The Polaroid brand name has long been married to a seemingly ancient past that had cameras that actually printed physical manifestations of each image soon after they were taken. These days, photographers of all stripes, whether casually clicking on their phones or pulling out their high-end single-lens reflexes, have gone all-digital.

Now Polaroid—which hasn’t produced its iconic cameras or film since 2008 after going bankrupt and being sold off in 2001—is rebranding itself for the digital age and opening up branded stores that aid consumers in printing out their favorite digital works. Its first branded store, Polaroid Fotobar, has now opened in Delray Beach, Fla., just north of Boca Raton. The stores, announced at CES in January, aim to help folks “liberate” images from the “confines of their digital devices.”

Photography as a hobby has gained a lot of interest now that it has gotten much easier for people to tote around cameras and capture images in all sorts of locations, however it remains unclear how many consumers want to print out those images rather than just keep them all in purely digitized forms.Continue reading...

The list reads like a Who’s Who of A-list celebrities: Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Victoria Beckham, Swizz Beatz, will.i.am. But it's not a concert bill.

Instead, it's a list of stars who have recently agreed to serve as creative directors for brands — a trend that seems to blur the lines between star bling and business acumen.

Bud Light Platinum is the latest, announcing this week that it's inked deal with Justin Timberlake “to provide creative, musical and cultural curation for the brand.” The collaboration is to debut at Sunday’s 55th Grammy Awards via an ad, "Platinum Night," which features his latest single, "Suit & Tie." "Bud Light Platinum brings a refined, discerning aesthetic to beer that plays well with what I'm doing," Timberlake stated in a press release.Continue reading...

BlackBerry recently announced it's tapping the creative mind of Alicia Keys as "global creative director". Polaroid did the same with Lady Gaga. 

As of today, combine another major brand with a celebrity "creative director:" American fashion designer Marc Jacobs and Diet Coke. The soft drink, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, made the announcement just as Fashion Week is ready to kick off in New York.

Jacobs will provide general creative input and what Women's Wear Daily called "whimsical, feminine" packaging for the brand, according to the Stylecaster blog, while Diet Coke's new commercial ("Photo Booth Break") reveals Jacobs as its latest fashion designer collaboration.Continue reading...

Brands and marketers are heading to Las Vegas for the International CES show this week, which is expected to be an "evolutionary" showcase for "phablets," smart cars, mobile entertainment, celebrity-gawking and trend-watching. So what's in store for this year's edition of "the mother of all trade shows"?

A lot of noise from the many brands looking to make some noise in Vegas, including:

• Audi and Toyota will unveil self-driving cars among other auto brand moves.
• Corning will unveil tougher Gorilla Glass for smartphones and tablets.
• Google TV news is being closely watched, along with YouTube integration, while execs speak on "Brand Matters" lunch panel.
• Huawei is bringing the Ascend D2 among other "competitive" new devices.Continue reading...

Remember when Polaroid brought Lady Gaga to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as the brand's new creative director? This upcoming CES, Polaroid will unveil branded retail stores that will enable “liberating” photos from the “confines of their digital devices.”

The grandfather of photography is opening 10 Polaroid Fotobars, experiential retail stores that promise to help consumers manage the photography deluge triggered by digital devices, so images can be printed and edited and the whole process assisted in-store by expert “Phototenders.”

“It’s painful to hear an old photography company that is attempting to revitalize itself call photo printing stores 'cool and hip,' but the premise actually sounds both cool and hip,” notes Venturebeat.

The first Fotobar will open in a 2,000 SF store in Delray Beach, Florida in February, with subsequent openings including New York, Las Vegas and Boston. The Delray Beach location includes “The Studio,” a multi-purpose room hosting photo classes, private parties and a space for portrait photos.Continue reading...

Just because Polaroid isn’t producing the instant film cameras that dominated that marketplace for 60 years doesn’t mean it's just going to disappear from the scene altogether. PetaPixel.com reports that Polaroid and The Impossible Project are teaming up to release 6-10 Polaroid Classic-branded products each year. The first item in their collaboration: a do-it-yourself paper-camera kit. The kit (only $20) contains materials to create replicas of six classic Polaroid cameras out of paper. The set will include little fake Polaroids that will “develop when rubbed,” the site notes.

The two companies famously paired up in 2008 when cofounders Florian Kaps and André Bosman met at a party for the closing of a Polaroid plant in the Netherlands. The pair teamed up (along with Marwan Saba) and bought the plant and its machinery in order to take over the instant-photo business that creates products that work with Polaroid cameras. Now, Impossible has offices in New York and Vienna, while Polaroid is putting its energy into consumer electronics and eyewear these days. The two will also work together to sell off the final “batch of Polaroid film ever produced,” the site notes. 

The announcement of the new products came in conjunction with the kickoff of this year’s massive Consumer Electronics Show. At last year’s CES, Polaroid announced that it had partnered up with Lady Gaga to announce its new Grey Label, which was to be co-designed by the performer.Continue reading...

The first Muppets movie in six years hits theaters a day before Thanksgiving with the hopes of rejuvenating the franchise. The last two films—Muppets Wizard of Oz (2005) and It's a Very Merry Muppets Christmas Movie (2002)—largely fell flat. This time around, titled simply The Muppets, the new film hopes recapture the success of the 1979 original The Muppet Movie, which was not only a critical darling but also the highest-grossing Muppet movie of all time.

But it's a new age of filmmaking, and The Muppets are tacked with more than entertainment. Like all other Hollywood stars, they're being asked to sell a film, and, in the process, move product. Muppet News Flash: the film is going to have product placement.Continue reading...

The week before Halloween is always zombie week. This time last year, retailer Sears hit it big with a successful zombification campaign that turned the Sears website into a zombie-infiltrated .com of the walking undead, including the "Blue Zombie Crew, your trusty undead experts."

Emboldened, the retailer is back this year with an even bigger zombie Halloween campaign, this time enlisting its Craftsman tools brand. And, of course, braaaiiiiinnnnnssssss!Continue reading...