Brands are gearing up for Super Bowl XLVI, which is slated for February 5 this year, with new hilarious viral commercials. Since the event attracts millions of viewers, brands do their best to amaze and the public with their ads and pay a lot for that (this year, all TVCs for the game sold out at an average price of $3.5 million per thirty-second ad, and this is the highest price in the game’s history) . Usually, the Super Bowl adverts are standalone commercials and do not start new campaigns, but Mars Chocolate’s brand M&M’s wants to use this event to introduce its new candy spokesperson, Ms. Brown, which will certainly appear in upcoming promotions by the brand. This sport event is “the perfect opportunity to launch the biggest news for M&M’s in years,” says Debra A. Sandler, Chief Consumer Officer of Mars Chocolate North America, and adds that the new advert will “kick off a year of activity” featuring the new character.

Nike Basketball proved that it ‘never stops’ (as the brand declared in the previous campaign) with the launch of the new marketing promotion starring basketball legend Kobe Bryant. He has reached remarkable success in his life and now, with his own example can inspire talented individuals around the globe to achieve yet bigger and bolder goals. This became the core point of the ‘The KobeSystem: Success for the Successful’ campaign, which spreads the athlete’s ‘Attack Fast, Attack strong’ philosophy and promotes his revolutionary new signature shoe, the Nike Kobe VII System Supreme.

With Christmas and all the festive dinners being over, people want to get skinny and fit to meet the summer season in their perfect shape. Beverage brands are here to help consumers to reach this goal with their low calorie drinks—yesterday, we announced the new round of Diet Coke’s campaign, and now another diet product comes up: Diet Pepsi is releasing a new spot featuring actress Sofia Vergara, who starred with English soccer legend David Beckham in the previous commercial of the brand last spring. The new advert will debut on the 69th annual Golden Globes awards show on January 15, 2012, and now fans of Diet Pepsi and Modern Family star can watch a teaser of the commercial. Watch the teaser of the new commercial on the brand’s Facebook page.

Intel is launching its new music related global effort entitled the Ultrabook Project as part of its collaboration with will.i.am, Intel’s director of creative innovation and a member of The Black Eyed Peas. The artist, who joined the company in early 2011, is embarking on a 12-month and 12-city world tour, which will start in Mexico City in the end of January and will result in a bunch of music collaborations.

IKEA believes that its stores are not the only space where the brand’s houseware goods can be showcased and often takes them to city streets, opera or underground to demonstrate that IKEA goods perfectly fit any settings and can create proper atmosphere anywhere. Now, the international furniture retailer has come to a metro station in Paris again to promote its items with a new twist: the brand is not just exposing sofas and bookcases—it got five Parisians to spend almost a week in a small apartment fully furnished with IKEA pieces. The new live installation, which is developed by the UBI BENE agency, is currently on display in the Auber metro station.

Diet Coke, the beverage brand targeted at women, is rolling out a new phase of its ‘Love it Light’ campaign, featuring the famous puppets—the marketing effort was kicked off in the UK on January 9, and will roll out in seven European countries in the coming weeks. As part of the campaign, developed by Mother London, the brand released new humorous adverts and launched a Facebook application, which helps female consumers ‘get glam.’

Dr Pepper, the iconic beverage brand which celebrated the 125th anniversary of its ‘original life’ in 2010, is kicking off a new advertising campaign, which is revolving around authenticity. The U.S. promotion dubbed ‘Always One of a Kind’ includes a commercial, which features nearly a thousand of the brand’s fans, who are living their life in an unconventional way and are happy to have their fresh and bright traits, which make them different from most of other people—the spot, which debuted yesterday, January 9, during the BCS National Championship Game, will be aired in March ABC, CW, FOX, NBC and cable channels.

Alcohol drinks manufacturers always strive to provide its consumers not only with drinks, but also with an opportunity to enjoy various mixes on the go. Such brands as Veuve Clicquot, Perrier-Jouët or Cointreau have already unveiled their own high end bar bags, fridges or bottle coats for those who like to have their drink while travelling. Following in the footsteps of its rival brands, Bombay Sapphire has collaborated with the New York-based design company Barking Irons to create a portable bar in a soft pebbled leather case, which contains all the esentials a professional mixologist may need to prepare a drink.

Brands targeted at creative youth and adults often use social media sites and other web platforms to find new faces and minds for their promotions, and this crowdsourcing trend doesn’t seem to fade away in the coming years. Levi’s, the iconic jeanswear brand, which always encourages it’s consumers to go forth and think outside the box, has launched a casting on Instagram to find new people who will front the upcoming brand’s campaign.