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Sharp’s Aquos brand marked its second season as the official HDTV of Major League Baseball with the largest integrated sports marketing effort in the company’s history. Key to this year’s strategy was a series of regional overlays that allowed the electronics brand to activate its promotions and national sweepstakes locally and drive traffic to its more than 5 500 retail partners.

Restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday is saying goodbye to its old image and ushering in a new one by turning the demolition of its last restaurant into a live consumer event. On Tuesday Aug. 5 at 3:00 p.m. EST the chain’s last remaining old-style eatery was blown up in a live Internet broadcast at rubytuesday.com. The event was part of the It’s a Brand New Tuesday campaign which is designed to kick start the chain’s brand makeover from bar and grill-style food and décor to fresh simple and modern American fare.

Pentel in August will engage in its largest college marketing effort to date. Teams of brand ambassadors will hit 37 college campuses this fall with samples to generate word-of-mouth for the brand with a back-to-school contest that plays up the smooth writing qualities of its Pentel Hyper G pen.

One thing hoteliers all agree on: Consumers’ needs are changing. They want rooms flush with outlets that cater to their tech gadgets they want top-notch in-room entertainment and they want premium creature comforts such as high-end pillows sheets and beds. To meet the needs of a more demanding traveler many hotel brands are revitalizing—rolling out new programs and forging new partnerships to enhance the guest experience. But strangely very few venture outside of their own parking lots to get consumers buzzing.

SINCE LAUNCHING ITS MY CIRCLE CAMPAIGN  in 2006 Alltel  Wireless has executed nine My Circle-themed consumer sweepstakes programs and has given away more than $1 million in prize packages. The brand’s eighth contest—the My Circle Pick & Roll Challenge—kicked off earlier this year. To enter consumers logged on to social networking website fanu.com to play weekly pick ’em games. Savvy basketball fans earned points for their hoops smarts.