Rayovac takes charge with Musicmatch for Holiday promotion. Heartland Brewery launches casual campaign. Lennox Lewis hawks Red Stripe. Welcome to highlights of ad campaigns launched recently.

This spring, Smithsonian launched a promotion aimed at reinforcing to advertisers the magazine's highly educated and active audience. The "The Most Interesting Person You Know," (MIP) campaign will run until November and consists of direct mailers and an interactive sweepstakes. Monthly postcards featuring the headline, "The Most Interesting Person You Know..." will be distributed to more than 4,000 media buyers, planners and advertisers. The cards will highlight facts on Smithsonian readers, including the number enrolled in frequent flyer programs (4,382,000), how many purchased digital cameras in the last year (327,000) or have taken cruises over the past three years (1,088,000). The interactive contest will ask questions about Smithsonian's readers, with the opportunity for one entrant to win a grand prize trip to one of five featured destinations: Alaska, The British Virgin Islands, Peru, South Africa or France. Bear Brook Design created the campaign.

Preparing for Christmas in July? Rayovac will partner with Musicmatch in a holiday 2004 promotion designed to boost battery sales during the Holiday peak sales time. Consumers who purchase Rayovac Maximum Plus batteries will receive a gift certificate for tracks from the Musicmatch Downloads service, which offers more than 520,000 songs. Participants will be able to access songs by downloading the free Musicmatch Jukebox and entering a promotional code. Users will also be entered into a sweepstakes to win portable RCA MP3 players as well as $100 download certificates to be redeemed through Musicmatch Downloads. Musicmatch will also promote the program to its users. The program will be promoted in-store via merchandisers and displays. The promotion launches Sept. 1 and lasts until Dec.31. Cramer-Krasselt designed the campaign.

Production company The Ebeling Group teamed up with MK12 to complete "Play it Blue," a 45-second animated promotional spot for electronics retailer Best Buy. In "Play it Blue," one continuous camera fly-through takes the viewer through different scenarios that showcase Best Buy products used in daily life. Children play on Nintendo GameCubes, football fans watch a game on a plasma TV, kids on the stoop listen to a stereo, and subway commuters check email on PDAs. The closing graphics show the numerous aisles of a Best Buy store and the end-tag, "Thousands of possibilities. Get yours."

Monarch Entertainment Group (MEG), an entertainment marketing company, announced that Maybelline New York is the exclusive presenter of Chicks with Attitude, an entertainment marketing property created by MEG, launching in August. The 18-market music concert tour will feature Indie rocker Liz Phair, along with female artists The Cardigans with lead singer Nina Perssons, as well as Katy Rose and Charlotte Martin. Monarch Entertainment Group created Chicks with Attitude as an event-marketing vehicle for companies looking to connect with young women. The tour will hit 18 cities from New England to the West Coast. Concertgoers will be able to indulge in Maybelline New York makeovers before the show and leave with the tools to re-create the look-and the attitude-after. Advertising will consist of radio, print and online promotion. Ads will be supported by Maybelline New York and House of Blues. Retail support for Maybelline New York will include in-store counter displays, end caps with tour information, a regional sweepstakes in each tour market for tickets, merchandise, make-up, a trip to New York City, and a gift with purchase CWA compilation CD.

Heartland Brewery has selected SEED as its new agency of record, and its initial task is to relaunch Heartland Brewery with an overall brand image campaign for its family of individually distinct New York restaurants. The outdoor campaign, which broke Memorial Day Weekend, takes advantage of place-based media, with individual city maps specifically designed for each location. The headline, "You are here," will be prominently displayed on a large map visual, with an arrow indicating the exact location of the phone kiosk. The tagline, "Go home," provides directions to the closest Heartland Brewery location. The print campaign will break this summer and will appear in NY-based media such as Time Out NY, Playbill and the Village Voice.

West Coast Hospitality Corporation has launched a print campaign for Red Lion Hotels, using the tagline "Stay Comfortable." The campaign uses an illustrated lion to portray a guest experiencing a Red Lion Hotel. With the illustrated character, Red Lion Hotels plans to create a "brand mascot" that will eventually be featured on everything from hotel vans and collateral materials, to websites and roadside billboards. The campaign will break in daily newspapers and regional editions of USA Today in key markets for Red Lion Hotels, including Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas and Houston.

Guinness USA has launched a TV and online campaign for Red Stripe, starring former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis. The commercial, created by BBDO New York, features Lewis in a confrontation with the Red Stripe Ambassador, the brand's Jamaican spokesman featured in the ongoing Red Stripe advertising campaign. The 30-second television spot encourages viewers to visit RedStripeBeer.com to see Lewis and the Ambassador square off in a boxing match. Viewers can log onto the site to see how the story develops. The TV spot and web film debuted on July 5th. The TV commercial will air nationally.

In website launches this week:

SBI.Razorfish has launched an updated website for The New York Public Library. Featuring information about local libraries, special research collections, books and materials, digital galleries, classes and events, the site caters to curious browsers and avid researchers. The redesign entailed a makeover of 25,000 pages of information and resources. The site's improved look and functionality incorporates features from a user's point of view, and it provides access to various resources, including links to dozens of free electronic databases on topics such as Health, Homework Help, Job Resources, as well as access to full-text articles in thousands of newspapers and magazines.

MySpace.com has launched a music service on its website. MySpace Music offers music lovers and musicians an easy way to navigate and fully experience the multi-faceted, fast-paced world of music. Features include an area called Downloads, where bands and musicians can post up to four MP3s on custom web page s and share with existing MySpace members and User Testimonials and Ratings, that allows members to rate and comment on the band's music.