In a first-of-its-kind promotion, Verizon Wireless took over a major intersection on the streets of Hollywood and mounted a live concert to support the launch of its new music service. The stars were the Fugees, and the show was staged as a pre-Grammy award event at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. Almost 10,000 free tickets were distributed for the event, about half of them by street teams roaming Los Angeles in branded vehicles including Hummers and a double-decker bus with a DJ spinning tunes on the top deck. Other tickets went to the Verizon Wireless subscribers who …

Marketers are missing the boat when it comes to targeting Asian Americans because they don't know how to speak to them, according to multicultural marketing firm InterTrend Communications. And by doing so, they risk ignoring a demo that boasts higher education and considerable spending power. "There is still a dearth of secondary research on the product and brand usage behavior of Asian Americans in many categories," said Saul Gitlin, executive vice president of strategic marketing services at Kang & Lee, New York, a consultancy that specializes in the Asian market whose clients include the NBA, Western Union and The New …

After years of relying on word-of-mouth buzz to generate sales, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., is now taking a more traditional marketing path. The company is using TV ads to support a Valentine's Day promotion for a new heart-shaped doughnut. The campaign carries the tag line "Share the Love" and is running in three states: North Carolina, Missouri, and Georgia. The move into advertising isn't surprising, said Steve Hockett, president of FranChoice Inc., a company that matches potential franchisees with companies. "I think that they're falling more into the mainstream of marketing their brand," Hockett said Wednesday. "It's the normal evolution …

The beer industry is taking steps to clarify the dos and don'ts of marketing its product. As part of the push, the Beer Institute has modified its code that self-regulates beer ads, spelling out for the first time since a 2003 revision the parameters of what can and cannot be shown in ads. For example, brewers can now depict drinking and "romantic interactions," within limits, in their advertising. The new code also defines humor, parody and satire for the first time as something "readily identifiable as such by reasonable adults of legal drinking age." Beer Institute officials said the change …

Taxicabs have long served as rolling advertising venues with commercial messages on their roofs, trunks, and even on TVs inside the cab. But now comes a new taxi-related ad venue--hubcaps. In Houston, ads for the TNT cable network telecast of the National Basketball Association's All-Star game began appearing recently on taxicab hubcaps throughout the city. "We love them. They're a novelty. They're new," said Raymond Turner, president of Texas Taxi, parent of Yellow Cab. "We think it's an innovative way to advertise." Hubcap ads are relatively new in the U.S., but have been rolling along overseas for a few years. …

A quick, online poll by TheWall Street Journal showed that funny commercials carried the day in the advertising festival that is otherwise known as Super Bowl XL.  Respondents said their two favorites ads, in order,  were the spot for Federal Express in which a caveman is crushed by a dinosaur after failing to use FedEx, and the spot for Sprint Nextel that showed a man throwing his cell phone in his friend's face to demonstrate its "crime deterrent" capability. "I loved it. It was so unpredictable," said Tony Smith, a 29-year-old teacher in Denver, of the Sprint spot, crafted …

Advertisers who want to improve their e-mail marketing efforts need to concentrate on personalization and segmentation if they want to stand out in a recipient's cluttered mailbox. That's the first of ten "must-dos" recommended by EmailLabs in a new list intended to help e-mail marketers achieve their goals in 2006. Other tips n the list include focusing on metrics that matter, reviewing permission practices across your company's Web sites and at all customer-contact points within the company, and taking better care of long-term subscribers. The top ten list was developed after EmailLabs reviewed the practices of several hundred e-mail marketers …

When it comes to connecting their products with the Super Bowl, marketers should either put up or shut up, as far as the National Football League is concerned. That's the message the league wants to convey to so-called "ambush" marketers who try to look like a Super Bowl sponsor without shelling out the estimated $2.4 million for a 30-second TV spot during the game. "The Super Bowl is high season for commercial encroachment," says NFL in-house lawyer Gary Gertzog. "It's pretty busy right now. We're in discussions with people we've called and sent cease-and-desist orders to." One company that got …

Last year Emerald Nuts scored a huge touchdown with its single ad on the Super Bowl--sales more than doubled in the months following the game--and this year the company has even more ambitious plans. Not only will the marketer run another ad on the Big Game, but it has also cut a co-promotional deal with beer marketer Anheuser-Busch. Under terms of the deal, Emerald is being promoted with A-B's Bud Select brand on special "Bud Bowl" Super Bowl-related displays in the aisles of about 12,000 retailers nationwide. Some stores carry posters hyping the two brands, and one reads: "Bud Bowl, …

A former Miss Universe is the new celebrity endorser for Procter & Gamble's Clairol hair care division. The company said it has signed Dayanara Torres as a "brand ambassador" for its Hydrience hair color products. The 31-year-old actress and model became the third Puerto Rican woman to win the Miss Universe title when she was crowned in 1993. She has since appeared on the cover of Latina magazine and also in the TV soap opera "The Young and The Restless." Under the deal with Clairol, she will appear in English and Spanish-language advertising, public relations and retail initiatives for Hydrience. …