Sears is taking on the daunting feat of rebranding approximately 450 Kenmore appliance models.  Kenmore has always been the brand that women’s grandmothers and mothers purchased and they believe now is the time to change that way of thinking.  Sears’ rebranding effort will include a new television, in-store and social media campaign (Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) that aims to get the attention of the modern female.  The Kenmore line of products have an advantage because their are product models for every budget, so even in these tough economic times, there are product fits for most consumers.

The revamp and relaunch is going to be targeting 20-something women, hoping that the new look and feel contemporizes the 83-year old brand.  Kenmore’s core consumer is what they are dubbing the “Savvy Mom,” “someone who is true to the Kenmore spirit. She’s practical and resourceful, but she’s also someone who doesn’t feel that she should have to trade off among style, performance and price. She is someone who believes she can get it all and not make any compromises.  She is also someone who sees stylish design and technology as a way to make a statement about who she is and her home. She is someone who prioritizes her role as mom and wife, but she feels younger than her mom did at that same age.”

This is going to be a huge undertaking for Sears and their 3 agencies involved (Y&R, Euro RSCG and MPG).  For more information about the relaunch, including their new website features and clips of their new commercials, go to: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3ie17592c1aa7a4688b39870d069abe47f?pn=1

Thanks to a new deal between Odwalla and the National Association of State Park Directors, Odwalla will be the first brand to have a presence in all 50 state parks.  Odwalla’s deal comes after the decision of the NASPD to allow the creation of national deals as a way to make up some of the revenue that the poor economy and the sagging state budgets have presented to the parks.

The health-focused juice brand will team up with all 50 state parks beginning in May and will re-launch their “Plant a Tree program.” This promotion will encourage consumers to visit the Web and decide where they would like a tree planted, free of charge.  Odwalla will support the promotion via retail as well as a Facebook campaign.

There are several companies that currently have individual state deals, such as Coca-Cola and California and Juicy Juice and New York.  But these national deals will provide both the parks and the sponsors with visibility to approximately 725 million visitors a year, compared to the 274 million visitors that visit the national parks.

For more information on the Odwalla deal, go to: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/promotion-incentive/e3iedf10d16b35b1c7a7d8cc2832e8abdef

Verizon and Skype are partnering up and will be offering the calling service on Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones with data plans.  The best part, subscribers will be allowed to make Skype calls from their smartphones without using any minutes.

Verizon Wireless 3G smartphone users with data plans can use Skype mobile to:

• make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
• call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
• send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
• remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

The Skype app will allows users to see their Skype contacts and call them directly from the Skype screen.  The only usage will be data, not Verizon minutes.  The drawback is that the application will not let you make calls through Skype to domestic telephone numbers, but hey, Verizon can’t give everything away for free.

The app is planning to launch sometime in March. Read more about the partnership at http://www.switched.com/2010/02/17/verizon-brings-skype-to-blackberry-and-android-phones/

General Mills is going retro with their cereal boxes sold at Target.  The company is hoping to evoke childhood nostalgia with their retro Trix, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms cereal boxes.  These limited edition boxes will be sold exclusively at Target for a month long promotion, being this weekend.  The suggested retail for these boxes is $2.75 per box.

This is the third straight year that General Mills and Target have teamed up in efforts to strengthen the manufacturer-retailer relationship.  Last year’s partnership allowed consumers who submitted proof-of-purchase labels from five retro cereal boxes to receive t-shirts with similar retro designs.  This year’s promotion includes games and prizes, like the Atari Flashback 2 game console, that take you back to your youth.

General Mills believes that retro is in right now.  They’ve seen the trends in clothing, cars and other packaging (i.e. Pepsi) and believe that their retro boxes will be a coveted item.

General Mills will support this launch via Facebook and hopes that people who pick up these retro boxes will post pictures on Facebook to help spread the word to all their friends.

For more information, go to: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5ea0ca8b29bfaf1c5c4ed7a1e4f766e4?imw=Y

Riding a yellow school bus to school used to haunt children and bus drivers alike.  Technology has now lessened the burden for both parties with buses now offering Wi-Fi internet access.  Officials in the Vail, AZ school district confirmed that they have placed Wi-Fi on buses for their 18-school district (spanning a 425-square-mile area).  The experiment of web access on buses has had an unexpected, yet much needed result: well behaved and more well prepared students, while previous behavioral problems have almost disappeared.  Since the bus rides are so long, students are able to work on and submit homework via the web, as well as swap emails with friends.

Autonet Mobile, the company that is marketing this bus router, says they are not only working with the Vail school district, but that schools in Florida, Missouri and Washington D.C. have signed on, too.

For more information detailing the effectiveness of this $200 router, with a $60 a month service charge, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/education/12bus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Proctor & Gamble is debuting their biggest Olympic marketing push to date.  The company debuted a “Thanks Mom” campaign today, “with commercials highlighting the role of U.S. athletes’ mothers (Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Anton Ohno) while also offering them financial help with Vancouver travel expenses.” In addition to the “Thanks Mom” commercials, P&G has offered athletes’ mothers (or other key figures) pre-loaded debit cards in order to help with and offset some of the costs of traveling to be with their Olympian.

In addition to the “Thanks Mom” campaign, P&G (maker of Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent) is a team sponsor and will by paying for the Family Home, “which serves as a meeting place for athletes and families to watch events, eat, and pick up tickets.”  They are also providing athletes with young children the new version of Pampers to try out.

Though P&G has contributed financially to the Olympics in prior years, this is the first year they are actively integrating the Olympics into their brand and creating an Olympic-specific campaign.  They will place the Team USA logo on everything from Pampers diapers to Pringles chips.  The company is specifically attracted to the Olympic’s appeal to 18-to-34 year women, and hopes that their active participation in the Games will push their brand to the cash register over their competitors.

For more information, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2010-02-11-pg-olympics_N.htm

Google likes to keep people on their toes.  After Tuesday’s announcement of their Google Buzz social networking product, they followed up on Wednesday with an even bigger announcement – they are entering the broadband arena.  Google does not intend for their product to challenge major industry players like Verizon or AT&T, but instead are using their new high-speed fiber network as an “experiment.”

Google has been acquiring large chunks of abandoned “dark fiber” (fiber-optic cable that has been run but not activated) since 2005.   Google is planning on building and testing this ultra high-speed broadband network  which is expected to offer speeds of up to one gigabit-per-second (about 100 times faster than your average cable modem connection), as a way to force other service providers to drop prices, boost speeds, and adhere to network neutrality principles.   The 3 specific things they have in mind for the network include:

• Next generation apps: They want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses they can’t yet imagine.
• New deployment techniques: They’ll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, they’ll share key lessons learned with the world.
• Openness and choice: They’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with their past advocacy, they’ll manage their network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Google will begin to identify the areas that will first see the service (at least 50,000 but potentially 500,000 people), which will be offered at “competitive prices,” in the coming months.   But you are able to nominate your neighborhood by clicking  here.

For more information from Google’s official blog, go to: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html

Facebook is going in a new direction with its approach to display advertising.  The company is deepening its existing search deal with Bing.com, by getting rid of traditional banner ads and replacing them with “engagement ads.”  These “engagement” display ads are linked to social campaigns, which have performed better and provided a better user experience in the Facebook arena.

Now that Facebook is up to 400 million users Bing’s partnership provides the distribution platform the search engine needs in order to gain market share from Google.  Though there are few details available about how Bing’s new real-time search feature will be integrated into their Facebook ads, the opportunities for this partnership are huge.

For more information about the new engagement ads, go to: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141960