any brand last night: a 1,004 percent increase in searches on the site, according to Adweek.Continue reading...

"Brotherhood," Budweiser's 2013 Super Bowl ad, was among those which stood out among rather routine fare.

Super Bowl ads (the complete list) this year provided few gems, according to an emerging consensus of industry professionals.

Many were deemed lame or even confusing, and generally considered ineffective and off-brand. Several brands seemed to suffer rather than benefit from the frenzy of sneak peeks and full-commercial reveals in this year's rush for pre-Game exposure and social buzz.