Following rumors last fall, Coca-Cola confirmed that it's producing a global TV series to woo teens with music in more than 30 countries during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

As a (lightly) branded entertainment extension of its global youth and music-oriented "Move to the Beat" Olympics marketing platform, Beat TV is being distributed in partnership with MTV Networks International, producing 10 episodes aimed at bringing youths some of the cultural flavor and excitement of the Games and its London setting. It's also not to be confused with "Move to the Beat TV," above, a web series Coca-Cola produced for European audiences as part of its Olympic marketing. (Coke's Move to the Beat campaign just picked up a bronze Cannes Lions award for mobile this week.)

While sponsored TV programming isn't new — look at NBC's recent Escape Routes series touting the Ford Escape crossover vehicle — Coke says Beat TV will run as a regular TV show (including channels with official rights to the Olympics and previous ad commitments from Coca-Cola); it won't feel like an infomercial for Coke's official Olympics sponsorship and the brand's presence won't be "overt"; and ad opportunities will be open to other brands.Continue reading...

While Audi and Toyota racers will be battling it out with one another in the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France on Saturday, the two companies — along with several other automotive marques — also will be waging an important battle of the brands.

Audi has managed to win 10 of the last 12 runnings of Le Mans, the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923. Now, the 24-hour race that is televised in some 60 countries and rivets millions of automotive and racing fans to their TVs is revving up for tomorrow's 24-hour event.Continue reading...

Pepsi appears to be maxing out with a clever five-minute YouTube video sensation that has been re-cut into a 30-second commercial this week on the hottest ticket on television: the NBA Finals.

The original video (produced by Omnicom branded entertainment agency Davie Brown Entertainment) depicts what seems to be an aged gym rat named "Uncle Drew" who wows a pickup basketball game with crossover dribbles, slam dunks and other exploits unheard-of for such a grizzled veteran. And it turns out, in a sort of Candid Camera moment, that Uncle Drew of course isn't who he seems to be. He's NBA Rookie of the Year and Cleveland Cavaliers breakout star Kyrie Irving.Continue reading...

P&G and Walmart aren't the only brands putting the "mobile" into their marketing mix by hitching their brands to the food truck craze.

A new kind of chuck wagon hits New York City today as financial services brand Charles Schwab invites locals to their “Oh, Chuck! Truck” on June 13-14 for the chance to win $10,000 in a Schwab Brokerage Account. 

The campaign is part of Schwab’s YouTube video series, “Oh, Chuck! I Blew My Cash,” which features Chuck proffering financial advice to people confessing to unfortunate purchases causing regret and angst.Continue reading...

Plenty of people are happy just sitting through a television show, zipping through its commercials via DVR, and soaking in the passive experience.

But plenty are looking to be a little more involved in their entertainment and AT&T is taking the first steps to get them there. The brand just launched an action-adventure drama entitled Daybreak as a tale told through five online films, two websites, and, of course, a smartphone app. And the company didn’t stint on the big names involved. Its creator is Tim Kring, whose latest hit on the small screen is Fox’s Touch with Kiefer Sutherland. The director of the first few episodes: Jon Cassar, who helmed Fox's previous TV series with Sutherland, a little drama you might have heard of called 24.Continue reading...

As promised last month, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's Airtime has gone live, with the tagline "Create shared experiences with the people you know, and the people you want to know." The social video chat service from Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker is officially on the air, launching at a New York press conference with Jim Carrey, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Ed Helms, Joe McHale, Jimmy Fallon, Olivia Munn, Alicia Keys and Snoop Dogg in attendance.Continue reading...

How's this for meta-marketing: A recent column in The Onion was titled: "Hey, Everybody! This Cool New Tide Detergent Video Is Blowing Up All Over The Internet!" The author was one "Fred Hammond, director of digital video and social media ad integration, Tide detergent." The Onion piece refers to a (fake) viral clip by (fake) Hammond's (fake) team — so Tide went ahead and made the real video, featuring "cute, funny talking animals, a cool indie-rock song" and Bret Michaels.Continue reading...

The coming Summer Olympics are promising to be the most digital sporting event of all time. NBC is planning to stream gobs of events and is not afraid that doing so will bastardize the prime-time coverage that the average viewer seeks. That way, a table-tennis aficionado can catch every last move that the Warren Buffett-sponsored American teen prodigy Ariel Hsing makes while the general public can just marvel at her greatest hits.

The digital Olympics onslaught got a serious boost this week when Olympic partner Samsung released an awesome online-only advertisement featuring David Beckham, one of the brand's Team Samsung London 2012 ambassadors. In it, the soccer star promotes the Galaxy Note by sounding out Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” by kicking balls at a wall of drums. The word was spread about the ad using Beckham’s own Facebook page as well as other online touch points. Since the video went live on Monday, it's racked up more than 1M views.Continue reading...