McDonald’s Gaming Billboard Gives Winners Free Food [video]
Mashable
McDonald’s launched an interactive video billboard campaign in Sweden that lets users play a digital Pong game, with winners receiving free food at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant.

In a playful equivalent of making prospective customers sing for their supper, whoever can last 30 seconds in this simple game wins free grub.

The system’s designers wanted to make it as easy as possible to begin playing, requiring users to simply enter a URL in their mobile phone’s browser. As soon as the smartphone’s geolocation confirms the player is in the area, the game begins, with the player controlling the billboard’s Pong game with the smartphone’s touchscreen.

Even if you don’t like McDonald’s food, this could be a fun way to get yourself a free cup of the burger joint’s surprisingly good coffee.

Why Agencies, Talent Should Seize the Space Between Creativity and Technology
AdAge
Picture this: You're in a vibrant conference room in Midtown Manhattan witnessing something seemingly normal: two executive creative directors reviewing campaign work and debating brand attributes, customer aspirations and engagement. What's extraordinary is the fact that one of the ECDs is a gifted programmer perfectly capable of writing and compiling computer programs at will.

That's the future of successfully integrating digital capabilities into an agency. Culture and business models, not titles, are what make agencies digital. So while agencies rooted in traditional media eagerly add positions like "creative technologist" to their ranks, digitally confident agencies are doing the exact opposite. What's ironic is the scramble to add phantom job distinctions is happening at a time when technology and creative should be tied closer than ever.

Successful agencies recognize that programmers are like copywriters and designers, except that to thrive, they require a specific culture and process: e.g., congruous leadership, common vocabulary, source control, testing, quality assurance, systematic task management and special computer access. Also, like their counterparts in copy and visual, programmers require a degree of creative control.

Industry Power Players Tell How They Scout the New Great Creative Talent
AdAge
Ask any creative person—heck, ask any agency person—what their three biggest challenges are, and one of those is consistent every time: talent. Creativity is, at its heart, a human business and finding people who can adapt to a changing world is on the minds of every chief creative officer.We asked several what's important in scouting the next great creative star and whether they would have hired themselves fresh out of school.

J&J Ordered to Pay $327 Million Over Deceptive-Marketing Claims
Bloomberg
A Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unit was ordered by a South Carolina judge to pay more than $327 million in penalties for deceptively marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal as safer and better than competing medicines.

J&J’s Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit repeatedly violated the state’s consumer-protection laws by sending a 2003 letter to doctors touting Risperdal as superior to rival drugs and including deceptive information in the product’s warning label, Judge Roger Couch in Spartanburg, South Carolina, concluded.

Have We Killed Brand Advertising?
AgAge
Brand advertising seems to be on its way out.

Take Starbucks, which used to advertise its coffee shops. And very effectively, too. Today, the brand is strongly positioned at the top of the coffee-shop market.

What's next for Starbucks? The company's recent decision to drop the words "Starbucks coffee" from its logotype seems to indicate where the company is going. According to media reports, Starbucks is in the midst of a transformation from a coffee company to a food and beverage organization.

Starbucks is following a well-worn path. Build a brand that stands for something and then try to figure out what other products you can hang the brand name on.

Take Crest, a Procter & Gamble brand that used to stand for cavity-prevention toothpaste. Today, Crest is a toothpaste, a toothbrush, a mouthwash, a dental floss and a tooth whitener.

GM Signs on to Sponsor ‘X Factor’ on Fox
AgAge
General Motors has signed on as a larger sponsor of Fox's "X Factor," becoming the second major advertiser to pledge support for the much-anticipated musical-contest program, according to people familiar with the situation.

Spokespeople for Fox and General Motors declined to comment.

The sponsorship will likely weave a GM vehicle into epsiodes of "X Factor," but will not last the entire season, like the deals that Coca-Cola, Ford Motor and AT&T have with Fox's other big program, "American Idol." Last January, Pepsi said it would be exclusive season-long sponsor of the program, which Fox executives are hoping will match ratings juggernaut "Idol" in terms of viewer interest.

NFL Lockout Not Affecting adidas as Two More Rookies Join Football Roster
NYSportsJournalism
The NFL and its players are still at odds, but adidas is maintaining an even marketing keel. The athletic footwear and apparel company said it has added two NFL rookie wide receivers to it growing list of endorsers: Leonard Hankerson of the Washington Redskins and Edmond Gates of the Miami Dolphins.

Hankerson was the Redskins’ third-round selection (79th overall) out of the University of Miami in April’s NFL Draft. Gates was taken in the fourth-round (111th overall) out of Abilene Christian by the Dolphins.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The signings support the recent launch of adidas’ adiZero 5-Star, called "the lightest cleat in football" by the company. At 6.9 ounces, adidas said the shoe is three ounces lighter than "the nearest competitor." MSRP is $100.

The product hit retail on April 1, but was unveiled in February during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.