LVMH acquires storied French luxury brand Arnys.

Nokia to cut 10,000 jobs, sells Vertu luxury brand.

GM plans to close Opel factory in Germany.

Amazon and Google rush to wrap up new gTLD domain-name suffixes with ICANN.

Applebees sees franchisee's new marketing campaign diverge controversially from corporate brand.

Aung San Suu Kyi warns investors off Myanmar's state oil and gas firm on historic visit to Europe.

Coca-Cola renews sponsorship of BET's 106 & Park.

Facebook launches real-time bidding for "Marketplace" ads.

GE promotes new refrigerator in online-only video.Continue reading...

Since 1968, winning an Effie Award has been recognized as a symbol of marketing communications excellence for advertisers and agencies globally. Effie is a pseudo-acronym, an abbreviation derived from the word effectiveness, and its award, is a singular mark of advertising/marketing excellence.

The 2012 North American Effie Effectiveness Index, announced last week at the 44th annual Effie Awards Gala in New York, ranked Procter & Gamble as the most effective advertiser in North America and IBM as the most effective brand.Continue reading...

Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen and Audi have had hot hands lately in terms of strong vehicle introductions, rising brand strength, and market-share conquests in the United States. And in the view of executives at automakers and top-tier suppliers in the U.S. market, those four brands — and two companies — have the best chance of adding to their share gains in the next five years of any marques in the industry.

In fact, the consensus of the 200 executives interviewed recently by Booz & Co., the consulting firm, wasn't even close: 78 percent of them figured Hyundai and Kia, which are owned by the same Korean chaebol, was most likely to pick up share, and 72 percent of them tabbed VW and Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG.

The two companies were far ahead of all other automakers in the poll. Ford, with 38 percent; BMW/Mini, 31 percent; Toyota/Lexus and Chrysler/Dodge/Fiat, 28 percent, were the next finishers.Continue reading...

Over the last few years, new-guard brands including Hyundai and Kia have joined surprisingly strong runners such as Volkswagen in usurping share of the U.S. auto market, especially as the Great Recession and the Japanese natural disaster last year threw the entire industry into turmoil.

But it might be a surprise to know that one of the industry's foremost gurus on Wall Street is predicting when the dust settles three years hence, the only significant gainers in market share compared with now will be three of the hoariest names in the business: Ford, General Motors and Toyota.

The reason, said John Murphy, of Merrill Lynch, in the latest version of his annual automotive sector three-year outlook, "Car Wars," is that those old-guard brands will be doing the best job of replenishing their product lines. And in the car business, nothing matters as much to sales bursts and share gains as fresh sheet metal.Continue reading...

General Motors' CMO Joel Ewanick made waves this week with the news that he's refusing to buy ads on Facebook until he can be convinced there's any ROI for doing so. The automaker is still committed to engaging on Facebook, as a statement on GM's Facebook page this morning notes:

"Just wanted to let our millions of Facebook fans know, we're still here, and we 'like' you back! We may not be advertising on Facebook at the moment but we'll still be talking with you all daily. If anything, we will be providing more content across our many GM Facebook pages - including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac - to keep the dialogue going."

He's got some sympathies from brand executives of other automakers who are scratching their heads about the value of actually paying for space on the ubiquitous social site. But most car brands (including Kia and Subaru, as the Wall Street Journal noted) are sticking with Facebook ads as well as in beefing up the content and engagement available that doesn't cost them anything (other than staffers' time or agency fees) on their brands' Facebook pages.

Ford strikes the highest-profile dissension with its cross-town rival in assessing the value of paid ads on Facebook. "We are doing more advertising on Facebook," Matt VanDyke, Ford's director of marketing communications, told brandchannel, "and it is a growing and critical part of our media mix."Continue reading...

"We regularly review our overall media spend and make adjustments as needed. This happens as a regular course of business and it's not unusual for us to move our spending around various media outlets — especially with the growth of multiple social  and digital media outlets. In terms of Facebook specifically, while we currently do not plan to continue with advertising, we remain committed to an aggressive content strategy through all of our products and brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers."

The above statement was issued by General Motors today after a story by the Wall Street Journal was published online, in which GM chief marketing officer Joel Ewanick announced that the automaker will no longer advertise on Facebook — a bold announcement by one of the largest advertisers in the U.S.Continue reading...

Kia Motors America has been the fastest-growing car company in the United States over the last five years, and that vibe continued in April: Kia sales were up 1 percent for the month over a year earlier for its best ever April sales, even though, like all auto brands, it had three fewer "selling days" during the month.

Yet like every other month, Kia's accomplishment probably won't get as much attention as another fact from the April sales reports: Hyundai, its sibling brand, also posted a 1-percent increase for the month.

That's just the way it is for Kia, whose biggest shareholder (and competitor) is Hyundai. The Seoul-based brands share a chairman and much of the guts of their vehicles. Both Hyundai and Kia also sell mostly small, fuel-efficient cars. But from those commonalities, the two brands diverge sharply.Continue reading...

Delta Air Lines signs deal to purchase refinery to reduce jet fuel costs.

Facebook urges members to add "organ donor" status in Good Morning America announcement.

Walmart expands conservation program and urban push as pension plans in New York prepare to vote against its board at annual meeting.

Adidas deals with Derrick Rose injury.

Apple and Samsung hope to end bitter litigation.

Avon continues financial slide.

Bank of America plans to cut jobs from its upper ranks.Continue reading...