The July 4th weekend seems to be the official bell ringing for Olympic brand ramp up, between the swimming and track and field trials and mega international events such as the Tour de France and Wimbledon all running together in what is naturally a quiet week for news.McDonald's roll out their pre-Olympic campaign with new in-store activation points (via Promo Mag), and adidas announcing the opening of their mega-store in Beijing to battle Nike's Olympic plans (via WSJ). Then conspiracy theorists will have a field day as Michael Phelps pulled on his VISA hat accidentally at the swimming trials (accidentally or not it was a great ambush marketing play) while the Arizona Republic has a good piece today mentioning all the ambush marketers trolling the mixed zone at the swimming trials. Top it all off with a good story in today's New York Time.on the business of making huge American flags, and you have all the All-American branding ideas you would want for a holiday.
Some other good reads for the weekend…the memorabilia market is taking a hit with the economy, and today's LA Times has a look at how NASCAR is adjusting to the drop in interest…also on the NASCAR front, Patriot wide receiver Randy Moss pickes a great day to announce his continued interest in team ownership by announcing the purchase of a NASCAR truck team…great diversity and celebrity move by the sport that always seeks to grow on the branding side in new ways…the LA Daily News had a good piece on the Dodgers’ Hollywood Bowl extravaganza, a great example of taking the brand outside the norm…and another good minor league promotion comes from the Charleston River Dogs, who had a Charleston vs. Ohio night in deference to all the Ohioans now invading the area…fun play on a local phenominon that got exposure for the minor league brand in two markets.?
