Archive for the ‘Justin Brands’ Category

Justin Timberlake has proved he can act as well as sing. Now Callaway Golf Co. is about to discover whether he has a flair for advertising too.

Mr. Timberlake, named in December as Callaway’s creative director, helped craft a new marketing campaign for the golf-equipment maker that tees off this weekend. Timed to coincide with the Farmers Insurance Open, a PGA Tour tournament that begins this week, Callaway is hoping the campaign will get it out of the rough it has been in since the 2008 recession.

The marketing effort features golf pros such as Phil Mickelson and Annika Sorenstam using Callaway products to perform jaw-dropping golf feats on the Las Vegas Strip. One TV ad shows golfer Alvaro Quiros on a floating platform on the strip, hitting a golf ball 310 yards over the Bellagio fountain.

In another, several golfers including Ms. Sorenstam hit balls from rooftop to rooftop along the strip. Helicopters fill in for golf carts.

“We wanted to make a statement that was more rock ‘n’ roll,” said Mr. Timberlake, who has been a paid endorser for Callaway for several years but isn’t in any of the new ads. Mr. Timberlake worked with Factory Design Labs, a Denver ad agency that began creating the new pitch in April 2011.

A surge of young players has lately been getting attention on the PGA Tour, such as last year’s U.S. Open winner, Rory McIlroy, who was 22 years old at the time. Callaway—whose average customer is about 55 years old—is hoping the ads will help it take advantage of that “youth movement” and attract younger consumers.

“Being hip and contemporary has to be part of the marketing plan” in order to attract new and younger golfers to the brand, says Jeff Colton, Callaway’s senior vice president of global brand and product.

Callaway, based in Carlsbad, Calif., reported losses in both 2009 and 2010 as well as for the first nine months of last year. It reports fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, with losses expected to continue. It is losing market share to competitors such as Adidas AG’s TaylorMade, according to Wall Street analysts.

After suffering during the recent recession, golf-equipment sales have begun to come back in the past year. Sales of clubs and other hard equipment—balls, clubs, bags, gloves and footwear increased 1.2% to $2.4 billion over the past 12 months at golf-course and specialty stores, according to Golf Datatech LLC, a market-research firm. But Callaway has yet to benefit. Its net sales fell slightly in the first nine months of 2011.

Tony Thornley, who was named Callaway’s interm chief executive last June—after the previous CEO stepped down—has blamed past marketing efforts for some of the company’s woes.

Dan Wewer, an analyst with Raymond James, in a note to investors, said: “Callaway strayed too far from its golfing roots with a marketing message that focused on styling and too little on the benefits of its equipment for the golfers.” Mr. Wewer was referring to a marketing campaign that talked about a strategic alliance with Lamborghini, which involved the two working together to develop composite materials that were used in both the cars and a golf club.

Nor has the company kept up with rivals in terms of advertising. Callaway spent $30 million on U.S. ads during the first nine months of 2011, according to WPP PLC’s Kantar Media. During the same period, Titleist and TaylorMade shelled out $41.1 million and $38.4 million, respectively. Titleist is owned by a consortium led by Fila Korea.

Callaway has promised investors that it would spend $25 million more on advertising and marketing this year.

Even as Callaway tries to attract younger golfers, it must be careful not to alienate its core older customers. Mr. Colton says he doesn’t think that will be a problem. “Even aging golfers want to act younger,” he adds.

Mr. Timberlake hopes the new marketing will give the sport a “nice injection of kickassery.”

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Brands just can’t get enough of musicians when it comes to hiring creative talent. Polaroid boasts Lady Gaga as its creative director, car maker Lotus has appointed rapper and DJ Swizz Beatz vp of creative design and global marketing – the artist also holds the same position over at Reebok – and last year, Puma recruited Professor Green as its Puma Social Ambassador, says Maria Stadtmuller.

Now, to help drive marketing and brand direction at Callaway Golf, none other than Justin Timberlake has been given an ‘advanced, creative position’ where he will deliver ‘high-level concepts within Callaway’s marketing activities and offer wide-ranging consultation on the visual representation of the brand’.

