#activation

On Friday, Google announced that it had mapped its first NFL stadium, Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium. Visitors to Google Maps can take a VIP, 360-degree interactive photo tour of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, the first imagery of inside an NFL stadium in Google Maps. So if you've ever wanted to know what it's like to march out of the tunnel and down the field towards the end zone, just like Andrew Luck, here's your chance...

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"Together with the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium, we’re thrilled to give you, the fans, a behind-the-scenes look at the home of the Colts, and enable anyone to “visit” the stadium from wherever they may be," writes Evan Rapoport, Product Manager, Google Maps.

#activationstag

#deals

British fashion retailer, TopShop, has teamed up with Google for its upcoming London Fashion Week show. As part of the partnership, Google will equip models with cameras so that fans can see the catwalk live through a models' eyes. Take a peak at how the search giant aims to revolutionize fashion, one 'model cam' at a time.

#properties

Manchester United's sponsorship revenue for the second quarter by 48.6%, over the same period from a year ago, to £20.8 million; driven by the addition of several new regionally-focused sponsorships including deals with Kansai and Singha (global; headquartered in Japan/South Africa and Thailand), Wahaha and Multistrada (regional; China and Indonesia respectively); and China Construction Bank and Denizbank (financial services; China and Turkey).

The big news from Man-U's second quarter results, however, was the announcement that the club has secured a new eight year sponsorship agreement for the Manchester United training kit. Executives say that an announcement is forthcoming with further details. Back in October, team officials indicated that they had bought out its $64 million trai...

#activation

The Poland Spring brand was the lucky beneficiary of this painfully awkward sip of water during the GOP response to last night's State of the Union speech. So what's a fast-thinking brand, unexpectedly thrust into the national spotlight, to do?

This response on the Poland Spring Facebook page this afternoon...

#activationstag

#activation

Mixing swimsuit models with Lexus IS ones, the clever folks over at Team One have come up with a unique way to make the automaker's ad come alive in this year's SI Swimsuit issue. By matching your smartphone with the image, three models from this year's issue begin to emerge from the background of the ad. Watch below.

#trends

Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue hits newsstands today with its 50th edition. The swimsuit franchise (they don't call it an issue anymore) now includes a plethora of digital, social, broadcast, publishing, mobile, consumer products and experiential marketing extensions, reaches more than 62 million people annually! For partners and advertisers, it's one of the best ways to reach 18 to 34 year old men across the globe, which is probably a big reason why the Swimsuit franchise is now one of Time Inc.’s biggest revenue drivers, raking in more than $1 billion annually and a full 7% of SI's annual revenue. All of which may make you wonder why Target is one of Swimsuit 2013's biggest sponsors? In any case, don't let that stop you from taking a digital flip through the pages of Swims...

#deals

The playbook for a sponsorship press release is pretty standard. The garden variety presser features pre-packaged, snooze-worthy buzzwords like "really excited," "a perfect match," and "long-term partnership." Insert a few of those, take out anything controversial and you're usually good to go. So it was fantastic to see this feisty nugget from yesterday's generally positive press release announcing the new Yankees-Ticketmaster deal:

“The Yankees Ticket Exchange will be a safe, convenient, reliable and expedient way to purchase and sell guaranteed authentic Yankees tickets," said Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees Managing General Partner. “It is unfortunate that unscrupulous resellers utilize deceptive practices and tactics and employ unofficial websites, all of which give rise to coun...

#deals #trends

For the first time, Yahoo has sold all of the partnership inventory around an original program to a single ad agency. PHD, which manages such brands as Foot Locker, Safeway, and Lord & Taylor, cut the deal today for season 2 and 3 of Yahoo's Bachelor spoof, “"Burning Love."

However, PHD is not only the exclusive sponsor of the original web series “Burning Love,” but rather the deal will allow the agency to integrate multiple brands -- the firm's clients -- into various points within the show.

Could the deal represent a new bundled way of selling digital original programming to agencies and in the process give bigger agencies more leverage to negotiate favorable for their clients? Yahoo's blog announced the sponsorship by saying that "producing top-quality original videos is a...

#campaigns

In a not so subtle bit of irony, DISH Network's new multi-million dollar “Only the Hopper” ad campaign, which starting today will include television, radio, print and digital ads, celebrates the death of one of the mediums it plans to use. The new campaign follows the Boston Guys as they demonstrate how the second-generation Hopper enables customers to watch their live and recorded home television content on Internet-connected tablets, smartphones and PCs at no additional charge. The new ads will likely up the ante in DISH's ongoing fight with the networks, which are suing the Colorado-based company over its new Hopper ad-skipping technology.

#campaigns