Hasta La Creative!

Kimberly Clark has unveiled a new super premium diaper under its Huggies brand that includes natural, organic materials and ingredients to provide gentle protection for new babies, as well as initial steps toward environmental improvements, without sacrificing performance.

The new Huggies Pure & Natural diaper is hypoallergenic, latex and fragrance free and features a breathable outer cover that includes organic cotton. The liner includes natural Aloe & Vitamin E and materials from renewable sources, and the product’s outer packaging is sourced from 20 percent post-consumer recycled materials. The new diaper will be offered in 6 sizes, from newborn through size 5.

K-C expects the Huggies Pure & Natural diapers will help the brand build inroads with those moms who are most interested in products that include natural materials to provide the best care for their babies. According to a K-C consumer research study, the moms surveyed expressed a strong interest in purchasing Huggies brand diapers that included organic and natural materials.

Huggies Pure & Natural diapers will be widely available in North American retail outlets later in April.

(Source) Press

With a proven brand marketing tactic bringing in the bacon, Church’s Chicken has placed a positive outlook for its brand. The latest tactic is their 99-cent value menu offering launched in January during a period typically slow for most restaurants in the quick-serve industry, the new value menu offers eight items for under a dollar. The success of the value menu especially during a down economy only re-enforces the effectiveness of their multi-layered marketing approach to drive value while staying true to the brand’s core essence of authenticity and time-tested great products offered at a value.

Church’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Farnaz Wallace said, “The introduction of the value menu gives customers an affordable option in stretching their dollar while satisfying their taste. The new value menu is just one more way to stay true to Church’s no-frills positioning. It underscores Church’s price-value position of providing good, authentic juicy marinated fried chicken – the menu serves comfort foods without premium costs.”

As a key ingredient to the brand’s marketing strategy and success, the value menu was developed to drive traffic while sustaining the brand’s positive same-store sales. Church’s domestic system experienced a growth of 3.4% and a rise of customer transactions of 6.3% during the month of January. The brand also averaged an 8.3% sales mix and continued to maintain over 6% sales mix during a 10-week time span.

By offering a variety of flexible and affordable menu options for customers, Church’s has maintained a sales growth momentum of 2.6% year-to-date. “The move to an even lower price point of these selected items only re-enforce our brand’s commitment of value during these tough economic times,” Wallace added.

(Source) Press

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will be launching a new campaign to promote its HIV prevention campaign. This time it shall be Blair Underwood who will be starring in the campaign which can be seen on billboards throughout Los Angeles.

The campaign continues AHF’s “Stay Negative” HIV prevention and testing campaign which began earlier this year with advertising materials that featured an eye-catching image of a semi-nude male with the words “Stay Negative” tattooed on his back. Like the previous “tattooed man” ad, the Underwood “Man Up” campaign includes billboards, an online presence which, in addition to its own website, includes banner advertisements on KIIS, HOT, MYFM radio station websites.

The attention-grabbing image of Underwood and his direct message to viewers is already having an impact. The billboards and an increase in traffic to the www.freeHIVtest.net website have coincided with a dramatic increase in capacity and testing through the AHF Public Health Division.

(Source) Press

Here is something worth watching from MillerCoors and RecycleBank. Just in time for Earth Day, MillerCoors and RecycleBank have partnered to relaunch “The Cycle,” an animated video that helps answer the important question of what happens to recyclables after they are collected. “The Cycle” won the “Best Educational Resource” award at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

RecycleBank is a recycling rewards program currently servicing households across 18 states. To date, RecycleBank has helped to divert more than 141,000 tons of recyclables from landfills and households have cumulatively saved more than 1.4 million trees and more than 95 million gallons of oil through their recycling efforts.

The Cycle takes viewers through each step of the recycling cycle, from recycling collection to processing to manufacturing new products from recycled material. With the goal of sharing the knowledge about recycling and helping people understand their eco-footprint, the video can be downloaded in three formats and is meant to be shared.

(Source) Press

 Never underestimate the power of a star. Not the ones high in the sky, but the other ones, dimmer, out at night in Hollywood. It’s been long-rumored that company’s with “celebrity spokespeople” are so yesterday, but they still keep on popping up, getting endorsements then smokin’ dope and losing endorsements. I guess we need someone to look up to…Madison Avenue says so. But, stars are important to products, to companys, and even to people. Stars can make us money, or totally ignore us. I asked for Lindsay Lohan to be my friend on Twitter. No reply. (bitch)
Enter Mario Armando Lavandeira, a man with stars in his eyes, as well. He’s someone that we love to hate, or hate to love. He lives a life of relative ease in Los Angeles, hanging out with Hollywood’s famous, or infamous, celebrities. He had a show on VH1 for a while, has been featured in the NYTimes at least twice, and has appeared on the Kathy Griffin Show, Nightline, The View, MTV, and others.

