Nike Skirts Ambush Issue By Taking On The Idea Of 'Official'

Nike yesterday launched a series of brilliant ads on YouTube for its "Find Your Greatness" campaign, which will soon run across the world in 25 different countries. Obviously, the campaign, which is also creating a social media stir under the hashtag #findgreatness, is released to coincide with the Olympics starting this weekend, but there's little chance you'll mistake Nike for an official spo...

VW Creates Beetle-Branded Shark Cage For Sponsorship of Shark Week

Volkswagen of America will be the presenting sponsor of Discovery Channel's 25th anniversary Shark Week this August and as part of the partnership, a special Shark Week-branded Volkswagen Beetle shark cage has been created by the automobile's engineering team to crawl the ocean floor in search of ocean predators. Volkswagen and Discovery Channel have been working with marine biologist and sh...

[VIDEO] Check Out Beckham's Adidas Photo Booth Stunt

Perhaps a slightly less intrusive take on the Adidas Netherlands stunt, the famed apparel brand brought David Beckham along to surprise UK fans who recently thought they were taking a fun photo to support Great Britain's Olympic team. #activationstag

The Gold For Most Inappropriate Olympic Sponsor Goes To...

According to a new study by market research firm, Research Now, McDonald's is most often identified as the most inappropriate Olympic sponsor. The study surveyed 7,200 respondents across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia to find that many consumers are confused about which companies are official Olympic sponsors, and believe that some are more “inappropria...

Performance-Enhancing Beer Pokes Fun At Olympic Partners

No stranger to stirring up sponsorship controversy, Scottish brewery, BrewDog, has come up with an interesting way to tap into the Olympic buzz. Tired of seeing fast food and sugary drink Olympic sponsors, the company created a 6.5% India Pale Ale infused with creatine, coffee, guarana, ginseng, gingo, maca powder, matcha tea and kola nut. Here's the viral video, which it seems may test the ...

Not To Be A Downer, But The World's 2nd Largest Ad Agency Is More Excited For Rio

While London 2012 has gotten all the hype in the run-up, many of the world's largest advertising agencies have been quietly making big moves over the past few years to capitalize on what is perceived to be a bigger prize, South America. One of those agencies is Interpublic Group. Brazil, over the next couple years offers what some to be the perfect confluence for marketers -- two of the world'...

Manchester United Gets Fifth Shirt Sponsor in 134-Year History

Aon is handing over the keys to its £20 million/year Manchester United shirt sponsorship. Chevrolet, the current Official Car Partner of the Club, will become only the fifth shirt sponsor in the famed soccer club’s 134 year history. Terms of the seven year deal were not released. The announcement comes only one day after the dismissal of General Motors' CMO Joel Ewanick for what the Wall St...

Wembley Takes The Fall For Visa Payment Fiasco

Soccer fans like beer. Lots of it. So it was a big problem when a packed house of soccer fans was unable to pay for food and drinks during Great Britain's first Olympics match. Fans attending the match against the United Arab Emirates at Wembley were left in the cold when Wembley inexplicably stopped accepting card payments from the only credit card available for usage due to its ~$100M sponsor...

Report: GM Execs Altered Man-U Deal That Led To Marketing Boss' Resignation

The plot line surrounding the massive General Motors-Manchester United sponsorship deal continues to thicken. Bloomberg today is running a story that GM's most senior execs, while agreeing to honor the sponsorship deal with Man-U, had to go back and alter the deal terms, which reportedly led to the resignation of marketing chief, Joel Ewanick. From Bloomberg: "GM leaders had to ask for ...

Did Dr Dre Ambush The Olympics?

According to The Guardian, Rapper Dr Dre has crashed the Olympics with his upstart headphone brand, Beats by Dre, sending Team Great Britain athletes special versions of his Beats headphones, which are apparently being worn by athletes at the Games. Though the headphones became popular among athletes and celebs well in advance of the Games, the Guardian reports that tweets sent by Team GB athle...