Allstate Insurance Co will be the new title sponsor of the Sugar Bowl, which is part of the college football Bowl Championship Series. The four-year deal Allstate struck replaces Nokia's, title sponsor for the past 12 years. The game historically has been played in New Orleans, where "the insurance industry's response to the hurricane has been criticized," according to the Chicago Tribune. Asked whether the sponsorship was a move to improve Allstate's image in the city, marketing chief Joe Tripodi says the company wanted to "go deeper into college football"; the "second factor was to contribute to the revitalization …

Writing on his ANA blog, Bob Liodice lists the major efforts that food manufacturers have taken over the past few years to offer healthier products and curtail childhood obesity. Over the past three years, more than 4,500 new and reformulated products have made their way to supermarket shelves. Snacks with more nutrients and less fat, calories, and sugar can be found in abundance. For example: The entire General Mills cereal line contains 8 or 16 grams of whole grains, a combatant against heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. In addition, PepsiCo has removed the trans fat from its Frito-Lay snacks …

What are the best days of the week to send marketing e-mails? Friday had the highest open rates, and Sunday the best click-through rates, of e-mail campaigns analyzed by ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based e-mail marketing firm. Other tidbits: “business-to-business firms are better at getting responses from e-mail marketing campaigns than are business-to-consumer firms,” because of “the smaller marketing list segments that B2Bs tend to use. They're able to better identify the things their customers are looking for, which makes their messages more relevant.” Check out this piece in Business Week, a Q&A with ExactTarget principals, for more ideas. …

Among the big marketing plans in Sony's near future, the company next month will launch a massive ad campaign for its high-definition TVs; feature product placement in many of its new movies, including the James Bond sequel "Casino Royale"; and plug camcorders with its family-targeted "Emotion in motion" campaign. The push for high-def TVs is especially key because "HD is a huge paradigm shift. It's a huge opportunity. We haven't seen this since black and white went to color," Sony Electronics CMO Michael Fasulo told Brandweek.

Is the 30-second spot dead? No, but it's become the underdog in the eyes of advertisers lately, thanks to TiVo and DVRs. According to a study released this week at the Association of National Advertisers TV Ad Forum, close to 70 percent of advertisers believe that TiVo and DVRs will alter the effectiveness of 30-second ads. This shadow of doubt has caused marketers to look at alternative forms of TV advertising such as branded entertainment deals, product placement, and TV program sponsorships. In addition, 80 percent of marketers plan on redirecting more ad dollars to online ad spending and 68 …

According to a study conducted by ad network Tribal Fusion, the majority of ad clicks (91 percent) take place within the first five pages of a Web site. This should come as no surprise. The further you delve into a site to find what you're looking for, the less likely you want to be bothered with ads. The study was based upon visits from 750 Web sites in the Tribal Fusion network and views of 600 campaigns.

Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo have decided to play nice and have settled their differences out of court. The lawsuit stemmed from a TV campaign for Coke's Powerade Option that PepsiCo claimed unfairly compared it to Gatorade. The TV and print campaign, created by Wieden & Kennedy, claimed that a Powerade Option with 10 calories per 8.5-ounce serving "is better" than Gatorade, which contains 50 calories per serving. Per the settlement, Coca-Cola has pulled one ad and modified the language used in a second spot.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. announced it has paid $100 million for a majority stake (84 percent) in Tom's of Maine, the toothpaste brand which reportedly has a 60 percent share of the natural-oral-care segment in the U.S. The deal is part of a Colgate strategy to tap into the $3 billion market for natural oral- and personal-care products in the U.S. Tom's sales were not officially disclosed, but Deutsche Bank analyst William Schmitz estimated the figure at $40 million to $50 million annually.

In a move that some marketers hope will “open a new front in the commercialization of professional sports,” according to The New York Times, there’s a newly named Major League Soccer team in town--the New York Red Bulls, previously the MetroStars. Austria-based energy company Red Bull paid the Anschutz Entertainment Group more than $100 million this month for the rights to the club, a share of a planned stadium and the stadium's naming rights. “Any company that does significant sports marketing and sponsorship has to be looking at this very closely," Tim Westerbeck tells the Times. Westerbeck is a …

Teenagers have more disposable income than they know what to do with, and that's a good thing for wireless marketers. According to Glen LeBlanc, research director for wireless services at NPD Group, a mere 18 percent pay for their cell phone service. But fear not: this so-called Generation Wireless, a demographic that knows nothing of a world pre-cell phone, are more likely than any other demo to use the various offerings from cell phone providers, and would be the first to try new services. If this trend continues, expect higher cell phone bills for teens. According to M:Metrics, 17 percent …