The BBVA Group and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have signed a multiyear marketing partnership designed to spotlight the bank's financial products to NBA fans. BBVA will be Official Bank of the NBA, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) in the United States, Spain and Puerto Rico. The bank also sponsors La Liga BBVA, Spain's top professional soccer league. Gregorio Panadero, BBVA Global Chief Communications Officer said, in a release, that the deal will help promote its BBVA Compass brand in the U.S. "Furthermore, both BBVA and the NBA align on many …

Chrysler Group LLC has signed an agreement with U.S. Bank around consumer leases on select 2010 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. 
The company, which has also announced a new roster of consumer incentives, says it is offering lease financing through both Ally Financial and U.S. Bank for Chrysler 300, Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Charger, Dodge Grand Caravan, Dodge Journey, Dodge Nitro, Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Liberty. The company says Ally Financial is still its preferred lender, and has financed 50% of Chrysler Group retail sales year to date. Chrysler's Ram truck brand is running a 60-day "Ram Handshake" …

Carat U.S. has picked up media planning and buying for energy drink brand Red Bull.  The account includes planning and buying across online and offline media for the marketer's complete line of products, events and programs. Billings were not disclosed.

OMI Industries' Fresh Wave odor-eliminator brand has signed on as a sponsor of the 2010-2011 Chicago Bears football season. Chicago Bears' locker rooms, suites at Soldier Field will be outfitted with Fresh Wave odor eliminator. 
The Chicago-based company will also have Fresh Wave products in guest suites and events hosted by the Bears, including NFL 101 at Soldier Field. The effort includes giveaways on @fresh_wave on Twitter and the Fresh Wave Facebook fan page.
 


Mobile question-and-answer company ChaCha has added a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) option that allows brands to package sound and motion in messaging. The new MMS service supports video such as movie trailers and sports highlights, provides a text response code that launches video when consumers respond, and enables mobile coupons for redemption via barcodes. "MMS allows media to finally reach virtually all mobile phones in a way that advertisers can have their messages seen and heard," said ChaCha CEO Scott Jones, in a statement.  The company notes that MMS helps the majority of mobile users who don't own …

Edward Adler, who recently stepped down as the top PR executive at Time Warner, has joined the burgeoning enterprises of MediaLink LLC, as a senior partner. MediaLink, founded by consultant, lawyer and former media agency chief Michael Kassan, and run jointly by Wenda Harris Millard, has been diversifying rapidly, and Adler will build out yet another service offering: A strategic communications practice.

Aegis Media's Isobar North America unit this morning named John Reid executive creative director, based in its San Francisco office. He had been creative director at Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, where he led creative for Epson and RadioShack, including RadioShack's recent campaign featuring celebrity cyclist and philanthropist Lance Armstrong.  Previously, he was associate creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he worked with Volkswagen, Bell Helmets, Domino's, Ask.com, Burger King, Amex and Miller High Life, among other consumer brands.

WPP's G2 unit this morning said it has taken a majority-stake in DPI, a "shopper marketing" consultancy in Greater China. Effective immediately, DPI's offerings will be integrated into the operations of G2 Asia Pacific, a member of Grey Group.

Ad spending in the U.K. is s growing faster than originally forecasted, according to a revised outlook just released by Interpublic's Magna Global unit. Led by a surge in TV ad spending, Magna now estimates the U.K. ad economy will expand 6.2% in 2010, double Magana's original forecast for the market. Magna says its longer term outlooks for the U.K. have also been revised upward, with the market now expected to expected to expand at an annual growth rate of 3.3% -- vs. Magna's original forecast of 2.7% annually – between 2010 and 2015..

In a move some experts believe is a sign of an iffy season ahead, Toys"R"Us says it will open 600 tiny temporary stores--more than doubling its size for the holidays. The chain is taking advantage of widespread mall vacancies, rolling out the Toys"R"Us Express concept it used on a much smaller scale last year, when it opened 90 pop-ups. Adding 600 of the 4,000-square-foot stores to its current 587 full-size units means it will increase its selling space by 2.4 million square feet, adding10,000 temp employees. "It's an opportunity, and they are capitalizing on the 9% vacancy rate …