Ketchup has moved to its own domain – www.clubketchup.com

Hi

After 2 weeks and over 1000 hits already, I’ve decided to host Ketchup on my own server as part of my move to make Ketchup THE online destination for entertainment marketing and related news.

The new url is www.clubketchup.com – all Feedburner and RSS feeds have been set up so please visit and subscribe if Ketchup has left a nice taste in your mouth.

If you have already subscribed via Feedburner, I will enter your email addresses so that all you have to do is accept the new verification email you receive – I hope you don’t mind.

2007 trend map London Underground stylee

Here’s an excellent and very well thought out trend map for 2007 from the guy’s at Brainmail. (for original hi-res version download from their site as mine is just a jpeg reference)

Honda US signs as title sponsor of The Honda Ski Tour

So whilst Honda in the UK focuses on delivering on a brand promise of innovation and technology (“More forward’s please”), in the US Honda is sticking to a more tried and tested experiential route.

“Welcome to The Honda Ski Tour. This is a totally new experience designed to unite skiers, snowboarders and music lovers.” (ed. this is really not a new idea!)

As title sponsor for The Honda Ski Tour, a 3 month winter sports tour featuring ski racing, freeride competitions, and live music, Honda’s presence at each event will be highlighted with on-site displays of Honda vehicles as well as the presentation of 2007 Honda Elements to the overall tour winners in the Skiercross and Skier Halfpipe events.

Each event will feature the BaseCamp Music Experience, a live music festival featuring “cutting-edge bands” including Sean Paul, Three Days Grace, Tommy Lee, The Wailers, Blackalicious, and Gomez.

The events will be televised, via four one-hour features to air nationally on network television one week after each event.

As lifestyle events go, and despite the boast that this is a unique experience, I do really like the idea. The targeting is spot on – affluent outdoor lovers who need/use a 4×4. The website experience is actually pretty good – video streaming, good soundtrack etc. The ticket price for the events is very good at $15 for concert tickets and $99 all access.

Anheuser-Busch to end title sponsorship of NASCAR’s No. 2 series after the 2007 season.

Having just celebrated its 25th season as the title sponsor of the NASCAR Busch series, Anheuser-Busch is reassing all its NASCAR marketing. Its timing co-incides with ESPN becoming the sole broadcaster of the No. 2 racing series in the United States. The resulting increased coverage is likely to be reflected in the cost of sponsorship rights – an increase three times the estimated $10 million a year that A-B has been paying.

Lady Sovereign collabo with Zoo York

Following recent ‘ip-’op collabo’s between Dizzee Rascal and Nike, and Kanye West and Bape its the turn of Lady Sovereign, who teams up with Zoo York to create a limited run of skateboards.

Lady Sovereign is signed to Def Jam in the US, although I don’t think the British press realise this doesn’t guarantee her success – I’ve been listening to bits from her since she first emerged from the Grime scene just to follow the hype vs. talent trail and I’m still waiting…

E4 SKINS – user defined programming

I picked up a flyer for an interesting project that E4 are running in January.

“SKINS is a brand new drama from the makers of Shameless, launching on E4 in January.

We are looking for people to create a music track for a scene in the show, style the cast for a fashion shoot, design a version of the SKINS logo or make a film about the characters. There are some really great prizes to be had, including the chance to come and work at E4.”

Reminds me of Dubplate Drama, which was “the worlds first interactive TV drama.”

Tate Tracks – Klaxons vs. Donald Judd

The excellent Tate Tracks programme continues with the Klaxons vs. Donald Judd.

Great timing for the Klaxons, who have got a strong profile right now.

“Tate Modern invited Klaxons to walk around the gallery and find a work of art that would inspire them to write a track.

In the end, it was one of Donald Judd’s Untitled 1980 which grabbed their attention. It’s an imposing sculpture made from ten pieces of aluminium and perspex stacked above each other to form a giant column. The result is their latest track.”

Check the website from January to hear the track online.

