Jamba Juice is stepping out in a big way — with a major promotional effort around the fourth film in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn, Part 2, which premieres in November. The Emeryville, Calif.-based brand has been gradually expanding its product line and distribution points and looking for ways to become a lifestyle brand a la Starbucks.

While its fans are used to sucking on smoothies, the vampire fan demo may seem something of a departure for the smothie stalwart — but teaming up with what is still one of the hottest movie franchises around is bound to resonate with Jamba's female target audience. That's why Jamba has partnered with Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment for a multi-element campaign around the new Twilight installment.

The tie-in includes a new mixed-berry smoothie flavor called "Berry Bitten," a collection of Twilight slap bracelets, a Facebook-based sweepstakes offering tickets to the movie's Hollywood premiere on November 12, full-pages ads in magazines in cluding In Touch and Life & Style, and regional promotions run by franchisees.Continue reading...

As the appetite for all things Hunger Games seems insatiable, with its record-breaking $155m weekend opening and Fandango pre-sales for more than 1,200 showings, one key player that deserves credit for making the pre-release marketing a hit on social media is a relative newcomer: thismoment.

Simply put, “Lionsgate social media marketing is centered around thismoment’s social infrastructure,” writes Forbes. Entrepreneur-centric Inc. also acknowledged the thismoment-powered social media savvy of The Hunger Games pre-launch marketing. Their secret sauce?Continue reading...

Apple in sight of $1 trillion valuation, according to analysts.

AstraZeneca fails to stop entry of generic versions of its antipsychotic drug to U.S. market.

Bats alarms Wall Street with derailed IPO.

Bloomberg and CNN continue transition to digital.

Bulgari tries to make a name in wine.

Chick-fil-A pressure heats up.

Dairy Queen benefits from early warm weather.

Darden finds restaurant consumers remain fickle.Continue reading...

It’s a good thing Mad Men’s Don Draper lived in the 1960’s, when Madison Avenue executives were thriving and “style, confidence, debauchery, lust and action” defined the job (as the Emmy Award-winning AMC series would have us believe).

Today, of course, it's not quite so swinging: "the job market is pretty rotten. Opportunities are limited. Agencies aren't doing the same kind of hiring they were five years ago, and there's no denying that those closer to 55 are going to have a harder time,” Nancee Martin, director-talent at Omnicom Group's TBWA Worldwide, commented to Ad Age. "In the past, advertising spoke to the audience, now it's more of a conversation. There are a lot of great Don Drapers out there today, and the really great ones are the ones who've learned to add to their game and keep their eye on the prize," observed Robert Manni, president of Agent16, to the Guardian.

Indeed, Ad Age estimates that agencies accounted for 189,700 jobs in pre-recession 2007, but by January 2010, that number was down by 30,000 jobs. As of November 2011, agencies had regained 17,000 jobs, but not the same jobs, and the majority were being filled by younger digital talent. As the fifth season of Mad Men kicks off with a two-hour special on AMC on Sunday night, what is thriving is the marketing of products related to the franchise and the concomitant glamorization of that era.Continue reading...

The Hunger Games movie opening is expected to break all Hollywood records, even eclipsing the now benign-seeming franchises of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Twilight. The first of four planned movies is projected to rake in more than $100 million at the box office this upcoming weekend, with more than $1 million worth of tickets already pre-sold.

The trilogy, written by bestselling author Suzanne Collins, has 24 million copies in print in the U.S. and a built-in fan base that Lionsgate Entertainment has leveraged with unprecedented acumen.

They started traditionally with print ads in newspapers, 50+ magazine cover stories, 3,000 billboard and bus shelter displays, and 80,000 distributed posters. And then came the digital build, creating a series of “little online brushfires to create a box office inferno,” as New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes comments in the video that accompanies his must-read story.

Starting a year ago, the Lionsgate marketing team, led by CMO Tim Palen, leveraged social media to the hilt, building anticipation and participation via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, iPhone games and the promise of live Yahoo streaming at the premiere.Continue reading...

Apple plans to spend $45 billion of cash hoard on $10 billion stock buyback and share dividend yet may have to deal with rising brand dislike as it discusses today its plans for $100-billion cash horde.

Apple critic Mike Daisey changed his one-man show after admitting fabrications, while Foxconn declines to sue.

Boeing faces concerns about aging of 737.

Chevron executives can't leave Brazil.

Cumulus Media debuts radio program featuring Mike Huckabee to challenge Rush Limbaugh Program.

E! Network signs Clint Eastwood and family to reality TV series.

Facebook spends less on R&D than rivals.Continue reading...

BroadCause, a platform that engages communities around causes by connecting the dots between socially conscious brands and consumers who want to make a difference and get involved.

“We are in the midst of a social good revolution, and the world of cause will simply never be the same. Everyday people now have an unprecedented capacity to make an impact through the social Web,” says Broadcause founder and Experience Project CEO Peter Jackson.

Its latest effort to make an impact for non-profits and brands on the social web: a campaign that kicks off today in support of United Way's LIVE UNITED.

The Microsoft-sponsored weeklong drive aims to recruit one million volunteer educators, readers, tutors and mentors by June 21. Continue reading...

Mad Men fans let out a collective groan last week when news hit that an extension of the show was at risk because AMC, its cable network home, was fighting with the show's creator, Matthew Weiner, over terms.

One of those terms, interestingly, was that AMC wanted Weiner and Lionsgate (the production company) to allow more commercial time and more product placement in order to accommodate salary demands — and, naturally, make more money from the franchise.Continue reading...