With the Hispanic market being one of the fastest growing consumer demographics around, its no surprise that brands have started to tailor marketing campaigns to their preferences. Pepsi is no different, as their latest campaign stars one of Latin America's hunkiest male embassadors—William Levy.  

Pepsi Next is promoting a giveaway of 400,000 free sodas with an interactive "Wheel of Levy" and six videos starring the actor playing different, albeit cheesy, roles.Continue reading...

NBC today confirmed that Jimmy Fallon is taking over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2014, ending months of rumors in a deal that was (according to Variety) brokered by Comcast exec and NBCUniversal president Steve Burke.

Leno will retire following a 22-year run, while Fallon's reign will begin, Variety hears, following the Sochi, Russia, Winter Olympics coverage on NBC and its sister TV networks.

A hint that a deal had been struck came earlier this week with the release of a video between the two late-night comics, which Leno and Fallon tweeted and NBC promoted online.Continue reading...

Jay-Z has sold about 50 million albums, won 17 Grammys, is worth almost $500 million and can well afford his own "gentlemen's club" and nightclub, is the co-creator of the Rocawear fashion line, a part-owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center stadium in Brooklyn, and happens to be married to Beyonce and the father of Blue Ivy Carter. 

So while he may be busier than your average Roca-a-fella, he's also making time for a brand new endeavor to stretch his business clout: becoming a sports agent.

The big news this week—via well-placed media clips in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times—is that Jay is opening his own sports agency, snagging New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano away from the sport’s best-known and most-feared agent, Scott Boras, to be his first client.

Cano is in the final year of his current contract with the Yanks so whoever negotiates his next one, which will likely be worth more than $200 million, will be reeling in a whole lot of dough. It’s looking like the man who'll be hauling it is in none other than Hova himself.Continue reading...

Pubic hair grooming accidents have, apparently, increased five fold in the last decade. "Nonelectric razors were responsible for 83 percent of injuries," according to the recent study by UC San Diego. If Gillette's new campaign is successful, ERs are going to see a lot more genital shaving injuries.

In what has to be one of the most transparent and intellectually insulting campaigns since whatever Axe did last, Gillette has assembled a team of models—led by encyclopedia entry for model Kate Upton—to tell guys, in no uncertain terms, that they have to shave their bodies. It's a genius idea with questionable execution and taste.Continue reading...

For a swath of American people, the Kardashian family has somehow become the cultural arbiters of sorts for what is cool and what isn’t. So when the pregnant Kim Kardashian went putting names on her baby registry for her bundle of joy due in July, all eyes were on what brands she put on the list.

Consumers won’t be shocked to see that Kardashian went totally high-end with Roberto Cavalli, Baby Dior, Fendi and Chloe making the cut, according to Bhaskar.com. You've got to be sure your kid’s spit-up is on only the nicest gear.Continue reading...

Pepsi promoted new artists like Hunter Hayes as part of its presence on the Grammy Awards last night, but most of its music marketing budget remains devoted to one very established diva: Beyonce.

Beyonce is demonstrating her personal-brand firepower these days like no time in recent years. Using her Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl halftime show as a launching pad, she also gave an award at the Grammys with Ellen Degeneres, made time to serve as the cover girl for the March issue of Vogue, taped an interview with Oprah Winfrey scheduled to run on Saturday and, of course, is awaiting reaction to the documentary about her that HBO plans to run on Sunday.

That's all by way of ramping up fan fever for her new "Mrs. Carter World Tour," which kicks off in Belgrade in April and finally reaches the United States in late June. MasterCard is holding a ticket presale event.Continue reading...

Whether Beyonce actually dared to lip-sync the National Anthem during President Obama's second inauguration, one thing is clear: The controversy has landed her back in the headlines, if not as disgraced as Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o.

Beyonce stands a major chance at public redemption with her Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, to be sponsored by Pepsi, and by the continued unfolding of her $50-million endorsement relationship with the soft-drink brand. There's also an upcoming HBO documentary about her life.Continue reading...

As Lance Armstrong’s personal brand and fortune hits the skids, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN and partner Discovery Communications are reaping the benefits.

The question is to what extent the interview with the disgraced cyclist will serve as a turning point for her eponymous network, which launched on Jan. 1, 2011.

Discovery has invested more than $400 million in OWN, and says the channel will turn a profit for the first time in the second half of 2013.

OWN is turning a corner on per-subscriber fees from some of the biggest U.S. cable and satellite operators, with a reach of 83 million homes and the contractual ability to boost those subscriber fees two years post-launch now kicking in.

So is OWN finally ready for prime time, and will the Armstrong exclusive enhance the network's performance?Continue reading...