Boston Beer Takes a Big Hit

America’s drinkers are putting down their Sam Adams. Its brewer, Boston Beer Co., which has gotten a bit of press recently for putting in a trademark request for Boston Strong 26.2 Brew in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, announced its quarterly earnings Wednesday and they were not good. The company earned 51 cents per share in this year’s first quarter, “down almost 9 percent from a year earlier and well below the 62 cents a share expected by analysts,” CNN reports.

That news sent shares of the country’s top craft brewer down almost 11 percent Thursday. Their spot at the top of the heap is hurting them, the company said, as consumers are turning their tongues to other smaller craft brews that are on their way up.Continue reading...

AIG considers suing U.S. government despite federal bailout aid.

J&J sells Roloaids brand to Sanofi.

Samsung caps best year ever.

ABC spurs questions for marketers with move of Jimmy Kimmel's show.

Apple sees CEO Tim Cook make second visit  to China as mainland footprint doubles.

Bacardi snaps up St-Germain liqueur brand.

Bank of America extends retreat from mortgages.Continue reading...

Bacardi turned 150 years old this year and after a slew of celebrations in the past 12 months that have surely left its 6,000 employees a bit hungover from time to time, the company threw one more party last week. This one commemorated the creation and burial of a Bacardi time capsule that will be opened in 50 years.

So what’s in the futuristic stainless-steel capsule that has been registered with the international Time Capsule Society and stands six feet long and is a foot wide? What will the great citizens of our planet unearth in 50 years? Well, there’s a “photograph of the remarkable gathering of nearly 500 members of the Bacardi family, representing eight generations, captured in a single moment encircling the iconic Bacardi bat logo at the family’s 150th anniversary party in Puerto Rico,” a press release states,” along with a “commemorative medal honoring Bacardi rum as the ‘World’s Most Awarded Spirit,’ an honor achieved with nearly 600 awards for great taste, quality and innovation.”Continue reading...

Apple "friends" Facebook, adds features and cozies up to car brands to stay ahead of Google.

Disney and Netflix clash over DVD rental windows.

Google-branded Nexus tablet rumored.

BMW and Audi rivalry intensified in May as BMW courts bloggers.

Bacardi debuts new flavored rums in "breakthrough" bottles.

comScore releases much-discussed analysis of marketing on Facebook.

Domino's hits $1-billion-plus in digital sales.

Evian pursues one-touch online ordering.

L'Oreal decentralizes marketing globally.Continue reading...

Americans haven’t been able to enjoy over-the-counter Cuban products for decades now and it doesn’t appear that will change anytime soon. That’s bad news for the folks at Pernod, who have been battling to get its Havana Club rum trademark renewed. Unfortunately for them, the U.S. legal system at pretty much every level has said, “No dice.” The most recent blow came from the Supreme Court.

The rum is being made in Cuba by Cubaexport and distributed by France-based Pernod, a loophole the U.S. government doesn’t approve of and so when the Havana Club trademark came due in 2006, the government opted not to renew it, according to Bloomberg. The Cuban Foreign Ministry is not happy. After all, America accounts for 40 percent of the world’s rum intake so it would be nice to be mixed into that financial cocktail.Continue reading...

The European Forum for Responsible Drinking — whose members include Bacardi, Diageo and Pernod Ricard — this week launched a new campaign promoting responsible practices for marketing alcoholic beverages. 

Targeted to alcohol brand marketers and agencies, the campaign is the result of a joint initiative last year by the EFRD and America's Distilled Spirits Council to offer self-regulatory guidelines for advertising alcohol ads on social media sites.

The new guidelines include Facebook-specific strictures: a commitment to remove inappropriate user-generated content from brand pages in 48 hours of posting; restrict Facebook users under 18 from accessing alcohol brand pages.

Both Diageo and Heineken inked ad deals with Facebook last year; now, they can consult the EU voluntary guidelines, such “your marketing communication should be decent, honest, truthful; should not offend prevailing standards of taste, decency and more generally prepared with a due sense of responsibility.”

The guidelines contain the following series of questions marketers should ask themselves before launching a social campaign, including:Continue reading...

Bacardi Oakheart: Spiced Rum for the Strong of Character

Bacardi is hoping "Oak and Coke" will be a drink order heard across the globe as it launches its new Bacardi Oakheart, a spiced rum with a “distinctly masculine, smoky edge” aimed at the young male market. The launch will be supported in the U.S. by the “Oakheart Challenge,” a series of events and competitions, presumably for distinctly masculine men. Apparently, 2,700 names were considered before Bacardi settled on “Oakheart,” which refers to the barrels in which the rum is aged and has overtones implying "strength of character.” Manly men, get ready: Bacardi Oakheart will be available in the U.S. in September.Continue reading...

Buddy Media, the WPP-backed Facebook management system, is taking on Europe and opening a headquarters in London. A $54 million raise (Series D funding) is fueling a seemingly indefatigable global expansion as the company continues to dominate the social media enterprise software space.

A new group of late-stage investors, including Insight Venture Partners, joined current Buddy Media investors GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Bay Partners.

Buddy Media serves eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers including Nivea, Bacardi, All Saints, Vodafone and Mercedes Benz. In 2011, the company added 165-plus new customers, including Kraft Foods, Hanes, ESPN, Ford Motor Company and Virgin Mobile USA.Continue reading...