brand-e

Did you know that ole Snoop Dogg works with virtual goods outfit Virtual Greats to sell branded virtual goods using his name and likeness? Well, the rapper does, and his portfolio includes everything from avatar clothing to pets, to virtual gifts, and it’s offered on social networks and virtual worlds which cater to young teens, including the likes of WeeWorld, Gaia Online and Zwinky.
And according to WeeWorld, which boasts a global audience of more than 36 million registered WeeMee avatars, unit sales of Snoop Dogg branded items are 2.5 times higher than the highest selling non-branded, comparably priced goods.

Arsenal’s chief commercial officer, Tom Fox, will deliver a keynote interview at this month’s Sports Marketing 360 event. Fox will join the likes of James Tipple (Yahoo), Jeff Nathenson (Google), Sam Rush (Wasserman Media Group) Mark Osikoya (Coca Cola) and Nic Fletcher (O2) at SM360 in London 16th September.

It’s time to re-cover those old album covers. And what with all this brand and band stuff going around, clearly a branded makeover is on order.
Welcome then to My Album Cover Lifestyle on Flickr, a collection of classic rock compilation artwork redone as pages of the 2010 Ikea catalogue. If you’re an artist who has featured any kind of furniture and household accessories on your cover, then you are clearly very fair game.
Unsurprisingly, Oasis gets the flatpack branded treatment for slotting couches, curtains, wine glasses and picture frames into the artwork for Definitely Maybe.

By Simon Fuller. Facebook users engaged in ‘ceaseless activity’? Coca-Cola residing in an ‘abode of angels’? Just a few snippets from a rather novel book on branding from London-based graphic designer Daniela Meloni which takes modern day brands and drops them into the middle of Dante’s vision of Hell, in a work entitled The Branding Comedy.
So where Divine Comedy found Dante encountering the inhabitants of each stage of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, here God has been replaced by the all-powerful consumer, with brands littering each level of existence as they try to get closer to this omnipresent being.

Going to music events is the top live leisure activity among 16-to-34 year-old men in the UK, according to IPC’s Today’s Man: Live! research.
Almost two thirds of males surveyed said they attended a live music event in the last year, compared to just 55% who’d gone to a football match. Going to gigs was the most popular of live music experience, ahead of festivals.
The survey also showed that music is hugely important to young men, with 69% saying that it is part of their identity and defines who they are.

Says Andy Milligan* As the world’s media went into overdrive, reporting Fabio Capello’s blunt assessment that David Beckham would never play another competitive game for England, it appears the story had already taken another turn.
Within minutes of his announcement, the embattled managerial team had seemingly apologised to the player privately, for the less than diplomatic announcement, while the latest press reports tell of Beckham’s desire to fight his way back into consideration.
This is part of the magic that makes the Beckham brand so strong. It always throws up another twist and an extra turn, and the very size of his celebrity creates reactions that are often impossible to predict.

Do you need to look cool to make cool-looking chocolate? The Mast Bros – Rick and Michael – could be straight out of a rock band, but instead they busy themselves with the sweet stuff emanating from the old cocoa bean. They source their raw materials from family farms in places like Madagascar, Ecuador and [...]

Lady Gaga has five lessons for brands (well, Vivaki’s branded entertainment arm, Newcast, does). The first lesson? You have to tell a consistent story with character and vision. Second? Engage those fans in conversation. The rest? Well, here’s the Brand Romance video.