CD sales & Woolworths – an opinion

I saw a little piece in The Metro last night saying that X-Factor winner Leona Lewis’s debut single is a guaranteed Christmas no.1, according to bookies.

Apparantly Woolworths have “drafted in extra staff and opened extra tills to keep up with the demand”.

So this got me thinking about who it is buying the physical CDs, and so how music is being distributed.

Without wishing to sound like a snob, Woolworths is generally full of pikeys, and especially pikey kids. I’m guessing its these mums and kids buying up Leona’s single. Why aren’t they buying it via iTunes etc?

If stores like Woolworths are still shifting physical music, perhaps we aren’t as close to the digital music revolution as the music industry would have us believe – the allure of tangible music is still pretty strong.

BAPE & Kanye West trainers

BAPE has teamed up with Kanye West to produce a pair of ltd edition trainers, which will be released on Jan 2nd, 2007 at Bapexclusive, Bape stores and Apee stores.

Follows in the age old tradition of artists and trainers – Dizzee/Nike; Jay Z/Reebok; Mike Skinner/Reebok Classics (!); Run DMC/adidas etc etc.

I like’ em though.

(courtesy of HypeBeast)

Vodafone Receiver – connecting to the future

Here’s an interesting site that I came across, in association with Vodafone, called Receiver.

Its been going a fair old while (its up to issue 17) so its either too cool for school, or more likely they just haven’t a good job of promoting it.

“Vodafone’s receiver magazine is a neutral space where pioneer thinkers challenge you to discuss exciting, future-oriented aspects of communications technologies. Started as a platform for exchange about how innovations in this sector affect societies worldwide, receiver has become one of the industry’s key idea generators.”

Southern Comfort & The Fader mag ltd. edition 7″

I stumbled across the new site from Southern Comfort, which I have to say is pretty loud! Seems like they’re pushing music (and New Orleans) pretty damn hard, with a couple of “new artist” things going on.

The first is an online music-streamer with a selection of new artists.

Nothing new here – Mercedes and Levis are doing this as well.

What makes it slightly more interesting is that The Fader magazine is involved with the activity in some way, and happen to be a pretty credible source for new music and culture. One of the things they are doing is a limited edition 7″ series:

(courtesy of The Fader magazine)

“The first run of our Southern Comfort/FADER 7-inch series has arrived. For this limited-edition vinyl, we asked Lou Laurita to handle cover art duty, and got some of our pals to contribute unreleased jamz: M Ward and Jim James are featured on the A-side with “Magic Trick (Kansas City Remix),” then flip it over for Ladyhawk’s “Soap”. It’s not available in stores, but we do have copies for our loyal blog readers (that’s you). Email us at contests@thefader.com and tell us the theme of M Ward’s 2005 album release and we’ll send five of you a copy. For free! Get to Googling and get at us with your answers.”

It feels like a slightly more relevant and interesting approach than the UK campaign – Fat Tuesday, which doesn’t really do anything for anyone except give them another bloody tent at a festival!

Delta Air Lines signs two-year global partnership with Cirque Du Soleil

Delta Air Lines has officially launched its two-year global partnership with Cirque du Soleil with a performance based around “The Spirit of Delta,” the airline’s employee-purchased Boeing 767 which is being transformed into the museum’s newest exhibition space.

“Cirque du Soleil is thrilled to partner with Delta as we both strive to offer our patrons a high-quality experience, whether seated on an aircraft or under the Grand Chapiteau. We essentially share the same goal; to take to our guests on a distinctive journey” says Cirque Du Soliel.

Hmmm, says I.

Meanwhile, Lloyds TSB is the headline sponsor of the Cirque Du Soleil Alegria show

Times Square comes to Second Life

The Ad Option (who brought American Apparel to Second Life) is to construct Second Life’s very own Times Square. Apart from being a great place to visit on a virtual holiday, Times Square in Second Life will sell ads to businesses that wish to advertise in the virtual realm but don’t want to bother building their own headquarters / attractions from scratch.

The Square is set to open on the 30th of December, in time for the ball to virtually drop for the New Year. The event will come full with ad spots from Lego, American Apparel, Intel, and others.

