A peak audience of 11.2 million watched Channel 4's broadcast of the rousing opening ceremony for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, titled “Enlightenment.” An average 7.7 million tuned in to see the four-hour show on August 29th. (Not coincidentally, the Queen entered the stadium at 8:45pm, when viewing peaked.)

The British broadcaster reported that it was its largest audience in more than 10 years. "Last night's opening ceremony was a spectacular start to the London 2012 Paralympic Games," said Channel 4's Jay Hunt. "I'm delighted that so many viewers enjoyed it with us." 

The ceremony, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and following on from the "pandemonium" of the London 2012 Games Opening Ceremony, focused on the story of scientific discovery and education.

Sir Ian McKellen danced to a stirring version of "I Am What I Am," as the stadium was transformed into a representation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. Accompanied by narration from physicist Stephen Hawking, a new musical piece based on Newton’s Principia Mathematica underscored the theme of the Games: ability and achievement come in many forms.Continue reading...

The five Olympic rings are being replaced by the three Paralympic agitos as the London 2012 Games prepare for new venues, world records and athletes, including 1,800 wheelchair users, 22 assistance dogs, and 293 buses converted for extra wide access.

This will be the biggest Paralympics in history, with 4,200 Paralympians from 165 nations competing in sports ranging from wheelchair racing, athletics, and blind football to wheelchair rugby.

"We are seeing the nation really embracing the Paralympics, buying tickets and putting us on the way to being the first sold-out Paralympics and showing a huge amount of interest in Paralympics GB," said Paralympics GB's chief executive Tim Hollingsworth. 

Paralympics TV broadcaster Channel 4 is offering packages of eight-ten spots, including both daytime and prime. “We think that the Paralympics will perform strongly from a viewing standpoint, so it is a smart buy,” said Adrian English, head of media investment at agency Carat. Continue reading...

General Mills and Kellogg have been ruling the cold-cereal market for an eternity. Those two behemoths now own about 60 percent of a $9 billion U.S. market, but that doesn’t mean other companies aren’t finding some success cutting into their market. 

One in particular, the 93-year-old MOM Brands Co., which was recently renamed from Malt-O-Meal, is producing such cereals as Tootie Fruities and Honey Nut Scooters, which bear more than a passing resemblance to Froot Loops and Honey Nut Cheerios.Continue reading...

Microsoft takes the stage at E3 to talk up Xbox.

Marvel starts production on Iron Man 3.

Vita Coco unveils new campaign with Rihanna (right).

Aon Hewitt finds positive shift in internal brand engagement.

Black & Decker coffee machines recalled following 1,300 complaints.

BlackBerry parent RIM shares drop below $10.

Celsius mobile phone with embedded Swiss timepiece retails for $312K.

Coca-Cola and McDonald's hit back at Mike Bloomberg's NYC big soda ban.

Corning expands on Gorilla Glass with thinner Willow Glass.

Facebook shares tumble to new low on Sanford Bernstein questions.

Ford crowdsources Focus ST commercial.

Google's Project Glass codename? Wingman.

Got Milk? and California Dairy Council partner for consumer education campaign.Continue reading...

When we profiled the Kashi brand in 2010, it was a company emerging as a leader in the natural and organic food category. While it started out making cereals, after being acquired in 2000 by the cereal giant Kellogg, Kashi embarked on an aggressive expansion plan to expand its brand to snack bars, crackers, cookies, waffles, pizza, and frozen entrees.

Kashi has continued to bask in the positive light of natural and organic goodness, fueled by the 9.5 percent growth of the U.S. organic industry in 2011 to a cool $31.5 billion in sales, according to the Organic Trade Association. Arguably, Kashi has been a natural and organic foods darling — an example of a brand that stayed true to its core — and certainly not one expected to be connected with controversy. Until recently.Continue reading...

Walmart copes with fallout from revelations of bribery in Mexico.

Chrysler aims new Dodge Dart at Millennials, opens new door to get suppliers' best ideas, and returns to China with new concept vehicle at Beijing Auto Show.

Disney accepts resignation of film chief after loss on John Carter, while more companies hire Disney Institute to help with customer service.

Amylin is searching for a buyer.

Audi sees demand surge in China and U.S.

Avon arrives late at e-commerce.Continue reading...

comScore has been polling major brands such as Best Buy (see above) about their biggest concerns when it comes to digital marketing. Their biggest concern is how to ensure effectiveness: where their ads delivered in-view, to the right target audience, in the right geography, in a brand-safe environment and absent of fraudulent delivery?

It's an issue the research firm addresses in a new white paper, released this week to support its Validated Campaign Essentials offering to validate digital campaign delivery.Continue reading...

Stagnation is a dirty word at Procter & Gamble, one of the world's most successful CPG companies. So P&G is making some strategic steps to re-accelerate growth, heighten profitability and combat what at least are perceptions that the company has slowed down as one of the industry's engines of innovation.

P&G CEO Bob McDonald told analysts last week at the annual CAGNY conference that the company will cut costs totaling more than $10 billion over the next five years, including $1 billion in external marketing spending and reduction of more than 4,000 additional jobs in non-manufacturing areas including marketing.

In his presentation, McDonald said the cuts also are meant to address a mismatch between where the company spends much of its money in developed markets such as the United States vs. emerging markets where sales are growing fastest. P&G also has been hit by rising commodities costs and consumer resistance to resulting price increases in some markets.

Appreciative investors immediately bid up P&G stock by more than $2 a share, to close at $66.71 a share on Friday. Among the sources of savings, McDonald said, will be having consolidating its marketing operation and using more lower-cost digital marketing, as well as launching more multibrand marketing initiatives such as a 30-brand P&G effort built around the 2012 Summer Olympics. Even so, McDonald stressed that he expects 2012 marketing spending to be "roughly" in line with the total last year.Continue reading...