“Justin is an extremely gifted artist and an avid golfer with a deep passion for Callaway products, and his creative energy will serve us well as we connect with the next generation of golfers,” says Jeff Colton, svp of global brand and product, Callaway. “The opportunity to bring someone with his multifaceted talents into our creative matrix is very rare, and his input has already made an impact.”

And Timberlake himself?

““It’s always great when professional projects surround subjects that I am passionate about, and the sport of golf and my work with Callaway definitely fit that criteria,” he says. “I’m looking forward to bringing a fresh perspective to this category – focusing on the social aspects, fun and lifestyle associated with Callaway and playing golf.”

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Unreleased images (until now!) of Justin for Givenchy Play Sport. Thoughts? Thanks to allbeautyrumors 

The Olympic games are coming… And brands are getting ready. Issey Miyake Pour Homme Sport and Dolce and Gabbana The One Sport have just been revealed to the public. Giorgio Armani Code Sport is also still quite fresh.

Today, I present to you: Givenchy Play Sport. Again, same design as most of the sport fragrances of this world: Red and White. Fresh fragrance – as usual. 55 Eur for 50ml, available in March.

 

posters and promotional photos > Givenchy Play Sport with Justin Timberlake

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Justin Timberlake has been talking about his decision to get his own social network, saying music has an exciting future on the internet.

It is a case of life imitating art as the co-star of The Social Network – the Oscar-winning film about Facebook – buys into Myspace.

Timberlake, along with the advertising agency Specific Media, wants to revitalise the brand, and he told Sky News he was looking forward to the challenge.

“It’s an exciting place for the future of music. Although it seemed like such a taboo thing the internet and music – I don’t think it’s taboo at all.

“You make music because you want a lot of people to hear it and the fact that that could happen at a quicker pace is very, very exciting.”

Music also dominates other social networking sites.

On Twitter, artists send around 200 million tweets per day. Lady Gaga tops the list with 13 million followers, even beating President Barack Obama.

But Beyonce broke all records on the site. Some 8,868 tweets per second were sent when she announced she was pregnant at the MTV VMAs.

Jeremy Silver, the chairman of Semetric, which analyses data for the entertainment industry, told Sky News artists are using social media as a real tool in promoting themselves.

“They’re learning how to use it most effectively and that means in terms of how they communicate out, but also how they read what information is coming back.

“There’s a saying at the moment in the music industry that data is the new oil.”

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Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake are among the list of influential business people on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” list. It represents “innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs, who quite often sport hoodies, floppy hair, and backpacks,” according to the press release. The inaugural “The Powers That Be” list contains a decidedly more old school group of executives and power players.

The “New Establishment” list is dominated by founders of major, influential technology companies. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg repeats at No. 1. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page share the No. 2 spot and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos lands at No. 3. A pair of Apple executives – new CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ives – are at No. 4. Jack Dorsey, a founder of Twitter and credit card payment startup Square, sits at No. 5.

The top entertainment executive on the “New Establishment” list is John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar Animation and Walt Disney.

The three entertainers on the list are all active in business and technology. Lady Gaga, at No. 9 on the list, has invested in social platform Backplane and has partnerships with Monster (for a branded line of headphones), Polaroid (where she is creative director) and Zynga (the “GagaVille” video game). Jay-Z is at No. 21. He is a co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records and is the founder of Roc Nation, a multi-faceted partnership with Live Nation. Singer and actor Justin Timberlake likely made No. 50 on the list for his investment in MySpace (he also has investments in technology startups Stipple and Dekko).

Digital music is well represented on the list, even excluding Apple, Amazon and Google. Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and investor in Spotify, is at No. 34. At No. 35 is Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures, who has invested in SoundCloud, Kickstarter and Targetspot, among others. Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek is No. 47.

A case could be made for some leaders in music world left off the list. Pandora founder Tim Westergren or CEO Joe Kennedy seem like reasonable choices given the company’s trajectory and its successful IPO earlier this summer. Guy Oseary, who has made investments with Ashton Kutcher (No. 43) and operates the TinyChat social platform – in addition to managing Madonna – would not be out of place on the list either. Rio Caraeff, president and CEO at music video network Vevo, also wouldn’t be out of place on the list. 

