First Chobani came along and revolutionized the yogurt Americans eat in their homes or on the go, by mainstreaming Greek-style yogurt and creating one of the biggest phenomena in the CPG industry in years. Now enjoying its first Olympics tie-in with its Team USA sponsorship, the New York-based company wants to change the way that Americans consume yogurt with "yogurt bars."

Starting in New York, of course. Chobani just opened its first retail store, on Prince Street in SoHo, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who hailed a new PepsiCo yogurt plant this week in upstate New York — dispatched his lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, to drop by for the store opening. The former site of a Swatch store offers plain Chobani starting at $2.75 as well as "yogurt creations" for $3.75, created by on-site "master yogurt makers."

"Governor Cuomo is proud of that fact that New York State has become the yogurt capital," Duffy commented, according to the New York Times.Continue reading...

The need for jobs in a job-starved America can create some interesting political dynamics. Witness how New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going out of his way today to praise practically every other politician in the state for having anything to do with bringing new PepsiCo jobs in yogurt-making to upstate — and implicitly thumbling his nose at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has put PepsiCo on the Most Wanted list with his proposed big-soda ban.

"This is a new New York State, partnering with the private sector to create jobs and grow new industries," Cuomo said in a PepsiCo press release today. He's been notably lauded even by some Republicans for making economic development (tagline: "New York - Open for Business") a priority of his administration, including a high-profile TV campaign promoting economic investments in New York State, with not only PepsiCo but Fage bringing their yogurt works to upstate New York.Continue reading...

New Yorkers were girding for a showdown Wednesday between Mayor Bloomberg and the opponents to his proposed ban on 16-ounce or bigger soft drinks. A mid-afternoon public hearing was scheduled to debate the measure, which still needs approval by the city Board of Health — appointed by the mayor — to take effect.

The ban's opponents could always sue or appeal to the state legislature (or not, judging by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent remarks), but the "hundreds" of people who gathered on the steps of City Hall on Monday to oppose the ban, organized by a American Beverage Association coalition called New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, would rather put a stop to Bloomberg's legislation before it goes into effect.Continue reading...

There's nothing new about crowdsourcing product varieties anymore, but Frito-Lay is bringing an interesting twist to a promotion that it launched today: offering the winner of a new-flavor contest the option of a prize based on sales of the new potato-chip flavor that he or she inspires.

In its "Do Us a Flavor" campaign headlined by actress and restauranteur Eva Longoria and Food Network Iron Chef Michael Symon, the PepsiCo unit invites fans to submit their potato-chip flavor ideas via a Facebook app for a chance to win $1 million in grand-prize money — or one percent of their flavor's 2013 net sales, whichever is higher.

"We [already] have a lot of flavors that would make the one-percent option a bigger payout than the $1 million," Ram Krishnan, Frito-Lay's vice president of marketing, told brandchannel. "We're opening it up so that consumers can have a winning proposition."Continue reading...

Some media couldn't wait to jump all over the almost non-existent attendance this week at the "Million Gulp March" near City Hall in New York against Mayor Bloomberg's proposed soda ban.

Organized by a gaggle of libertarians, Ron Paul supporters and ad hoc protesters, the protest at New York's City Hall on Monday drew only about 50 people, according to local reports, while organizers had predicted attendance of about 500 — never mind the "million" moniker in its name.

"Before, the government was instituted to protect the rights of everyone and prevent crime, and now it's cracking down the rights of everyone," Zach Huff, a spokesman for Ron Paul 2012 organizer NYC Liberty HQ, told CBS News. "It's astonishing we have a mayor who is pro-choice when it comes to what a woman can do with her body but isn't pro-choice with simple choices, like soda-container sizes."

Bloomberg retorted, "If you want to kill yourself, I guess you have the right to do it. We’re trying to do something about it."Continue reading...

If the battle between New York and Big Soda were a sumo wrestling match, it might shake the entire Eastern Seaboard. The two giants have only begun squaring off in a titanic battle for the gullets and obeisance of Manhattan residents and the moral high ground too, after Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban on selling carbonated soft drinks above 16 ounces in regulated outlets in Gotham.

The American soft-drink industry is ramping up its campaign to fight New York's proposed restrictions on large sugary drinks. Now the city is in the midst of a public-comment period on the proposal ahead of a scheduled July 24th public hearing, and PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and allies aren't sugar-coating their words in letting it be known exactly what they think of Bloomberg's idea.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...

Everyone knows the funniest Americans were born in Canada, so why not leverage that to bring a few tourism dollars north of the border?

Now playing in New York City: a series of spots featuring Canadian expat actor Eric McCormack, pitching the great white north to Manhattanites and visitors. The "Canada for Fun" tourism and branding campaign, from a consortium of Canadian tourism boards, aims to boost awareness of "why Canada is such a fun place to visit." It just launched in the New York metro market on NBC-owned TV stations; online at CanadaForFun.com and YouTube, where you can watch more of the spots; in taxis (where this expat Canadian caught the campaign); and on digital signage in commuter rail stations such as Penn Station. 

"Humour is an intrinsic part of our culture and is a great way to give Americans who haven't had a chance to visit Canada an inside look at their northern neighbours. We hope they enjoy Eric's take on our myths and realities," noted Greg Klassen, SVP of the Canadian Tourism Commission. Follow along on Twitter: @canadaforfun and #canadaforfun