Target has launched its "Falling for You" interactive shoppable video series on its website, with the romcom's action on the left (that's co-star Nia Long, above) and items popping up on the right as they appear in the short film, where they can be favorited and then purchased online. Find out more on the retailer's A Bullseye View blog, and let us know what you think.

One of the most exciting (and highly teased) debuts at the Paris Auto Show is the new Jaguar F-TYPE, which Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark calls the brand's "first sports car in 50 years" and many fans hail as a return to Jag's roots.

While the new arrival was feted at the Musee Rodin this week at an affair graced by the presence of American singing sensation Lana Del Rey and Hollywood director Ridley Scott, the highlight for auto enthusiasts was the unveiling of the F-TYPE to assembled global car media by Hallmark and other Jaguar executives.

Owned and being revived by Tata Motors after the Indian industrial conglomerate bought it from Ford, Jaguar is counting on F-Type to turn heads and keep its strong sales momentum going, reports the Wall Street Journal. In the effort, the all-new two-seater is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive convertiblewith three powertrain options, including a V8S version that will reach 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 186mph.Continue reading...

For any foreign brand that wants to become better known in America, partnering with one that already is renowned and made in the U.S.A. can be a great strategy. So that's what Fiat is doing by participating in the 20th anniversary of the Monopoly Game contest at McDonald's.

And, of course, Fiat hasn't chosen to partner with America's leading fast-food chain on just anything. The Monopoly promotion — in which customers peel game pieces from drinks and other selected menu items to collect property sets or win instant prizes, in-store and online — has become as iconic in its association with McDonald's as the Big Mac and Mayor McCheese.

That's just the point for Fiat. The brand and its minicars, new to the U.S. market over just the last year or so after a many-year hiatus, still are seeking more traction in American media and culture, competing with many other brands and against the fact that Americans still tend to favor bigger cars.Continue reading...

Interactive TV has been a hot topic since the days of Friends, when TV and brand executives dreamed of the day when viewers could click on the screen and just by using a remote control, buy Jennifer Aniston's sweater.

Fast forward to today, when Target announced on its A Bullseye View blog that they’ll be releasing their first-ever shoppable film, starring Kristen Bell, Nia Long and Zachary Abel, in three five-minute webisodes starting Oct 2. The online foray into branded entertainment is set at Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis in a romantic comedy titled (in a seasonal pun) “Falling for You.”Continue reading...

Just in case things get dicey once Mark Fields, Ford's presumptive next CEO, takes the reigns, Ford's board reportedly is considering keeping current CEO Alan Mulally around past his retirement as the non-executive chairman.

As skilled as is Fields, the 51-year-old head of Ford's Americas operations, you can't blame Ford's directors for not wanting to let Mulally go completely once he ends his tenure as CEO, with a rumored target for departure around the end of next year. The 67-year-old former chief of Boeing has worked wonders at the auto manufacturer since he took the helm in 2006, seeing it through the global financial collapse and Great Recession without a U.S.-government bailout, supervising the launch of a fleet of worthy new products, and guiding Ford into leadership positions in infotainment technology and fuel economy.

And though Fields may be champing at the bit, Mulally is hardly ready to ride into the sunset just yet. He's got Ford moving on a number of important ongoing and new initiatives. They include:Continue reading...

Honda is punctuating its 2012 comeback in the U.S. market with souped-up output and fetching advertising for the new 2013 Accord mid-size sedan.

Throwing the ninth generation of its mainstay Accord — the first substantially overahauled version since 2008 — into the increasingly competitive and crowded U.S. mid-size sedan market with its official launch this week, Honda is beginning a new integrated advertising campaign "designed to artfully highlight the new Accord's sophisticated design, dynamic performance, rich feature content and value," according to a Honda press release.

And, in fact, the new ads do just that, in the early stages of Honda's "It Starts With You" campaign. The print ads feature, for instance, a bee-startled driver and the caption "Lane Departure Warning. Because Distractions Happen" and a caught-in-the-headlights startled deer (Caption: "LED Headlights.").Continue reading...

Ford has been putting "real people" in many of its ads for a while now, including the "Swap Your Ride" subjects hobnobbing with Mike Rowe and the actual Ford owners who were peppered with questions by fake reporters in the brand's controversial staged press conference stunt.

Now positioning their own workers as real people, the brand's marketers are now putting put actual Ford employees into ads promoting the 2013 Ford Escape crossover-utility vehicle. The campaign aims to show how Ford's people are demonstrating their internal drive to "Go Further," the tagline centerpiece of Ford's new global brand positioning. Ford also is launching a new web-only video comedy series behind the nameplate as well.

"We don't have a blanket strategy now to always do real people in ads, but in a lot of cases we're finding it does work," Scott Kelly, Ford's communications manager, told brandchannel. "We look at it campaign by campaign. Where it does work, it's all about being as authentic as possible."Continue reading...

Dior is releasing an online-exclusive documentary featuring French actress Marion Cotillard, who also starred in the luxury brand's 2011 branded entertainment foray, titled "The Lady Noire Affair." That short film noir spoof, featuring a black Lady Dior handbag and matching accessories in a co-starring role, helped make Lady Dior a sub-brand in its own right — and the handbag of choice of North Korean first lady Ri Sol Ju.