Entertainment Tie-ins / Licensing

Mall operator Simon knows teen girls are a key part of its consumer base, and it is courting them this summer.

Indianapolis - Mall operator Simon knows teen girls are a key part of its consumer base, and is courting them this summer. Simon and Teen Vogue are partnering to present the fourth annual Teen Vogue Back-to-School Saturdays (BTSS) omnichannel promotion.  

JCPenney Co. is launching a back-to-school marketing campaign that covers all the bases of omnichannel retailing.

Plano, Texas – The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is launching a back-to-school marketing campaign that crosses multiple channels. The campaign will be supported by ads on TV, in Seventeen magazine, direct mail, preprints, broadcast and streaming video.

All marketing elements will be housed on a back-to-school hub at the Penney website, which includes a mix-and-match game that allows kids and teens to assemble different pieces to create their own style mash-up.

Austin, Texas – Parents are always telling their school-aged children that character is key, and they also apply a version of that maxim to back-to-school shopping. According to a recent survey by RetailMeNot, parents say their kids want school supplies featuring popular characters from films and TV shows.

Respondents indicated their children want "Minions"-themed school supplies the most (33%) followed by "Jurassic World" (31%), "SpongeBob" (24%) and "Star Wars" (22%).

TigerDirect is encouraging consumers to unleash their inner geek with 18th annual PC Race.

The retailer has partnered with Intel to host the competition, which is set to kick off at QuakeCon 2015 in Dallas from July 23 to July 26. The first contestant to assemble and boot their high performance PCs in each regional race will win an all expenses paid trip to Miami to compete in the National Finals on Nov. 6 during Tech Bash.

Canton, Mass. - Dunkin' Donuts is partnering with Spotify to celebrate summer musically. The campaign kicks off July 21 with a summer concert series that will span five cities, featuring five different emerging artists at pop-up concerts in high-traffic public areas.

The first show, today in Philadelphia, features Marian Hill. Additional artists to be determined will perform in Miami, Chicago, New York and Boston throughout the coming weeks.

In the e-commerce fight between China's Alibaba and JD.com, Taylor Swift has declared a winner.

The pop superstar announced that JD.com will be the official online source of Taylor Swift items in China, including a new fashion line the music superstar designed specifically for the Chinese market.