• by Adam Bernard , June 8, 2001

Every week brings a myriad of ad campaign and website launches and it's nearly impossible to keep up with them all. If you missed a few, here are some the major launches of the week that was, and the week that will be.

Pepsi-Cola Company announced a global sponsorship and advertising agreement with Shakira, the Latin pop sensation and Grammy award winner. Shakira's looking to expand her presence in mainstream America with her new crossover English album. Before selling a single English-language record in the U.S., though, she's started her relationship with Pepsi, which will include two new TV commercials and sponsorship of Shakira's worldwide concert tour beginning later this year. The new TV commercials -- in English and Spanish -- are scheduled to begin airing this week on MTV, WB, FOX, Univision, Telemundo and other outlets. The TV spots will run throughout the balance of the year.

In other news involving songstresses, L'Oreal announced the signing of an exclusive worldwide contract with singer Beyonce Knowles of "Destiny's Child" as spokesperson for the company and its brands. Representing L'Oreal's "Feria" hair color brand, Beyonce's first L'Oreal commercial made its debut on Canadian airwaves on June 4th.

Continuing with the musical theme, Hampel/Stefanides, a full-service advertising agency, announced the launch of a national advertising campaign on behalf of CDNOW, the online music store. The campaign will focus on stimulating purchases and building greater brand awareness for the CDNOW website. The campaign launched June 4th and will feature 15-second TV spots and 30-second radio spots. The media mix also includes multiple black and white newspaper ads in cities across the country including Miami, Sacramento, Minneapolis and St. Louis, reinforcing CDNOW's wide selection of music. The humorous and edgy television spots feature clips from actual music videos for obscure groups including the tropical sound of Keola Beamer, the throat singing music of Anatoli Kuular, and the indie rock sound of James Kochalka Superstar. The clips are accompanied by the message, "If we have this, we'll have the music you're looking for." The radio spots utilize the same format.

NBC will launch its new hidden-camera series "Spy TV" three weeks earlier than planned. The Endemol USA/Next Entertainment-produced series, which was supposed to start July 10, will now premiere with a special one-time-only preview Thursday, June 21, at 8:30 p.m. after "Friends." It will then shift to 8 p.m. Tuesday on June 26, followed by an original episode of "Go Fish." NBC is planning to air "Spy TV" in half-hour and hour-long versions throughout July. Another Endemol-produced reality series, "Fear Factor," starts up Monday on NBC.

Staying in television, The Independent Film Channel Canada (IFC), one of the new "Category One" digital television channels to be launched in September 2001, announced a contest for first-time feature filmmakers. The "Trailers First" contest is sponsored by Panasonic Canada Inc. and is being run in conjunction with the edgy web entertainment portal Trailervision.com, and its team of producers. The contest calls for budding Canadian screenwriters to submit feature-length scripts. Three winners will be selected to have trailers produced from their scripts by Trailervision. The trailers will be broadcast on IFC during fall 2001, and on the Internet at ifctv.ca and trailervision.com.

Kmart Corporation and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. announced an exclusive national promotion designed to give dad a little World Wrestling Federation attitude this Father's Day (June 17th). This is the second national promotion undertaken by the two companies this year. For every $20 worth of World Wrestling Federation merchandise purchased at any Kmart or Kmart Supercenter across the country, customers will receive a Wrestlemania historical DVD and a three-month subscription to WWF Magazine -- a $35 value. The promotion kicks off June 10 in Kmart stores nationwide with in-store signage and in the June 10 Kmart weekly ad circular featuring World Wrestling Federation Superstar, #1 New York Times best selling author, and devoted father, Mick Foley. The promotion will last through July 31, 2001, or while supplies last and is available to United States residents only and excludes Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

Juxt Interactive, a Southern California-based interactive marketing agency, presents the phase-two launch of billabong-usa.com this week. New features include fresh content to further define Billabong-USA as more than just a surf site, including team riders such as skateboarder Brian Patch, surfer Shane Dorian, and snowboarder Andrew Crawford. More than just a redesign, Juxt also puts the site into the hands of the user with interactive features like video clips, insider information on team members, industry news, and the latest products available from Billabong.

The foundation operating the Guggenheim museums is nearing the launch of a for-profit art website, a project backed with money from General Electric Co. a subsidiary of GE Capital. Guggenheim.com, founded in May 2000, will be a one-stop shop for visual and performing arts, according to the New York- based Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which operates museums in New York and Bilbao, Spain. Content for the site will come from the foundation's museums and collections worldwide, as well as other institutions, including the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Albertina in Vienna, Austria. To support itself, Guggenheim.com, also backed by Softbank Venture Capital and Pequot Private Equity, will sell advertising, subscriptions and syndication and sponsorship rights.

Intervisual Communications, Inc., a leader in the paper engineering and manufacturing of multi-dimensional ad inserts, direct mail and promotional premiums, has added the Bounty Towel (Procter & Gamble) new product launch to its long and prestigious list of clients. Working through the New York advertising agency Jordan, McGrath, Case & Partners, Intervisual's cutting-edge dimensional print pop-up insert for the new Bounty-in-a-box product launch will make its debut in the July issue of In Style Magazine, and is scheduled to appear again this fall in other publications. The ad, which is neatly contained within a four-page spread, opens to a perfect pop-up replica of the new Bounty towel dispenser - complete with towel. Ad copy is designed to imply that since spills can happen anywhere in the house you'll want a Bounty-in-the-box for every room.

Staying in the home, Ascendant Media, an online media property, has been selected by Price Pfister as a partner for the faucet-and-accessory manufacturer's online marketing efforts. The Price Pfister Home Remodeling Sweepstakes, offering $1,000 worth of faucets as a prize, marks the 90-year-old company's first foray into online sweepstakes. Launched exclusively on Ascendant Media's EZsweeps website on April 11, the promotion has already generated more than 40,000 entries, exceeding the company's expectations.

NetZero Inc., a provider of free and pay Internet access services, has developed broadcast quality television advertisements utilizing web-based creative technologies. The ads, created with Macromedia Flash, featuring NetZero's new pay Internet service, NetZero Platinum, are currently airing on the NBA on NBC and will run through the completion of the NBA finals in June.

The Internet arm of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in partnership with AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, said this week it will launch a website called Wal-Mart Connect, offering Internet access to Wal-Mart customers for under $10 a month.

Z-Tel Technologies, Inc., a provider of advanced local and long distance phone services, has signed former professional football player and coach Mike Ditka as its company spokesperson. Z-Tel selected Ditka as a spokesperson primarily because of his strong presence in the Chicago area, a market that the company believes offers Z-Tel significant growth potential. Ditka is perhaps best known for his successful years as head coach of the Chicago Bears during the 1980s and for the Bears' win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

He defies pain. He defies defense. He defies gravity. And during Wednesday night's Game One of the 2001 NBA Finals, Allen Iverson defied L.A. and shocked the world by leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 107-101 gritty, hard-fought win. Reebok celebrates Iverson's incredible talents in a :30 "Defy Convention" television ad entitled "Any More Questions?" scheduled to launch Sunday night during Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Philadelphia. The ad, created by Berlin Cameron and Partners, New York, is scheduled to run in several key U.S. cities: Boston, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.