The “Powers That Be” list is comprised of “people who have shaped the world we live in today – and continue to wield enormous influence.” It replaces “The Vanity Fair 100″ list and has older leaders and innovators with longer track records. To no surprise, Steve Jobs, former CEO and current chairman of Apple, tops the list. And why shouldn’t he? Jobs not only co-founded Apple, he guided it from near ruin to its current status as one of the world’s most valuable and influential corporations. If there were a “Powers That Be” list for the music business, he would probably top that list, too. Apple is the world’s biggest music retailer and its products have become the standard for enjoying digital music.

Rounding out the top five of the “Powers That Be” list are Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury goods company LVMH at No. 2, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg at No. 3, News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch at No. 4, and Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, executive vice president of Comcast and CEO and president of NBCUniversal, respectively, sharing the No. 5 spot. 

Because “some power is permanent,” as Vanity Fair put it, included a Hall of Fame as an amendment to the “Powers That Be” list. Members of the Hall of Fame include: Warner Music Group chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., who stepped down as CEO last month; angel investor Ron Conway; John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media Corporation; Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer at Universal Studios; Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation; and Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of Viacom

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MILLINGTON, Tenn. — When Justin Timberlake bought and renovated a golf course near his boyhood home just outside of Memphis, Tenn., he might easily have exercised a bit of ego by calling it Timberlake Golf Club. The natural-sounding name would have attracted attention, brought in a few extra golfers and probably sold a lot of shirts and golf hats bearing Timberlake logos.

Instead, the entertainer-actor opted, simply, for Mirimichi, an American Indian word that is said to translate to “a place of happy retreat.” The explanation is that Timberlake not only has the game of golf in his blood but some Indian ancestry, too. The concept was one of golf course as sanctuary, reflecting an Indian respect for the land.

Timberlake is an avid golfer who spent a reported $16 million to buy and renovate the golf course, and when it opened in July 2009, he told a reporter from the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “I think this is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of in my life.”

The golf course, situated between Memphis and Timberlake’s hometown of Millington, was called Big Creek before Timberlake bought it. He learned to play there as a child. His mother, Lynn, and stepfather, Paul Harless, held their wedding reception there in 1986, when Timberlake was 5 years old.

Timberlake enjoyed the game as a youngster, then got away from golf during his ’N Sync period. He says he caught the bug again about eight years ago when his crew began playing between concerts.

He hired Tiger Woods’ former coach, Butch Harmon, and lowered his handicap to 6. Timberlake was so hooked, he began scheduling concert venues based on the time of year and the kind of weather he could expect.

Golf courses, he said in an interview with ESPN, “might be the only place where I don’t have such critical expectations of myself. The mental release is why I love it so much.”

The downturn in the economy hurt many golf courses, including Big Creek, and it went into decline and was offered for sale at auction. The decision to buy it began with a call from Paul Harless to Timberlake. As Timberlake recalled, “My dad called me. I was on tour. He said it was for sale and what if we bought it. I started laughing. But he didn’t laugh on the other end of the phone. Silence. I said, ‘You’re serious. I’m in. Let’s do it.’ ”

Renovations followed input from public golfers, professional golfers and organizations such as the U.S. Golf Association. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Read more: http://newsok.com/justin-timberlakes-golf-course-worth-memphis-trip/article/3532451#ixzz1BBFpyNRL & here

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The time has finally come for Justin Timberlake‘s female fans to relish in his scented glory! Just last month, the face of Givenchy’s Play for Him cologne also helped the brand release the Play for Her perfume for women, in an unexpected deal with the French label. “I’ve always loved Givenchy’s brand just because it’s very sleek and very modern,” he told PEOPLE. “We didn’t get into a partnership to create a women’s fragrance. We got into a partnership to create a men’s fragrance. But I think that they saw the opportunity and it translated very well.” So how did the pop icon – who himself admitted to not wearing much cologne before the collaboration – lend his nose to the female version of Play? “I think that perfume should be experienced in a layer,” Justin told PEOPLE. “I think the modern woman doesn’t need to be sold on feeling like Cinderella. I feel like this is a little more tangible, a little more real.” Both fragrances, which are housed in bottles resembling a digital music player, are available in stores now starting around $47.50 for a 1-ounce bottle.

Tell us: Would you buy Justin Timberlake’s Play fragrances? –Hana Choi; reporting by Jackie Fields

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