If you hadn’t already guessed, our secretive Mario has an alter-ego that he got on the steets: Perez Hilton. Perez Hilton, the self-proclaimed “Queen of all Media,” just celebrated his birthday on March 30th with some of his fave stars: Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Tara Reid, Salman Rushdie (what is he doing there?), Kim Kardashian, The Jonas Brothers, and of course, Paris Hilton. I know this because I visited his website. I’m not sure why I was there….but as I leisurely scrolled through the gallery of  star-studded birthday snaps, playing “Guess the Star ” with myself (I went 4/82), all hell broke loose. At the bottom of the gallery, glowing as it gloated at me, was the number of unique visitors  received in 9 days: 11,000,000 (EE-Lev-Un-Mil-Yun.) I rubbed my eyes. Squinted. It didn’t change. Chagrined, my first thought was: “The friggin losers visiting this site have NOTHING to do (which I proved…).”  The second thought burned my brain with a tinge of jealous awe: “Perez Hilton is a genius!”

In case you’re “not in the know,” Perezhilton.com is the online version of supermarket tabloids, but way-nastier. Perez berates the stars he seems to idolize, “outs” suspected homosexuals, refers to stars as “bitches” (and worse), and doodles degrading images on top of celebrity photos. Love him, hate him, or despise him, he does deserve some credit: The man has spent four years of his life blogging. For a living. Very successfully. This may be the greatest Social Media victory ever, not to mention that Perez is nearing “phenom stage.”

Just a guy that writes about other people-other  famous people- and is said to make some decent bank doing it… in the high six-figures for his “effort.” Perez won’t say how much he makes (How Rude!), but unconfirmed sources that sued him stated his take-home in 2007 was over $800,000. Not a surprising figure when his advertising revenue is reported to be $45,000 per day! Yep, just a guy and his blog, blogging away, blog, blog, blog. Bloggity-blog-blog, blaga blog blog, all day long, about rich people.  %*$& my life.

Maybe, like me, you think he’s a genius. But, he’s not. He’s a failed actor and former receptionist that was fired from his publicist job at the Star. He started blogging because ”it looked easy.” Okay, I will add lazy to his attributes. On a nicer note, his story does inspire “wannabe writers,” like me; while I am bustin’ ass to get a Google link on my blog, he has the likes of  MTV, Kentucky Fried Chicken, “Twilight,” famous musicians, chic LA boutiques, Walden University, weight loss products, and a host of others gracing his pages. Daily.
Some facts about Perezhilton.com:

• The site’s demographic is mainly female,
• Average age is 26 
• comScore rates the site among the Top 10 Entertainment sites 
• Monthly unique visitors, U.S.: 1.3 million
• Global (he’s global?) unique visitors: 2.4 million

With a thriving blog that’s generating bucks, buzz, and press, what’s next for this astute entrepreneur?

Believe it or not, he’s “hard at work” extending the Perez Hilton brand. It’s rumored that he doesn’t write anymore–it took too much time. Others dish dirt for him now. It has, afterall, been four years of work. This new found freedom from writing gives him time to drop in on morning talk shows and comment on the latest starlet, run amok. Plus, there’s always Empire Perez to fret about. As we went to press this morning, the empire included a YouTube channel dedicated to Perez Hilton, and a line of clothing dedicated to Perez Hilton. Seriously, though, perpetuation is on his mind, because the one lesson he’s learned dissin’ the elite for four years, it’s that fame is fleeting. Today’s darling is tomorrow’s Jenny Craig spokesperson.

**No Stars Were Hurt During The Research and Writing Of  This Report.**

 Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner & Buyer with over seven years of B2B & B2C experience. His interests are emerging media, schweet  ideas, and redefining the status quo (not necessarily in that order.)  He’s passionate about writing and digs great creative executions based on strategy.  Follow him on twitter @jlo0312, or LinkedIn, www.LinkedIn.com/in/jefflouis

Honda is a familiar brand and a popular vehicle but the thing is, do you know its value and see if it matches your needs? Honda has proven to be a reliable brand through the years and the deal can only get sweeter as Honda embarks on a program aimed to ensure that customers only get the best option for their vehicular needs.

To provide consumers the necessary information to make the smartest decision when purchasing a vehicle, Honda is teaming up with Edmunds.com, the No. 1 auto-shopping site on the Web, to deliver “True Cost to Own a Honda” data to consumers.

The multiplatform campaign strategy developed by RPA, Honda’s longstanding agency of record, encourages consumers to compare Honda models to the most cross-shopped competition while calculating the long-term costs of vehicle ownership versus the price tag of a vehicle. The campaign features TV, online and radio.

“The voice of this campaign is honest and approachable. The goal is to get the attention of auto shoppers while differentiating the communication from competitors promoting a strong discount message,” said Gregory J. Smith, SVP, account director at RPA. “The TV ads include a clear call-to-action for consumers to check out the ‘True Cost to Own a Honda’ comparisons at Edmunds.com and are then tagged with compelling incentives.”

