For the Infected and their Infectors. About Brand Infection.

After a intense work period of two months, spirits company Pernod Ricard Austria and I successfully launched their new website.

The website includes information on over 40 products with each approx. 4 different qualities (7yr, 12yr, …). Each product page features textual information accompanied by flash-visuals, logos and links.

Read the full story in my company blog or visit Pernod Ricard Austria

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Shortly after its smoothie market introduction, the brand Hello! Drinks had to change its name to Hej! Drinks.

“We have been offline, because we were forced to find a new name for our smoothie brand. That is also the reson why we needed to make all of our old logos unreadable”, says founder Jürgen Alker

Avid readers of Brand Infection had read the news about Hello’s initial and interactive brand development.

The official press release is here.

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According to a press release in german newspaper WUV the american coffee company Starbucks has won a copyright battle that has lasted for over two years.
A court in Shanghai decided the chinese coffee chain “Xingbake” has infringed Starbuck’s brand.

The judge stated Starbucks has all rights on its name in English and Chinese, plus the exclusive right to use the brand’s design. Copyright infringements are common in China. Xingbake - with over 38 stores in Shanghai - has clearly copied the logo and name, furthermore Xingbake sounds very similar to Starbucks, says China Daily. Xingbake now has to pay 500 000 Yuan (around $54000).

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The Coca-Cola Company will be launching Coca-Cola Blāk early next year and France is first of many key markets. Coca-Cola Blāk is a new kind of beverage with an invigorating and stimulating blend that has a good balance of the effervescent taste of Coca-Cola and natural flavors, with real coffee.

The lightly carbonated, mid-calorie beverage, which is designed to appeal to adult consumers, is yet another example how The Coca-Cola Company reaches out to new audiences and addresses new beverage occasions.

The launch will be supported by television, print, outdoor and in-store communication. Advertising and creative for Coca-Cola Blāk will be developed locally and regionally.

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“Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That’s three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I’m telling you what happened—the bastards went to four blades. Now we’re standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we’re the chumps. Well, fuck it. We’re going to five blades.”

Full Article here

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• 1. Coca-Cola
• 2. Microsoft
• 3. IBM
• 4. General Electric
• 5. Intel
• 6. Nokia
• 7. Disney
• 8. McDonald’s
• 9. Toyota
• 10. Marlboro

Nokia, the first european company in the list is on 6th place. The german car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz comes in as 11th. Where’s Red Bull

Complete Top 100 Brands List 2005

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Last night, Adweek Magazines celebrated the winners of its inaugural Buzz Awards at The World Bar in New York City. Recognizing that branded entertainment has quickly become one of the hottest trends in targeting consumers, Adweek Magazines created this awards program to honor excellence in the integration of brands and media.

More than 170 entries were judged by Liz Carboni, Senior Manager Media Buying, Kraft Foods; Peter Gardiner, Partner/Chief Media Officer, Deutsch, Inc.; Pat Jones, Director of Development, Carat Entertainment; Jarrod Moses, CEO, Alliance; and Frank Zazza, CEO, iTVX.

Momentum Worldwide took home the grand prize for “Best Overall Program,” in addition to its “Sports” category win for “American Express - Live at the U.S. Open.”

• Best Advertainment: GM Planworks for Pontiac/General Motors
• Best Content Sponsorship: Fallon for Lee Dungarees
• Best Film/Movie Product Placement: Walt Disney/Buena Vista/FirstFireworks for Visa
• Best Internet: The Martin Agency for Olympus America
• Best Music: Translation for Hewlett-Packard
• Best Print: Young & Laramore for The Delta Faucet Company
• Best TV Product Placement: GM Planworks for Pontiac/General Motors
• Best Wireless Promotion: Fox Mobile Entertainment
• Best Integrated Campaign: McKinney for Audi
• Best Branded Location: deutschMedia, lead agency among several IPG agencies, for Bank of America

From Inside Branded Entertainment

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According to Apple News, in a recently published report, Vivaldi Partners and Forbes magazine showed Apple has increased its brand value by 38 percent in the last four years, largely on the popularity of its iPod digital media device. Vivaldi Partners estimated Apple’s overall brand value for 2005 at US$5.3 billion. Google and Blackberry tie for second, while Amazon is in fourth place. The ranking was determined by taking the compound annual growth rate of each brand over a period of the last four years.

Vivaldi Partners sees the biggest possible growth rate for Apple in the mobile-/tv-market and in car stereos.

• Top20 Brand List
• Expansion Opportunities

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The advertising network DoubleClick recently released an interesting paper entitled “The decade in online advertising” (PDF), an analysis of the trends in the first 10 years of the industry.

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Over 200,000 people voted for the People’s Voice awards, which have been assigned, among the others to:

• Boing Boing (best blog)
• BBC News (best news site)
• 101 Cookbooks (best personal website)
• Vogue UK (best fashion site)

See the full list of winners by clicking here (opens a PDF)
9th Annual Webby Awards Website

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Inc. magazine goes behind the scenes with 26 entrepreneurs who best exemplify the extraordinary drive, creativity, and passion of American business. The list of people is pretty diverse:
1. Martha Stewart - 2. Richard Branson … 9. Craig Newmark

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eBay has launched classified ad websites in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The sites are all branded Kijiji - Swahili for village. They slightly resemble CraigsList sites, in which eBay bought a 25 per cent stake in last August.

Apparently eBay says its new service does not compete with Craig’s List, though the Kijijis do overlap with Craig’s existing listings in Berlin, Montreal, Paris, Rome and Tokyo. Read more »

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Today, Sony has launched its new website for the do everything device PSP, created by webdesign agency Zugara. The site highlights the gaming, music, photo and video capabilities. A second site, also developed by Zugara, is a tutorial site with female talking head.

Check out the new PSP Website

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Three of the biggest newspaper publishers in the United States, the Gannett Company, Knight-Ridder Inc. and the Tribune Company, are joining forces to buy 75% of the news aggregator Topix.net, a Web site that monitors more than 10,000 online news sources.

Each publisher will own 25 percent of the company. Topix.net, based in Palo Alto, Calif., will retain the rest and continue to run the site. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

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