The Daily Thread

The June/July issue of Men’s Health will be supporting the use of mobile ads. Every ad featured in the issue will tie back to a mobile promotion. When readers take a picture (via their mobile phone) of the print advertisements and send it to a special number provided they will receive a promotional bounce-back from the marketer.

PepsiCo decided to part ways with Omnicom’s, Element 79, who was handling Pepsi’s Gatorade and Tropicana accounts. Gatorade will be going to TBWA/Chiat/Day in L.A. and Tropicana will be heading to Arnell Group in NYC. This will be a huge set back for Element 79, which lost some of their accounts earlier this year.

Dove announced today that they will be launching the Dove Digital Channel, a consumer destination site that brings the Campaign for Real Beauty and the Dove Product portfolio to life. The Dove Digital Channel is a re-launch of Dove.com and will feature an editorial board of experts, inspirational guest editors and specially selected “ambassadors”. Consumers will have the opportunity to join the conversation in a positive and inspiring environment.

At 113 locations in Utah, Wyoming and Nevada McDonalds will be testing out mobile coupons. Customers will be able to redeem their coupon for an iced coffee when they use a Cellfire mobile coupon between April 7th-27th. They can either go to cellfire.com or text “mcd” to 22888 to receive a code.

Wal-Mart is honoring Earth Month with what they call “the most comprehensive environmental sustainability campaign”. This effort will include TV, radio, internet and print. There will also be a 16 page insert in May issues of general interest magazines.

Wachovia’s $145 million dollar creative and media account is up for review. Mullen and Carat currently handle the creative and media. This review may be due to the replacement of Wachovia’s former exec VP-Chief marketing officer, Jim Garrity, with Ranjana B. Clark taking his place.

Intel has launched a B to B campaign centered around the idea of ITopia , a “promise land” for information technology professionals. The budget is about $50 million and is planned to appear in 10 major markets. 80% of the spending will be for online advertising and the other 20% towards magazine ads. The online Elements will include a section of of the Intel Web Site and discussions on Open Port, and a new community site for Intel.

Simple drawn animations are becoming increasingly more popular for explaining complicated subjects and concepts. Wal-Mart, Microsoft and UPS have been only a few of the companies using this simple but effective form.

Mobile social network Loopt announced one of the first major location based mobile marketing experiments, with CBS. The plan will allow marketers to use the mobile phone’s ability to locate a customer without invading a consumer’s privacy (the customer must first opt in on Loopt’s site before receiving any ads). Once the subscriber checks the mobile version of CBS News, Market Watch or Sportsline, the page will display an ad based on the person’s location.