From his first public remarks since taking over as interim CMO of General Motors, it's clear that Alan Batey isn't planning any abrupt changes in policies, directions or programs as he steers the company's marketing efforts at least for the short term. Only recently promoted from Chevrolet sales vice president to vice president of U.S. sales and service, Batey was just tapped again — this time to succeed Joel Ewanick, the controversial global CMO who unexpectedly parted ways with GM on Sunday.

"There is no change," Batey told reporters and analysts during the company's July sales call. "We've always been one thing here, and we have no change in direction or priorities. Our focus is on executing. There is a lot going on right now; a lot of new products. We'll have no disruption and no change. It's all about execution."

From Batey's remarks, it's easy to infer that the main problem his bosses had with Ewanick was with Ewanick, not necessarily with his work. And GM did say that his dismissal had to do with execution of Chevy's sponsorship agreement with the Manchester United soccer franchise, not with the fact of his having struck a deal with Manchester. Sure enough, Batey's first duty in his new role on Monday was to announce the signing of the Man U deal after terms were altered.

But more (likely) is going on than it appears.Continue reading...

As a top sponsor of Team USA, AT&T’s "My Journey" campaign highlights the path to the London 2012 Olympics for eight athletes, along with the mobile apps and content that helped get them through rigorous training. Condensed versions of the profiles are now running as commercials during NBC's primetime coverage of the Summer Games across America.

Fans can download each athlete's favorite app, such as gold medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte's favorite SuperMonkey Ball 2, song (Lochte picked "American Star" by Lil Wayne) and an item for a sweepstakes (Lochte signed a skateboard), now through August 14th.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola is busy spreading "Happiness" around the world as an Olympics sponsor, while Pepsi is counting on new cultural relevance through its music-based "Live for Now" campaign and by sponsoring the next Super Bowl halftime show.

But back at the home offices in Atlanta and in Purchase, N.Y., executives of each company are dealing with real-world strains including the increasing opposition of nutrition activists (including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg), more competition, consumers' fading interest in soft drinks — and with each other. And those factors are contributing to important new dynamics for PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent.

In Atlanta, Coca-Cola has just reorganized its C-suite and expanded the responsibilities of two senior executives, Steve Cahillane and Ahmet Bozer, creating an early horse race to succeed Kent in a few years. The move also is part of a consolidation of executive authority beneath Kent, who has been widely praised for his leadership of the company, boosting profits and swiping market share from PepsiCo since he became CEO in 2008.Continue reading...

Hot on the high heels of her recent Pepsi campaign, Nicki Minaj is starring in her first commercial for the Adidas brand — the release of which took her by surprise, according to her tweets Wednesday evening. Watch the new spot, for Adidas Originals, below.Continue reading...

Today's Brandlympics round-up kicks off with Google's homepage salute to the artistic gymnastics men's rings.

Olympians Take On Brand Police

Plenty of brands that haven’t signed on to sponsor the Olympics are plenty annoyed with the heavy-handed methods of the London Organizing Committee to seemingly keep anyone from saying the word Olympics or doodling the famous five rings on their notebooks without heavy fines and public embarrassment coming their way. But it’s not just corporations and brands that are annoyed. It’s also the Olympians themselves. Olympic athletes are forbidden from mentioning any brand names in the lead up to the Games and then during the Olympics themselves. Now a few of them are speaking out, particularly on the Olympics' favored platform of Twitter. A few tweeted protest messages Sunday against the regulation that keeps them from mentioning the brand name whose dimes and dollars have helped them get to the Games. According to the New York Times, American high jumper Jamie Nieto was probably the most brash, tweeting, “I am honored 2 be an Olympian, but #WeDemandChange #rule40 @NBCOlympics It’s time for Olympians 2 be compensated! I am a PRO Track & Field Ath!”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...

BMW may be a German car company, but it's also the best-selling luxury brand in America. And that's ample reason for the brand to have signed on as a major sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team USA athletes participating in the London Olympics.

Certainly any American watching the pre-Olympics news leading up to Friday's opening of the games, and now watching telecasts on NBC and its sister networks, is by now well familiar with BMW ads that extrapolate the "performance" requirements of elite athletes and the supreme "performance" characteristics of BMW's "ultimate driving machine."Continue reading...

We've noted how McDonald's, as one of the TOP sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics, is promoting its new lower-calorie menu and Team USA contest in the US, and encouraging kids (and adults) in the UK to get active and check out its revamped Happy Meal, among other local marketing efforts ahead of the games.

The company brought its top executives to London for the Games opening last week, where the big message was "McDonald's Takes Olympic Stage to Announce Advances in Children's Well-Being, Menu Innovation and Access to Nutrition Information."

Now the Summer Games have started, the fast-food giant is rolling out digital and social content that aims to "match the fun, competitive spirit of the Olympics," according to a spokesperson.Continue reading...