Nissan and Yahoo! make sweet music

Yahoo! has announced a deal with car manufacturer Nissan to sponsor live music sets on its US portal. ‘Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music’ will feature bi-monthly concerts in front of a live studio audience, and kicks off on 15 November with a performance by Christina Aguilera.

Recordings of the live shows will be broadcast on Yahoo! Music here and new performances will be announced monthly.

Nissan will integrate video streaming, flash animations and game units as part of its sponsorship of the site. Jan Thompson, vice president of marketing, Nissan North America says that the sponsorship is part of the efforts designed to create a high level of engagement with consumers through non-traditional channels. She says: “Music is a big reason people are online. We were drawn to the interactive platform of this program, the A-list artists it expects to attract and the opportunity to engage our customers through music.”

Audiences will be encouraged to conduct interviews, write blogs and take photos with Flickr-enabled phones that automatically upload images to a photo gallery. Songs and shows will be available for purchase, and the hi-definition, surround-sound concerts may later air on TV.

Yahoo Music currently attracts 24 million users a month.

Taking the rap for being dull

Can you rebrand a boring industry? Yes, says the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which has released a rap recruitment video to lure younger or less conventional people to the profession.

The video is whizzing up the rankings at Youtube and you can see it below. What next? The reggae approach to auditing?

KFC: it’s no chicken!

The trans-fat revolution has begun. Kentucky Fried Chicken has announced that it will be cutting the unhealthy additive out of most of its foods by April next year. The move comes as New York debates whether to make the city a ‘trans-fat’ free zone, which would have a significant impact on the 20,000 restaurants operating there. Tiburon in California already operates a trans-fat free city as the restaurants there voluntarily use trans-fat free oils. Chicago is also considering the proposal.

Don’t know what trans-fat is? Click here.

Still don’t know what all the fuss is about? See the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s earlier litigation to try and force KFC to change its policies here.

See KFC’s announcement of the news here.

Getting trendy!

Everyone loves being trendy, but a particularly trendy organisation is The Future Laboratory. The organisation predicts new crazes, themes and products that are set to hit our lives soon.

Among the trends that the organisation is highlighting this month are:

• ‘Open Source Brewing’. The Cube Multiplex cinema in Bristol, England has apparently attemped to create its own cola because it is allegedly opposed to the environmental and ethical practices of Coca-Cola. Through trial and error, the bar managers at the Cube have created something which tastes ’similar’ to the real thing and they’re planning to send it via mail order to other small bars who are interested. A set of Danish students have also launched a beer which has a recipe available to anyone as long as the maker uses the established branding for the drink. Are these schemes the natural extension of consumer-generated content?

• ‘Energy harvesting’. Apparently a division of the US military has created ‘heel-strike’ technology for soldiers, which means that the motion of the foot creates enough power to run a small electrical item. The Facility, a London-based architectural firm is looking to use this technology and embed it in floors, so energy can be collected simply by people walking. Imagine how brands could utilise this to cut costs.

• ‘Machinima’. This is a type of film shot inside computer games, using the characters of the game as set and actors. One of the most popular examples of machinima is Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. It now has its own festival – the Mackies – and is a further evolution of consumer-generated content.

It’s a fair old time for millionaires…

It’s one of Brand Strategy’s favourite events – the Millionaire show in Moscow. It’s an extravaganza of products and services for the very rich. Newly-moneyed Moscow is the perfect venue as Forbes estimates that 88,000 millionaires are emerging in less than two decades. As the salaries in business journalism have not yet hit the heights of which we dreamed, Brand Strategy cannot alas bring you first hand experience of the event, which ends today. But here are some of the highlights:

• Attendees can test an exclusive perfume which costs 35,000 Euros.
• Mobile phones from GoldVish, which have 18-carat gold casings and top quality diamonds.
• Akhal-Teke racehorses worth around a million dollars each.
• Chocolate copies for masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa from the Palkin restaurant.
• Baby accessories – such as a solid gold dummy; rather more than a silver spoon!
• A $1.4m Bugatti Veyron supercar.

Innovation’s what you need

Innovation consultancy Innovaro has published its latest report into customer-centred innovation. The briefing document looks at brands such as Philips, Microsoft, Intel, LEGO, BMW and Ebay. You can download a PDF of the document from the company’s website.

Branding beyond the grave

Which celebrities earn the most? Well, the dead ones aren’t doing too badly. Forbes has rated the top-earning deceased celebrities. Have you got your eye on using the Einstein brand or remixing that Elvis song for your ad? Check out the list here.

From Ruth Mortimer, Brand Strategy editor:

“Yesterday, I appeared on Sky News TV to discuss the British Legion’s ‘poppy‘ brand.

For any international readers who are confused by this, the ‘poppies’ are red paper flowers worn on your clothing at this time of year to remember people who gave their lives for the country in war. The image of the poppy comes from a poem written about the first world war by John McCrae. It starts: “In Flanders fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row/That mark our place; and in the sky/the larks. still bravely singing, cry/Scarce heard amid the guns below.“

But in this modern age, the money from buying a poppy to wear goes to supporting ex-servicepeople and their dependents. It is not just people affected by the first world war but even those in current conflicts such as Afghanistan and Iraq. You can even buy Muslim crescents of rememberance or Stars of David of rememberance alongside the more traditional crosses of rememberance.

Sky News wanted to know: is the poppy still relevant today?

I think the poppy is still relevant today, but very few people have an idea of the British Legion’s scope. Many people think that it only cares for elderly soldiers and don’t understand the work it is doing with younger people today. Someone else suggested to me that there is also perhaps less understanding and sympathy for the current generation of soldiers and their families. The first and second world wars are seen as fights for freedom; yet more modern wars are seen as taking an economical and political stance. This may be a problem for the British Legion as less people are keen to donate to a charity with such strong ties to the armed forces.

So what can be done?

The Legion has already launched a new campaign asking the public not to forget ex-service people who are not visited by family and friends or the people killed on behalf of the UK. But perhaps this needs to go further.

I appeared on Sky News with a man called Daniel, who had been injured in Iraq under friendly fire. He had received a great deal of support from the Legion and was keen to help publicise its work. Perhaps the answer is to get more people like Daniel involved in advertising or marketing to give the poppy a much more modern meaning. The red of the poppy is the perfect colour to illustrate bloodshed and there could be more done to make the poppy relevant for every war, not just the first world war. It will be interesting to see what the 2007 appeal does….”

Bravia for Sony

Watch the video for the new Sony Bravia advert. After last year’s ‘balls’ advert shot in San Francisco, this one sees exploding paint on an old council estate. It’s the kind of thing that puts some old-fashioned glamour back into advertising.

Brand new thinking

What’s on the mind of Brand Strategy editor Ruth Mortimer? Find out her thoughts on marketing by listening to a podcast from the ESOMAR conference in September, carried out by ResearchTalk.