General Motors has been learning some sobering facts about Millennial (non-) car-buyers from its collaboration with MTV Scratch. But the executive in charge of getting a bearing on Generation Y for America's largest automaker insists that the Chevrolet brand is going to figure out how to appeal to twenty-somethings better than any of its competitors.

"We're committed to getting to know them better than anyone and giving them the products they want, as well as ones that are rational and functional to meet their needs," John McFarland, GM's manager of global strategic marketing, told brandchannel. "So we're going to win, long-term."

McFarland came to GM last year from Procter & Gamble just to helm this effort. Among his early moves was to notch an agreement with Scratch, the consulting arm of Viacom's MTV network, to help GM understand how to market better to a generation that now comprises about 40% of today's potential car-buying public -- but who are measurably less excited than their forebears about new cars and even about driving. Continue reading...

Car brands have become intent upon roping in reluctant consumers from the Millennial generation. That's why Ford has decided to set up shop, literally, in Silicon Valley, and why General Motors has turned to MTV for advice.

Today's twenty-somethings have looked like trouble for a while to America's automakers because they can't be counted on to swoon about cars they way their parents did — and often still do. Of course, the importance of digital connectivity to this generation has been well-established, and Ford has managed to capitalize on it with its trail-blazing Sync infotainment platform.Continue reading...

As the appetite for all things Hunger Games seems insatiable, with its record-breaking $155m weekend opening and Fandango pre-sales for more than 1,200 showings, one key player that deserves credit for making the pre-release marketing a hit on social media is a relative newcomer: thismoment.

Simply put, “Lionsgate social media marketing is centered around thismoment’s social infrastructure,” writes Forbes. Entrepreneur-centric Inc. also acknowledged the thismoment-powered social media savvy of The Hunger Games pre-launch marketing. Their secret sauce?Continue reading...

Close to 50 years ago, the British musical scene invaded America. Now an American music icon is seeing what kind of cultural damage it can do across the pond.

In an effort to maintain its coolness with teen consumers, MTV has launched a new mobile app called MTV Under The Thumb that “allows users to watch MTV on-demand content simultaneously with friends and chat about it in the app at the same time,” according to Econsultancy.com.

As unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the co-viewing app launches this month in seven European countries  for Android and iPhone users. Users can also use their smartphones as a remote control and watch the content in a Web browser on a computer, the site notes, as well as share their favorite shows via Facebook.Continue reading...

In the next strange chapter of reality TV, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony talk candidly about why their marriage failed — and Kohl's will be along for the ride.

In 2010 the middle-market retailer from Wisconsin signed JLo and her then-husband to put their names on his-and-hers clothing and lifestyle collections. But last summer, after Lopez scored big as a new judge on American Idol and was named People magazine's "most beautiful woman in the world," the marriage was falling apart — just as their Kohl's collections were hitting stores.

Kohl's has continued to sell the celebs' clothing lines, sweetening the partnership as the exclusive retail sponsor for their new Spanish-language television series in the vein of Idol.Continue reading...

BMW projected to beat Mercedes-Benz for US luxury crown.

PepsiCo reportedly mulls layoffs and salary freeze to appease Wall Street.

Kodak bankruptcy report in WSJ slams stock price.

Apple hires Adobe exec to oversee iAds, threatens to sue company behind Steve Jobs doll and rises at Foxconn's expense.

Australia's Commonwealth Bank crowdsources customer ideas.

Arm & Hammer ordered to pull TV commercial criticizing cat litter competitor.

Audi's China sales outstrip Germany.

Boeing closes premier factory in Wichita.

Burberry is now the most popular luxury brand on Facebook, as YouTube, MTV and Coca-Cola lead in FB engagement.Continue reading...

Forbes' piece on Vice breaking the billion-dollar valuation for its mix of original video programming — including Vice's VBS.tv partnership with MTV, YouTube's original-channel push this year and content for MTV and CNN) and branded entertainment partnerships such as the Creators Project with Intel — is as interesting for its insights into Vice as it is for surfacing Tom Freston's role as an advisor to the rising media brand.

The former chairman and CEO of MTV Networks has been keeping a relatively low profile since being chucked out of Viacom in 2006 after disagreeing with Sumner Redstone. Now an entertainment and media investor via his Firefly3 LLC and the chairman of the ONE Campaign, Freston is more committed than ever to social innovation, cause marketing and corporate citizenship, as he outlines in an interview with Kinsey last month.

Al Gore promotes "sustainable capitalism."

Apple aims to reimagine TV and how we consume media, while graphic novel imagines Steve Jobs' design thinking.

AT&T's dream to acquire T-Mobile's US operation may be over.

Barclays enables charitable giving with the tap of a card.

BT files patent suit against Google.

Disney and Atlanta Braves are involved in a trademark dispute.

Facebook sues a different Mark Zuckerberg, sees profits hit $1B ahead of IPO.

Goldman Sachs rises as finance powerhouse.

History Channel struggles at the top.

Jersey Shore's Snooki sued by branding partner.

Morton's steakhouse chain finds a buyer.Continue reading...