When one thinks of Target, it's certainly fitting to imagine the retailer as an outlet for the teenage girls that form the bulk of The Hunger Games' most dedicated fan base. What may not be so fitting to the Target brand and clientele are the terms like "14-carat gold replicas" and "$999 each." Yet, this is what Target is dangling as one of the marquee features of its exclusive Hunger Games DVD release event.Continue reading...

We have an update on a story we published earlier this week about the confusion arising between South Africa's 466/64 Fashion line, which is launching in the U.S. and plans to stage a show at New York Fashion Week next month, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

According to Erin Patton, CEO of Company B — the exclusive license holder for 466/64 Fashion in North America — the company never claimed the direct involvement of Mandela or his foundation in 466/64. As Patton was quoted by WWD on Aug. 2nd, Mandela "is not directly involved. That was never intimated. All the press materials say it was inspired by him." (Italics ours.) As Patton also told the Daily Beast, "We have a guarded approach so that we are not overly commercializing his image."

To counter the claims to the contrary by the North American representatives for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Dallas, Texas-based Patton asked us to share a statement by Sello Hatang, a spokesperson for the Mandela Foundation in South Africa, to clarify the backstory to the clothing line.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola ♥ the Olympic Games. After all, the soda maker has been lapping up the Olympics for every bit of marketing goodwill it can get for more than 80 years.

Now this year’s Olympics are in full swing and Coca-Cola can see the light at the end of the tunnel of its Move to the Beat campaign with singer Katy B and producer Mark Ronson that kicked off ahead of its sponsorship of the 8,000-mile Olympic torch relay. It's been a busy year with a variety of London 2012 marketing tie-ins.

And now Coca-Cola is extending its musical chops in a just-announced partnership with will.i.am to launch a sustainability-collaboration platform for brands dubbed EKOCYCLE, which is partnering to produce greener Beats by Dr Dre headphones — a brand that isn't music to the London Olympics organizers' ears.Continue reading...

The annual San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) kicks off today, and as ever, it's a massive promotional platform for brands.

Founded as the "Golden State Comic Book Convention" in 1970 by a group of San Diegan comic book fans, the annual fanfest has evolved to include video games, toys and other forms of genre entertainment. That's why Hollywood beats a path south to the show every year — to generate buzz among the estimated 250,000 comic book, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, and video game fans hitting town for the four day pop-culture fix.

One of the biggest movies being touted this year: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, which marks the cast's last appearance as Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner hyping the Nov. 16th final bow with a 1pm ET (above) panel. Also red-hot: Iron Man 3, with Robert Downey Jr. and co-stars on hand to promote the movie scheduled for May 3rd of next year.Continue reading...

Nokia is going all out to cross-promote the July 20th Batman reboot — Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises. It launched a Limited Edition Nokia Lumia 900 in the UK on June 1st that's subtly branded with the Batman logo on the back, and is offering a free app for the Windows Phone-powered Nokia smartphones that ties into the movie's release with exclusive content. Next up: the first 3D mapping of the franchise's iconic Gotham City, powered by Nokia Maps.Continue reading...

As tentpole movies increasingly become vehicles to move items off store shelves, one "product" that has excelled at leveraging onscreen placements is "geography." And when it comes to comic book titles and their real life cities, probably no hero is better at local marketing than Spider-Man.

No surprise then that, with a brandtastic new Spider-Man reboot hitting cinemas today, Sony and Marvel marketers leveraged Peter "Spider-Man" Parker's real life New York City home as part of its amazing marketing campaign, with one mild-mannered exception.Continue reading...

Crocs is expanding the availability of its spongy footwear into the booming Indian market with a new tagline, “Walk in comfort, wear in style.” Asia is rapidly growing and may replace the U.S. as the largest market for the billion-dollar brand that is in almost 100 countries and posting a year-on-year sales increase of 40.5% in the first quarter.

Crocs entered India in 2007 through a franchising and licensing agreement, and the little shoe that could is now available in 13 cities across India through 26 exclusive stores (and one kiosk in Pune). 

“The new brand campaign sends the message that Crocs can be worn every day, for every occasion,” says Florent Andre Bailly, Crocs VP for West Asia, India and Africa.

“We are constantly touching new consumers because many people still think that Crocs is a clog company, and when they find out the wide range of shoes which are comfortable yet stylish. This in itself is a whole new growth driver for the business.”Continue reading...

The China Daily uses the ongoing frenzy around the Euro 2012 soccer football tournament to revisit a known, but not well known enough, phenomenon in China. Namely, names being registered in China by people who have nothing to do with the trademarked names themselves.

As The China Daily notes, "Philipp Lahm, Cristiano Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta are world-popular soccer stars, but they have also attracted attention that they might not want — from Chinese companies registering their names as trademarks."

Anyone charged with protecting a brand, or who might BE a brand, should drop what they are doing immediately and check to see if your brand has been registered in China without your approval, spelling your doom. Don't even bother reading the rest of this piece on China and trademarks. Go check.Continue reading...