Octagon Makes A Play For Multicultural Services; Acquires Agency From Alloy

Sports and entertainment sponsorship consulting agency, Octagon, is strengthening its multicultural capabilities with a new acquisition. Today, the Norwalk-based agency announced that it has picked up urban and multicultural agency, Alloy Access, in the process assuming Alloy Access' client portfolio, which includes adidas, Allstate, Bank of America, BMW, Castrol, GSN, Hennessy, MasterCard, Tr3...

AshleyMadison.com Wants To Sponsor NBA Player's Return to Italy

As the NBA lockout continues on, Italian basketball teams continue to flirt with NBA players. Tuesday's rumor du jour has an interesting match-maker: AshleyMadison.com. Italian League professional basketball club, Virtus Roma is in discussions with Canadian website, AshleyMadison.com, to work out a €1.5 million deal that would bring the Toronto Raptors player, Andrea Bargnani, back to his homet...

JWT's 26 Things To Watch in Music

Advertising and marketing agency, J Walter Thompson, has published its Things to Watch: Music Edition presentation and it's a great read for any marketers looking to figure out where music is headed and leverage trends into smarter partnerships. Three most important trends we pulled out of the presentation: #1: Access trumps ownership #14: Everyone's a DJ #20: Music + [ ] #20 on the list...

NIVEA Launches Facebook Contest To Star in New Year's Eve Kiss Commercial

For the fourth year in a row, Nivea is an official sponsor of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square. In addition to hosting a kiss stage and handing out about 30,000 samples of lip balm, today the brand is launching a Facebook contest that will let one couple star in NIVEA Lip Care’s new commercial set to air on New Year’s Eve. Details here. “For NIVEA, bringing people together...

Air Force Aims To Recruit New Partners With Sponsorship Website

Air Force say their community has a combined purchasing power of $30 billion, and now the Air Force officials who are tasked with commercializing Air Force assets are looking to do a better job of spreading the word to potential sponsors. To increase awareness of sponsorship, Air Force Services Agency officials today are launching www.ReachTheAirForce.com-- the official Air Force MWR comme...

BlackBerry Backs New Latin Talent Search Show

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's latin talent search show, Q’ Viva! The Chosen, is still on and today it's named its first two corporate partners - presenting sponsor, BlackBerry, and official airline, American Airlines. The talent search show, which has already started filming, will travel to 20 different Latin American countries seeking undiscovered talent and culminating with a live show di...

For $14 Million, You Can Sponsor This Airline's Jet Fleet For One Year

Did you know that for $14 million you can advertise for an entire year on the exterior of every Spirit Airlines jet? Presumably there are some caveats on the paint scheme. USA Today's Gary Stoller today takes an interesting look at how a growing group of commercial airlines "emboldened by billions of dollars of extra revenue collected annually for bag fees" are reaching out to advertisers with ...

Complaint To FTC Calls Doritos Marketing Tactics 'Deceptive and Unfair'

Four consumer watchdog groups today filed a complaint with the FTC that accuses PepsiCo and subsidiary, Frito Lay, of using deceptive digital marketing practices to target teens in what it says is a violation of of Section 5 of the FTC Act. The complaint filed by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog and The Praxis Project focuses on the Doritos Late Night c...

5-Hour Energy Titles Puerto Rico Tip-Off

5-hour Energy, the diet supplement which according to a recent study owns nearly 90% market share in the energy shot category, will be the title sponsor of the 2011 Puerto Rico Tip-Off next month. The 5-hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off runs from November 17-20th and will feature Alabama, Colorado, Iona, Maryland, Purdue, Temple, Western Michigan and Wichita State. “Serving as the title sponso...

Prada Board Mulling €40 Million Return To America's Cup Sailing

In a notice filed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Prada says the Italian fashion house is considering a 40 million euro sponsorship offer to join the Luna Rossa team for the 2013 America's Cup. If approved by the board, the sponsorship will be paid in installments over a 21 month period. After After ten years and three campaigns, Prada opted out of the 2010 America's Cup, but based on this...