Cross-Merchandising

The Hain Celestial Group introduced Garden of Eatin' Butternut Squash Corn Tortilla Chips. The gluten-free snack features a combination of butternut squash and organic yellow corn.

WWE Slam City is the name of a new kids-oriented entertainment property from sports entertainment producer WWE and Mattel.

The companies said WWE Slam City would include action figures and wrestling ring sets along with a 26 episode series of animated shorts featuring the WWE Superstars in the animated world of Slam City. The first four episodes have begun airing at WWESlamCity.com and Cartoonium on YouTube.

Yonkers, N.Y. — Forest City Ratner Cos. has joined Yonkers Partners in Education to create Ridge Hill Academy, a pilot program in which local businesses teach local students about the “behind the scenes” operations of retail management.

Twenty-five students selected from local high schools have just begun the pilot’s third of five 10-week sessions, which take place at Westchester’s Ridge Hill shopping, dining and entertainment center.

By Gian Genovesi, Briteskies

When it comes to interactive marketing, too many retailers myopically focus on site visits, hits, or traffic. SEO and SEM are the most popular areas of focus, and I equate this to sports teams’ exclusive focus on scoring as many points as possible. Increasing the points your team scores, similarly to the traffic your site obtains, is a factor of success, but in no way the end-all-be-all in e-commerce success. After all, of the top 10 scoring offenses in NFL history, only one has won the Super Bowl.

Livonia, Mich. – A large majority of consumers consider themselves value seekers, and they are increasingly using the Internet, social media and mobile devices to obtain value. According to the new Valassis Shopper Marketing Report, nearly eight in 10 consumers consider themselves value seekers, self-described as promotion sensitive or price conscious.

Deerfield Park, Ill. - Walgreens and Roush Fenway Racing have launched a partnership to stage "The Race Around America" interactive promotion, presented by Balance Financial Prepaid MasterCard from Walgreens. By registering their cards for the promotion, Balance financial card cardholders will be entered in the sweepstakes portion of the omni-channel promotion.  

General Mills Big G cereals now include four collectible comic books featuring DC Comics' Justice League characters, on shelves now through April 2014.

Four specialty issues created exclusively for General Mills, in partnership with DC Entertainment (DCE) and Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP), can be found in grocery retailers nationwide, with a bonus fifth issue available only in select boxes of Cheerios at Target.

Three years after launching its Let’s Play initiative, Dr Pepper Snapple Group wants to play some more. The company has committed another $11 million to expand its efforts to provide tools, places and inspiration to make active play a daily priority in the lives of kids, families and communities across North America.