brand-e

The United Nations has launched on app on iTunes, Score The Goals. It’s an educational comic featuring 10 football UN Goodwill Ambassadors tasked with tackling ‘Millennium Development Goals’ while being saved from an island.

Brands just can’t get enough of musicians when it comes to hiring creative talent. Polaroid boasts Lady Gaga as its creative director, car maker Lotus has appointed rapper and DJ Swizz Beatz vp of creative design and global marketing – the artist also holds the same position over at Reebok – and last year, Puma recruited Professor Green as its Puma Social Ambassador, says Maria Stadtmuller.

The Australian Open is serving up some tennis social media in the shape of a team of Fanbassadors recruited to tweet and blog from around the courts, and from around the world. Already the tournament can count on the likes of Grand Slam Gal and OnCourtAdvantage to keep fans up to match speed.

Leading Premier League team on Twitter? That would be Arsenal with more than 1.1 million followers on the 140-character channel, ahead of Liverpool with a mere 640,000 and Chelsea with 560,000, writes Steve Mullins. That’s according to the latest Premier League social media stats from Freestyle Interactive.

Broadcaster Eurosport has launched its first on-air QR code campaign across Europe to enable viewers to access online and mobile tennis content during live coverage of the Australian Open. The campaign runs daily until 29 January on the flagship Eurosport channel, aiming to send fans to Eurosport.com’s Livescore app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Livescore provides score alerts, results and match schedules to complement viewers’ TV experience during the Australian grand slam tournament.

Chinese online game developer has inked a deal with French footballer Nicolas Anelka for the global promotion of Firefall, a team-based shooter game. Anelka, who plays for Chinese team Shenhua, will participate in various promotional initiatives for the game and has granted The9 the use of his name, voice and likeness. The agreement is for one year with Anelka netting €2.7 million.

Sport and entertainment events are increasingly being staged together to enhance the overall experience and extend the length of events, and therefore the time that followers stay with the content, says PwC’s Changing The Game report on the global sports market, writes Maria Stadtmueller.

Following in the footsteps of Premier League Manchester City, Championship football club Southampton is also making a play with augmented reality. Fans can download a mobile app developed by Blippar, point their smartphones at advertising banners in the city and access content on the club’s website.