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.

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)

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.

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.

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…

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.”

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.

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 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)

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.”