The world’s financial situation isn’t exactly peachy keen just yet, but the global population appears to be up for traveling. Both luxury and budget brand hotels are popping up across the world.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which came in at the top of its category in the recent 2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend, “expects to have enough cash in the next three years to add another global luxury brand bringing their total to ten.” 

Mitzi Gaskins, VP/global brand manager for JW Marriott, noted that the “luxury space is growing a lot” and is “anticipating 50 percent growth over the next four to five years with 79 JW hotels up and running by 2015.” Less than half of the 30 or more hotels that the brand has in the pipeline are in the United States. Gaskins told Fortune that the luxury markets that are growing fastest are “top tier destinations and gateway cities,” noting that the JW brand was opening soon in Cabo, Turks & Caicos, Macao and Hanoi, and had “just launched” in Venice.Continue reading...

Oscar Pistorius was a man once known for being the fastest double-leg amputee on the planet. Now that the so-called Blade Runner has been charged with murder for the shooting death of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp early Valentine’s Day morning, his sponsors, who pay out about $2 million to Pistorius annually, are moving just as quickly as Pistorius to figure out how to deal with the sudden PR nightmare.

Nike’s attachment to Pistorius was compounded by the fact that an ad featuring the Olympian used the tagline, “I’m the bullet in the chamber.” It was pulled from Pistorius’s website on Thursday, Ad Age reports. The victim's tweets before her murder also created a social media nightmare for anyone or any company attached to the paralympic athlete.

"Nike extends its deepest sympathy and condolences to all families concerned following this tragic incident," his sponsor said in a statement. "As it is a police matter, Nike will not comment further at this time." Two other sponsors, Oakley and BP Global, both used the word “shocked” in their statements on the issue. Thierry Mugler fragrances had nothing to say other than it was waiting to see what happens with the investigation.

British Telecom, better known as BT, also went the “appalled” route with its statement: "Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy. Given the ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."Continue reading...

Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble moved the global headquarters of its beauty and baby-care business and the Pampers brand to Singapore from corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. Now, the CPG giant wants to make Singapore its worldwide capital for manufacturing of water-purification products.

In fact, P&G has just announced a lofty goal for the Purifier of Water plant that it is scaling up in Singapore: to cleanse enough drinking water to "save one life every hour by 2020" somewhere on the planet. The powder is a mini water purification plant in a packet. The small packets, when stirred into water, causes heavy metals, dirt and parasites to bind together then fall to the bottom of the container. Strained through a filter cloth and after 20 minutes, the water is drinkable.

P&G has been distributing these packets in more than 65 countries since 2004, attacking the global scarcity of potable water and raising awareness about the problem. Now it's increasing its investment in this commitment with its Singapore plant opening. "We've taken [P&G] innovation power and focused on one of our world's biggest challenges, clean drinking water, a lack of which takes the lives of thousands of children every day," stated P&G CEO Bob McDonald.Continue reading...

Barack Obama isn't the only presidential incumbent to leverage mobile, social and digital technology in his re-election campaign. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is using augmented reality technology in his presidential re-election campaign's mobile app.

The 'Raila for President' app, built by London based agency Blue Storm Solutions, includes information on the Kenyan election process, current news and videos, and advanced image recognition technology from Aurasma. The deal takes the UK-based brand into its 100th foreign territory with the Aurasma-enabled app to bring election posters and literature to life real-time, and encourage click-through to donate to the campaign.

With penetration of smartphones at 7% and growing fast in Kenya, Odinga’s campaign is looking to the African nation's mobile-savvy influencers to help in his re-election bid, which has been challenged by charges of police harassment of the country's ethnic minority population.Continue reading...

Samsung’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiative that in Brazil, its Solar Powered Internet Schools program, has expanded to a village in rural South Africa.

Located in Phomolong, in the countryside near Johannesburg, where access to many things common to the western world are scarce, Samsung Electronics installed the first of its kind exclusively solar-powered, mobile classroom designed specifically for use in remote areas with limited or no access to electricity.

The 12-meter renovated container has solar panels on the roof that can generate nine hours of electricity a day, powering a 50-inch electronic board, Internet-enabled solar-powered notebooks, Samsung’s Galaxy tablet computers and Wi-Fi cameras.

Up to 21 students can use the classroom at a time, and a complete curriculum is stored in a central server so the truck can move and reach even the remotest of areas, as shown in this video featuring Lefa, a leader of tomorrow, with her classmates in the school.Continue reading...

An estimated 3,000 kids die daily, and more than 3.5 million children do not live to the age of five, largely due to diarrhea and pneumonia – both manageable with soap and water. People worldwide wash their hands with water, but far too few use soap, particularly at crucial moments such as after using the toilet, cleaning a child, or before handling food.

In 2008, Unilever, its Lifebuoy soap brand, and Population Services International (PSI) joined forces to declare October 15th Global Handwashing Day. Last year, the public-private partnership produced a PSA starring actress Mandy Moore, among other efforts.

This year's Global Handwashing Day bring a new partnership with the Millennium Villages Project, a joint effort by the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the United Nations Development Program. The PSA simply asks for support for an initiative working with 500,000 people in rural villages across ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa as part of a bigger goal to reach one billion people:Continue reading...

SABMiller this week updated its Africa strategy: "Double the price of beer, Halve the price of beer and Go Farming." Double the price is explained above with a case study on its Castle Lite brand; the other two pillars were explained in two other videos, explained as:

Halve the Price of Beer: Halve the price of beer refers to our strategy of innovating and producing more affordable beers using local ingredients and creating an entry point into commercial beers for consumers who are trading out of informal alcohol and entering the formal alcohol market. In this short film we introduce the strategic context and look at how our traditional beer Chibuku Shake Shake has grown in Zambia and showcases how we are innovating to extend our reach to more consumers through PET in our new offer Chibuku Super.Continue reading...

You've heard of guerrilla marketing — how about gorilla marketing? The Rolling Stones have a greatest hits album that's being released on Nov. 12 called GRRR!, featuring a gorilla on the cover with the band's iconic "big lips logo" superimposed on its face. So don’t be alarmed when you see large images of the cheeky gorilla popping up around the world to promote the album.

The gorillas are taking over 50 cities and 3,000+ locations around the globe, being tagged on such landmarks as Sydney's Opera House, New York’s Empire State Building and London’s Elizabeth Tower (that’s Big Ben to all of you who missed the renaming for Her Majesty). They can be seen in 3D augmented reality via mobile devices that have downloaded UView's app, so fans can "watch the stunning GRRR! artwork fully realized in 3D animation right before their eyes .... some exciting content and have the chance to enter an exclusive competition plus pre-order a copy of GRRR!"

As part of the marketing stunt that's billed as the "biggest global Augmented Reality music campaign" to date, the Stones are encouraging fans to take pics of the gorillas and tweet them with the #GRRR! hashtag to the Stones’ Twitter feed, @RollingStones. The photos will also show up on an interactive wall on the Rolling Stones website.

That #GRRR hashtag is more commonly used on Twitter, by the way, to express frustration — which is what real gorilla lovers are feeling.Continue reading...