(Source) Press

It would be great to sponsor events or good causes when you can. But if you happen to be a member of companies seeking bailouts and then find yourself spending heavily on promotional support, expect all hell to break loose after a couple of hours. Ford is a familiar figure in the much celebrated “Big Three” auto industry bailout issue and now it finds itself being criticized for perhaps spending financial support in a questionable manner.

In a Complaint filed today with TARP Inspector General Neil M. Barofsky, National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) President Peter Flaherty wrote,

“Ford’s major donation to Al Sharpton’s group at this critical time calls into question CEO Alan Mulally’s commitment to what he called ’shared sacrifice’ at Congressional hearings in December.”

In a letter today to Steven Rattner, who directs President Obama’s auto industry task force, Flaherty wrote,

“Ford’s financial support for Sharpton places into doubt the judgment of Ford executives. I can think of no expenditure further removed from the core mission of saving the company and the American auto industry than bankrolling Sharpton. It is your responsibility to ensure that no more capital is wasted on controversial political causes, no matter how supportive they are of the administration you represent.”

Ford was a sponsor of the National Action Network 2009 National Convention (NAN) that took place April 1-4, 2009 in New York City. NAN was founded by Al Sharpton and the convention is his major fundraising event of the year.

NAN did not disclose the exact amount of Ford’s gift, but a “sponsor” designation for last year’s event cost $50,000. Ford has recently closed 17 plants in North America and has laid off over 50,000 employees. Last year, the company lost $14.6 billion.

Other corporate sponsors of last week’s event included American Honda, Anheuser Busch, Colgate-Palmolive, Comcast, Entergy, Home Depot, Johnson & Johnson, Macy’s, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Wal-Mart.

Bailout recipients GM, Chrysler and Citigroup were sponsors of the same event in 2008, but were not identified as sponsors for 2009.

(Source) Press

Flavored water gets a new look from one of the very first brands to hit the market as Fruit2O announces the re-launch of www.fruit2o.com. The site, which was completely overhauled, not only has a splashy new look, it also delivers more robust user content and additional features and information.

“The relaunch of www.fruit2o.com marks a big milestone for Fruit2O as we redefine the Fruit2O legacy and refocus the brand on our heritage in fruit,” said Dave Zellen, brand manager for Fruit2O. “From this point forward, the story of fruit and the refreshment of water will be integrated into everything Fruit2O communicates to consumers. We expect this new web platform to serve as the communications hub for all ongoing marketing efforts including public relations, sampling, events and special offers.”

Fruit2O enlisted Enlighten, an Ann Arbor, MI-based web design company to revamp the site. The agency’s primary role in the redesign project was to use the experiential, emotional, and performance building blocks of the brand to inform and engage the consumer while communicating the overall character and equity of Fruit2O. Enlighten also created a refreshing new design, information architecture and provided Fruit2O with the ability to add new and relevant information.

(Source) Press

Late today, JWT announced that it’s Chicago office was ceasing operation and would be soon closing their doors. The shocking news, published in AdAge and The Chicago Tribune, notes that JWT had been a landmark Chicago agency since 1891 (prior to the World’s Fair), and was once heralded as the world’s largest agency network. Breaking the news to the remaining Chicago employees during a meeting, JWT’s North America President, Rosemarie Ryan, stated that keeping the office open was “Not an affordable proposition.” 
JWT’s Chicago office was the creative juice behind innovative campaigns that transcended advertising to play a part in American culture. Most of us have had the Oscar Mayer tune, “My bologna has a first name,” stuck in our heads. JWT also masterminded “Snap, Crackle, and Pop” for Rice Krispies, as well as branding 7UP as the “Uncola.”
During their 118 years of operation, many famous names walked the halls of JWT Chicago and have moved on to start new agencies, or are in key roles at competing shops. The demise of the Chicago office was as sudden as it was surpising, not only shocking the Windy City, but the industry as well. Former employees, adversaries, and well-wishers have left messages of sadness, anger, and condolence on both the AdAge and Tribune websites since the story broke. There is a small possibility that JWT will leave a satellite office in Chicago if the Illinois Tourism account, currently up for review, is retained. Today’s bleak news, however, will surely have a negative impact on this effort.

Freebies are a welcome thing and for people taking the AirTran Airways route, AirTran Airways and the Coca-Cola Company announced today that fans heading to the big games in Detroit this weekend will be well hydrated thanks to vitaminwater and Atlanta’s low-fare leader.

Passengers flying from Atlanta to Detroit on AirTran Airways today will be served complimentary vitaminwater beverages at the airline’s gates in anticipation of this weekend’s championship games.

“We’re excited to be able to partner with our friends at the Coca-Cola Company to offer free vitaminwater to our passengers that are headed to the big games in Detroit this weekend,” said Tad Hutcheson, AirTran Airways’ vice president of marketing and sales. “Staying well hydrated is as important in the air as it is on the court no matter which team you’re pulling for this weekend.”

(Source) Press