SPAM, the oft maligned Hormel canned meat product that helped Americans survive the Depression and fed the allied troops during World War II is cultivating a new generation of fans and consumers thanks to a new spokesman and a long-standing relationship with its ad agency.

SPAM remains a staple among US consumers and is now available in 44 countries, with US sales up nearly 7 percent year-over-year in the last 12 months. A lot of that consistent growth is a direct result of the on-going, unique relationship with BBDO, which has serviced every Hormel brand since 1930, from Dinty Moore stew to Jennie-O turkey. That unusual longevity has garnered Ad Age’s top honors in their first agency-client-marriage contest.Continue reading...

South Korean rapper Psy has had a whole lot of pressure on him to deliver something that was even a smidgeon as good as his previous effort, “Gangnam Style,” which managed to become YouTube’s most-watched video of all time with more than 1.5 billion views and some interesting dance moves that have been copied by everyone... literally.

To the looks of it, he's been successful. While not everybody loves his new music video “Gentleman”—which features him going around and being anything but (kicking a soccer ball away from a kid, removing a bikini top from a woman not looking to expose herself—the song does feature a catchy little dance move and has broken the record for the most views of a video on YouTube in the first 24 hours—a record that was previously held by teen phenom Justin Bieber.Continue reading...

The 2013 Masters Golf Tournament—one of the few golf tourneys that the world outside of the golf community actually cares about—kicked off Thursday morning as brands watch helplessly, hoping and praying that one of thier golfers is the one pulling on the famed green jacket by weekend's end. 

As Forbes points out, last year’s winner, Bubba Watson, wasn’t a big name outside of the golf world before the Masters got underway last year. Though by the end of the tournament, his main sponsor, Ping, had generated $14.2 million in media value, according to brand analyst and research firm Repucon. That's triple what the next brand, TaylorMade, got out with at $4.5 million. 

The reason the numbers vary so much is because he Masters only allows four minutes of commercials each hour and limits the amount of branding on the course so the majority of brand exposure comes from the golfers themselves and whatever airtime they get. That means sponsors of the world’s top-ranked golfers—Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose— along with such big names as Phil Mickelson (No. 9) and Watson (No. 14) will be enjoying the sight of their products far more than those who supply gear to Richard Sterne (No. 49). Unless, of course, Sterne pulls out the game of his life and ends up in or near the winner's circle.Continue reading...

While the white smoke billowed out into St. Peter's Square and Pope Francis was introduced to the world, the Catholic Church’s legal team was busy behind the scenes.

As it's widely understood, the Catholic Church is as much a business as it is a religious beacon, and like any smart business, the Church protects its property. Vatican City and the Holy See are already the owners of such trademarks as “Benedictvs XVI Pontifex Maximus,” “Ioannes Pavlvs Pontifex Maximus,” “Stato Della Citta Del Vaticano,” and “Segreteria Di Stato," according to Forbes. Now, with a new pontiff in place, Vatican lawyers will be hard at work securing trademarks for everything Pope Francis related.Continue reading...

The end of each year brings with it a flurry of predictions and prognostications for the next year. They come from genuine and self-appointed pundits in every area imaginable and from every corner of the globe. So why should brand marketing be any different?

This year, the pundits are seeing one word in their crystal balls:convergence. It's obvious to most marketers that "traditional" marketing has already converged with digital marketing, but In 2013, "convergence" will take on new meaning in the brand marketing world. 

For example, we'll see convergence in data analytics, according to Andrew Edwards, founder of Technology Leaders: "2013 will be the year convergence analytics comes of age. Big Data, cloud computing and dashboarding are going to merge into an array of offerings that answer the marketers' need for a single view of multi-channel touchpoints." 

We'll also see convergence in online media: "As the lines continue to blur between what's paid, owned, and earned in digital (and soon, traditional) media, this will be the trend that governs nearly all other major changes in the digital marketing and media landscape," writes Rebecca Lieb, digital/advertising media analyst for Altimeter Group.Continue reading...

America's FDA keeps working toward forcing cigarette makers to encase their product in packaging with some incredibly nasty images in order to help consumers understand what could happen to them if they continue smoking. Australian health officials don’t have to wait anymore. 

Thanks to a world-first law that went into effect on Dec. 1st, nicotine lovers (and haters) in the land Down Under are now faced with images a gangrene-mangled limb and a skeletal cancer victim when they buy their cigarettes. The images, which caused an uproar when revealed last year, take up most of the pack’s packaging with the cigarette’s brand name (no logo) printed on the bottom quarter of the packaging, in plain text on an olive-toned blah background.

“They’re so horrifingly ugly that they are magnificent,” Fiona Sharkie, executive director of anti-smoking campaigner Quit Victoria, told Bloomberg. How horrifyingly ugly? Check out the grotesque warning images below.Continue reading...

For the past eight years, fifteen brands have ranked at the top of their category in the Harris Poll EquiTrend Study, a survey of over 1,500 brands across more than 127 product categories.

"These 15 top brands have consistently found a way to remain relevant and valuable to the consumer," said Aron Galonsky, SVP for Harris Interactive's Brand and Communication Consulting group. "It's not surprising why these perennial leaders continue to stay on top. They continually deliver a consistent and balanced brand experience, year after year, that really resonates with the consumer."

Check them out below, along with more from Harris about why they made the 2012 list.Continue reading...

Not only will the NFL's uniforms change partners from Reebok to Nike, it looks like the Panthers are taking advantage of this opportunity with the team's first logo change ever since entering the NFL in 1995.

The idea was to modernize the logo without "losing the dramatic essence of the mark," says Carolina Panthers President Danny Morrison. The logotype has also been changed (below) to integrate the logo into the type itself. Also watch their Logo Evolution video below.Continue reading...