Five years after McDonald's started its rebound from a tarnished image and heightened competition, global CMO Mary Dillon has the task of keeping the chain's sales singing even as the company faces a new challenge: the struggling economy. (In March, same-store sales grew only 0.9%, the smallest gain in about three years.) Dillon, now in her third year as McDonald's top marketer, is ready-armed with a flurry of integrated efforts centered on the Olympics, the "Kung Fu Panda" film and fresh "I'm Lovin' It" ads. She calls it "The Year of Innovation." McDonald's will look to activate its innovations …

Last year, marketers spent about $20 billion on nearly 900,000 events and parties. To corral stars, they are increasingly are hiring specialists in so-called celebrity wrangling, such as Los Angeles companies The A List; Feinstein/McGuiness public relations; and Flying Television in New York. "As much money as you spend on these affairs, they only work if the celebrity quotient is there," says Lori Levine, founder of Flying Television. What Levine offers brands is the access and persuasive skills to wrangle a star for their events. She started the company a decade ago as a side gig to her job …

Every year, more than 10,000 devotees flock to La Roy, a sleepy bedroom community near Rochester, N.Y., to watch the gelatin wiggle. General Foods shut the Jell-O factory here in 1964, but Le Roy--where a carpenter trying to develop herbal teas invented the stuff in 1897--remains devoted to the dessert. At the Jell-O Gallery on East Main Street, there is an exhibit displaying advertisements over the years and another that shows the evolution of Jell-O's three-ounce package. You can vote for your favorite flavor or watch Bill Cosby's popular commercials. Visitors come by the busload from all over …

Lionel LLC, which emerged from bankruptcy-court protection last week, will be an entertainment company and not just a toymaker, according to CEO Gerald Calabrese, a former Marvel Comics executive who shepherded the 108-year-old company through bankruptcy. "We're not the distribution and sales mechanism anymore," he says. "We're the intellectual property. Breaking into the broader toy market is key to Lionel's growth, Calabrese says. During the company's stint under bankruptcy protection, sales for Lionel starter sets--kid-friendly systems that range in price from $129 to $300--more than doubled. Developing new products that appeal to children and getting them on the shelves …

Health concerns, aging Baby Boomers' waning thirst for giant-size sodas and the softening economy are taking the fizz out of the 20-ounce bottle. Sold since the early 1990s, the 20-ounce plastic bottles revitalized U.S. sales for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo by getting Americans to drink larger servings. Often sold at prices similar to a two-liter bottle, they have also been highly profitable. To win back sales, several Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers are conducting tests on a variety of bottle sizes they hope will appeal to consumers looking for options. For example, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Coke's second-largest bottler, this week …

Steven J. Sasson, an electrical engineer, invented the first digital camera at Eastman Kodak in the 1970s. Management's reaction, he recalls, was: "That's cute -- but don't tell anyone about it." Since then, Kodak--which once considered itself the Bell Labs of chemistry--has embraced the digital world. "The shift in research focus has been just tremendous," says John D. Ward, a lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Kodak is by no means thriving. Digital products are nowhere near filling the profit vacuum left by evaporating sales of film. Its work force is about a fifth of the size it …

Hoping to do for show business what it has done for digital music, Apple will now sell new movie releases on the same day as its DVD releases. Titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. People who purchase a movie through iTunes can play it as many times as they like, just like a DVD. New releases will sell for $14.99, while most catalog offerings are priced at $9.99. The movies can be viewed on video iPods, …