(courtesy of Contagious Magazine)

Stella Artois drops Channel 4 sponsorship

Stella Artois has has ended its sponsorship of Channel 4 Film, despite recent activity strengthening its ties with cinema and film, notably the outdoor film festival Studio Artois Live (put on by the folks at Exposure).

The Studio Artois activity has also been backed by a new Studio Artois website which goes a little bit deeper than “check out the latest film from Hollywood”, and offers quite an involving experience – but only if you’re a film buff.

So it seems like Stella is moving away from mainstream awareness of its film activity, whilst keeping a credible finger on the pulse in the film world. Question is, what will they spend the estimated £1m pot that they’ve saved from the Channel 4 deal?

St Etienne & Agnes B present Turntable Cafe at South Bank Centre

Agnes B, the fashion label I can’t afford to buy, is presenting the Saint Etienne Christmas Party at the South Bank Centre tomorrow night. Kind of nice association between two ‘dad’ brands.

Kelis signs to promote Ford in the US

Kelis is the latest urban star to sign an endorsement deal, signing with Fordhas to promote the new Ford Edge. The deal also includes Kelis recording a new song specifically for the campaign – ‘Push It To The Edge’. The track will include the lyrics “So clean in my Edge/Steady headed to the spot/Speakers bump thump thump/All you hearin’ on the block.”

Whilst not an original idea, the choice of using Kelis over some of her peers in the scene is actually a pretty good one. Although she’s had massive chart success and album sales, she still has a great ‘underground’ (and therefore credible) feel about her – her marriage to one of the living legends in hip hop, Nas (who also came out to promote the car at the launch party) also lends her credible authority.

Funnily enough, in the track ‘In Public’ (featuring Nas) she did indicate that she likes getting it on in cars, although a little Ford probably didn’t factor into things too much! But hey, I can see some great PR stunts here! I can see the headlines in The Sun already – ‘Keli’s caught dogging in Streatham…in a Ford!’

MySpace foray into publishing

“MySpace is making its first UK foray into print publishing with a deal to provide content for Marmalade magazine.

The March 2007 edition of style magazine Marmalade will be entirely made up of user-generated content drawn from the social networking website.

Users will be able to put forward their work via Marmalade’s MySpace page, while the editorial staff of the magazine will be on the look-out for interesting content from pages across the social network.”

Whilst the MySpace idea may work in the online world, providing a portal to otherwise inaccessible content (particularly music and niche social groups), I’m not sure that a print-based version offers the same immediacy or authority – certainly no more so than the already accepted (and trusted) fanzine culture. I can’t help thinking that by offering an opinion via an established magazine, MySpace is falling into the trap of being little more than a columnist with an opinion that could easily become irrelavent to many.

Remember – Playstation Season

Okay okay, Playstation may have messed up with the fake blog, but remember we are halfway through the very interesting (and well thought out) Playstation Season.

Coca Cola brands YouTube

Following the many branded page takeovers in MySpace (Lynx being the best example that springs to mind) it is now the turn of YouTube to ’suffer’ a brand invasion.

We all know that YouTube has been subjected to months of brand subversion (Smirnoff Tea Party etc) but nothing as overt as this.

Coca-Cola is one of the first YouTube co-marketing efforts with the Holiday Wishcast; a mini-site which allows visitors to upload and share their video greetings.

Levi’s has also opened a channel for its Levi’s One To Watch Tour 2006, featuring live footage from its series of gigs.

What will be interesting to watch is how the users of YouTube react – will there be a resistance against this kind of activity? I don’t think there will be – in the past, brands have been responsible for some of the most entertaining and well-received content. Therefore, as long as the brand is offering something of interest, why would people care?

Moet Sponsors meat packing district

In the up and coming meeapacking district of New York City Moet champagne has been ’sponsoring’ the women’s apparel stores. On Washington Street, Girlie Shop’s window has been taken over so much you can’t even see the name of the store – and various stores on 14th and Gansevort have bottles of Moet placed in the window display (courtesy of iF)