Winter Olympic sponsors are preparing to launch campaigns supporting their involvement with the Olympics in Sochi. But unlike the overkill for London, it seems sponsors are more low-key, local, and designed to respond to growing consumer purchasing power in Russia. Coca-Cola, for example, is hoping to reach more Russians by promoting togetherness and partnering with up and coming local Russian talent to create an anthem for the Games.

The International Consumer Electronics Show is bringing in major brands like GE and Unilever, and what they are doing at the Las Vegas show says a lot about how they will reach consumers: they use the show to press the flesh with with media sellers like Google and the social channels. "Today brand marketers are coming with a much clearer picture of what they want to achieve," said MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan. "It's not the exploratory stage. They know what they're there for."

Nissan, as part of an effort to market its Nismo performance brand in the U.S., is looking to help dealers sell motorsports parts. Nissan parts and service officials are planning ways to step up marketing of the Nismo parts line, including a standardized motorsports boutique that would occupy floor space in participating Nissan dealerships.

There was an elaborate crop circle that appeared last week in a grain field in California. No, it wasn't an effort by M. Night whositz to rebuild his career. It was a stunt by chip-maker Nvidia. "This is a confession," said Jen Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia during a news conference in Las Vegas on Sunday, before he explained how his company came to create the circle in a field of barley near the town of Salinas.

20th Century Fox has come up with an ad for the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty that uses streaming-music service Pandora to generate recommendations to audiences. The "Discover The Secrets" pop-up online ad offers recommendation based on the music a user is listening and links to the film trailer. Walter Mitty star Ben Stiller Stiller has also created a playlist of 100 songs which inspired him while shooting and the playlist forms the basis for the Mitty station on Pandora. The album for the movie features tracks from artists like Jack Johnson, David Bowie and Jos Gonzalez.

A new study by Radius Global Market Research (Radius GMR) found that Millennials and Boomers share certain traits. For instance, an overwhelming number of both Millennials and Boomers routinely research products online. Boomers and Millennials are also both engaging via social media at healthy rates. Female Boomers and Millennials use Facebook at a nearly identical rate (90%). In addition, streaming movies and TV programming is a reality for both Millennials (77%) and Boomers (40%).

That Starbucks has opened a tea shop says something about where things are going this year. Tea leaves will be in entrees, desserts and cocktails. Another growth trend is artisan distilling, and gin may come back big this year. Other trends: new kinds of grains, nuts, grocery auctions selling unsold food, eating local, vegetarianism and vegetable-centric eating.

As quickly and quietly as former Cadillac executive Don Butler departed General Motors, he has resurfaced at Ford as executive director of connected vehicles and services. In his newly created role, Butler will lead Ford's development of a near-, mid- and long-term plan, with the goal of delivering a best-in-class customer experience both inside and outside of the vehicle, according to the company.

Pizza Hut is offering 50% off online pizza orders through Jan. 10. "We want to celebrate the fact that before consumers could buy books, clothes, music or vacation packages via the internet, they could place an online order for a Pizza Hut pizza," said Carrie Walsh, chief marketing officer at Pizza Hut in a release. To get the deal, one has to sign up for Pizza Hut's Hut Lovers email list and loyalty program.

It's not your daddy's Thunderbird, and I don't mean the sports car. Twist-off bottle caps are no longer the domain of the Gallo Brothers jugs, "wine product," and skid row. The change started with New Zealand and Australia vintners using screw tops for all grades of wine. Winemakers "prefer screw caps for white wines and reds meant to be drunk young," said Dave McIntyre who writes on wine for the Washington Post.