At the start of the year, the folks at Nike and a few of its star athletes it supports made a very big deal about the new FuelBand, a digital wristband that keeps track of every piece of data you could possibly imagine while you’re working out. Since then, Nike has added the ability to “keep track of the sights they've visited while out for a jog or a bike ride and share said moments / achievements with their mates,” according to Engadget.com.

FuelBand also is getting some love for its latest campaign, while landing Nike and W+K a Grand Prix at the recent Cannes Lions ad festival for its digital efforts to launch and make FuelBand a must-have item. 

Now collectors and fans will be falling over themselves to get their hands on the latest iteration of FuelBand — the limited-edition Ice Fuelband model, shown at top, which Serena Williams debuted at Wimbledon and launches July 27th in London (just in time for Olympics fever), San Francisco and New York at select retail locations, and on Aug. 12th at nikestore.com — marking the first new colorway since the original FuelBand debuted in January.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola US today released it latest London 2012 Olympics Commercial: "Support Our Athletes." As part of the campaign, Coke is featuring an "eight-pack" of American athletes — Shawn Johnson, Henry Cejudo, Alex Morgan, John Isner, David Boudia, David Oliver, Marlen Esparaza, and Jessica Long — in a My Coke Rewards Olympics contest.

Johnson, who retired from gymnastics on June 3rd, was featured in her own Coke spotlight video (see below) two weeks ago and will be covering the Summer Games as a "correspondent" for another of her sponsors, P&G, which last week announced a grant of $75,000 for youth sports development in U.S. gymnastics .Continue reading...

Olympic sponsor Adidas has unveiled the next phase of its Olympic 'Take the Stage' campaign, above. The focus of the spot is Team Great Britain athletes in what's being called the brand's biggest-ever marketing spend. According to Brand Republic, "It's being supported by a large-scale digital output across a dedicated site, www.adidas.com/all2012, Facebook and Twitter, using the handle @adidasUK, with a dedicated hashtag #takethestage, which will run for the next six weeks." Below, check out the official London 2012 Predator shoe and a new addition to Stella McCartney's Team GB Olympics kit — a rain cape.Continue reading...

Ford has been moving from one major social-media marketing innovation to the next, so it comes as little surprise that the brand is mounting a major digital and social effort around the 2013 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan.

"Random Acts of Fusion" is a multi-platform, transmedia campaign that features Ryan Seacrest as its "emcee." It centers around a contest in which consumers will "Unlock" how Fusion is able to "transform" the lives of people who drive it, Crystal Worthem, manager of Ford Brand Content & Alliances, stated.

In its slowly unfolding, almost teasing aspect, unlike previous Ford campaigns predicated on quick social-media participation, the Facebook-centered campaign is building anticipation by inviting fans to register and then stay tuned: "What's in the box? Register below to find out. Ryan will send one to each of the first 2,500 people who sign up for Random Acts of Fusion. Then come back to Facebook.com/FordFusion on July 5th to find out what happens next."

The teaser campaign "is designed to invoke emotion, which the [car] design does," Scott Monty, Ford's director of social media, told brandchannel. And the promotion is built "to go with people where they go — desktop to mobile to digital to social to experiential."Continue reading...

As an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic (that part, sadly, often gets left out), McDonald’s has already invested a lot of money to support the event, from building the world's biggest restaurant and to encouraging youths to get in the spirit and get moving. The next phase in this McOlympics: a £10 million responsive advertising campaign called “We All Make The Games.”

Leveraging multiple media channels, the plan is to document, replay and celebrate the people, moments, and emotions of the games in three phases:Continue reading...

Last year, Jiffy Lube gained more than 5 percentage points of market share in the franchised fast-lube business that it already led. And now the brand has launched its first national advertising campaign in 20 years to attempt to consolidate and build on its gains.

Under Jiffy Lube's new "Leave Worry Behind" tagline, a pair of TV spots (titled "Luge" and "Roller Derby" with tongue-in-cheek timing to the Olympics) debuted on June 11th. They depict predatory mechanics who "are just determined to find something to repair" on your car — even if repair isn't required. Many car owners can identify with that sentiment. Jiffy Lube is depicted as their refuge. "We don't fix vehicles," the voiceover says. "We help keep them running right."Continue reading...

FRS, a leading U.S. brand of supplement beverages and other products, is experiencing the ups and the downs of powerful celebrity endorsements — simultaneously. 

The brand's three leading athlete endorsers are New York Jets Quarterback Tim Tebow, who is beginning to whip up Gotham-sized buzz in his new home; Christie Rampone, a player on the U.S. Olympic Women's Soccer team that is gearing up to compete in London; and Lance Armstrong, whose rep has been crashing down following a new U.S.-government investigation of doping allegations — charges the most legendary cyclist of all-time is vigorously denying.Continue reading...

With 32 days before the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games kick off in London....

Official sponsor McDonald's UK offers sneak peek at designer Wayne Hemingway's sustainable, Mad Men-inspired uniforms that will debut at its biggest restaurant (if for only six weeks), which is now under construction at the London Olympics Park:Continue reading...