In this down economy, brands both large and small possess smaller marketing budgets -- and often, less is more. For example, Shiner Beer used limited resources to create a presence at last year's Austin City Limits Music Festival. Here's the catch: the three-day festival already had an exclusive, paying beer sponsor.

The Lego Group creates 3D versions of Lego toys.

Last year, Coca-Cola tapped Canadian agency Taxi 2 to create a campaign to generate buzz for its Fanta soft drinks. Fanta is a well-known beverage in Europe, but remains relatively unknown in Canada.

Answer: diamonds, plastic and spoof ads. Question: What three things last forever? It's easy to mock the iconic "A diamond is forever" ad campaign from De Beers, especially around Valentine's Day. An eco-friendly organization has done just that.

Underwhelmed and fresh salsa. Those are the two tastes lingering in my mouth following the Super Bowl. The game was far more exciting than the ads. Even this non-football-watcher was glued to her seat.

It's hard not to notice the rooftop water towers atop many New York City buildings. Imagine looking up one day to find a water tower completely covered by a knitted yellow cozy, similar to smaller cozies often found on teapots? It happened for 24 hours at 395 Broadway, from Dec. 13 to Dec. 14. The cozy was installed to morph the water tower into a yellow pencil as part of a call for entry campaign for D&AD's annual award show.

It's every Playmate's dream: posing naked on a bed of Skoal smokeless tobacco cans. American Beauty, it's not; additional cans, not rose petals, cover Kara Monaco's lady parts. Mock as I do, Playboy does a great job at integrating user-generated content into the January issue. The last twelve pages of Playboy, including the back cover, are devoted to thanking Skoal's loyal customers, referred to as the brotherhood.

How do you pique the interest of potential book buyers about a newly published novel on curiosity? Make them curious.