We’ve gathered twelve methods across categories to show how selected brands remain in public view. While these are similar to initiatives that year-round brands use, they often require more resourcefulness and additional resources.

     Make your presence known

1. Events: Offering a rich history, scenic countryside and famous golf courses, Scotland is a popular destination. During off-season April, Scotland hosts Tartan Week in New York. Festivities include a parade with Scots (and Scottish terriers) in kilts, and a trendy plaid fashion show.

2. Pop-up/temporary exhibits: Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum closed temporarily for an upgrade and will re-open this spring. Meanwhile, museum-goers can view the Dutch painter’s works at Amsterdam’s Hermitage museum.

     Get the word out

3. Generate buzz: Last year when New York’s legendary Waldorf Astoria was under construction, the hotel created an amnesty program  where prior guests were encouraged to return items they’d “borrowed” during their stays to showcase in the lobby. The program was intended to feed the hotel’s social media platforms and appeal to younger guests.

4. Sharing expertise: New York’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is currently closed during renovations. To draw designers’ notice, their acting director and curators started a blog. Called Object of the Day, it features graphic design items from the museum’s collection.

     Brand extensions

5. New location spin-offs: In 2002 Tribeca Film Festival launched to revive downtown New York after 9/11’s terrorist attack. The brand expanded its universe in 2010 by adding a Doha, Qatar location. In 2012 Sundance Film Festival introduced a London edition.

6. Counter-seasonal additions: Marketers learned about these brand extensions from the ski industry. Years ago Aspen was known just for snow sports. Ever since Aspen’s Food & Wine Classic was introduced, the town is also recognized for summertime culinary fare. Countless brands have copied this concept.

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Fans of Mad Men are undoubtedly familiar with the famous opening credit sequence in which a faceless, suit-clad man falls from a skyscraper in slow motion, passing period-relevant ads on his way down. With the show’s commitment to genuine historical accuracy, it’s no surprise that the images featured in this opening sequence are from real print ads.

No surprise, that is, unless you’re Gita Hall May, the model whose face has appeared at the start of every episode since the show’s 2007 debut without her knowledge or, allegedly, her consent.

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An “inside source” says the extra-tight pants of Mad Men‘s upcoming sixth season, set in the late 60′s, have required AMC‘s design team to work a little Photoshop magic on promo images of Don Draper–but Hamm’s rep naturally doesn’t want to discuss this massive scandal.

The long and short of it: enough with the Dick (Whitman) jokes!

We have to say, though: We understand why Hamm’s flack is sick of reading this sort of easy click bait, but we also don’t really see how the star is getting shafted by the press. It’s all in good fun, right?

Apparently not: the very irritated rep told the Daily News that “It is ridiculous and not really funny at all. I’d appreciate you taking the high road and not resorting to something childish like this that’s been blogged about 1,000 times.”

Correction: make that 1,001.

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But it now appears that the retailer’s relationship with AMC is not exclusive–as anyone at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will tell you, it often pays to have a little something going “on the side.”

Just in time for Valentines Day, Banana Republic’s global spring campaign centers on a single concept — love. Aww.

In order to get customers in the mood, the retailer will kick off its amorous rollout by hosting in-store mixers co-sponsored by Match.com. These after-hours soirees, hosted in cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, will be open to members of Match.com’s Stir events program, who can mingle with fellow cardigan-wearing singles while sipping cocktails and enjoying discounts on merchandise.

Oh, and fear not for the lonely hearts who will leave these gatherings alone; every attendee will receive a free Billy Joel CD to keep them warm on the long, cold winter nights. (Ed. note: We now assume that these events are open only to the 50-and-over set.)

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AMC first partnered with parent company GAP for this cross-promotion in 2011 for a collection of contemporary clothing inspired by the Camelot era of the 1960′s. Fans of the AMC hit show could finally get their hands on tangible items to help them emulate Joan, Betty, Don, and Roger. The man in charge of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce could not have planned it better.

Consumer demand for the line has been strong, helping to boost Banana Republic’s North American same-store sales (which rose 5 percent in the three months ending April 28, 2012 with the new collection’s help, marking the brand’s biggest bounce in two years).

This year, fans will notice the show’s move toward the mod vibe of the late 60′s reflected in the clothing collection, designed collaboratively by Banana Republic and Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant. No more pastels and country-club couture — the times, they are a’changin!

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Now they’ve created one of the best PR/ad campaigns we’ve seen this holiday season. A brilliant Facebook app called “Holiday Carole” revolves around a video of a Mad Men-era lounge singer who shows up at your virtual front door (or that of a friend) to deliver a swingin’ holiday ditty—and it’s all personalized.

Not only does Ms. Carole check out the weather report for your hometown, hand her driver a note with your home address written in lipstick, and deliver a personalized message of your choice along with a fresh-poured glass of Stella; the app uses images drawn from Google Maps, Street View and other resources to place the actress and her entourage on your block. If you live in the city like we do, you’ll be amused to see your cross-street neighbor’s taped-up windows behind Carole and her band as she sings. (And, as Ad Age notes, her snowy drive would prove particularly fun if you happen to live in the Hawaiian Islands.)

It’s all so cool that we can overlook the lead actress’s not-even-remotely-convincing stab at lip syncing. The promo vid is nice, but you really should try it yourself.

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If you’re a fan of Harry Potter or Mad Men (and especially if you’re both), then this promotional still for the upcoming British miniseries A Young Doctor’s Notebook probably did its job by catching your eye immediately. If you also happen to have a crush on Daniel Radcliffe and/or Jon Hamm, then may still be catching your eye–in fact, you probably aren’t even reading this. Hey! Down here!

A Young Doctor’s Notebook, the upcoming Sky Arts four-part miniseries set to launch on December 6, is based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov–and no, it’s not about a romance between a young wizard and a handsome ad man. The show tells the story of a middle-aged doctor reflecting on the time he spent working as a young medic during World War I. Radcliffe plays the younger doctor, and Hamm the elder.

While the two actors may not be close enough to share a romantic bath, they’ve certainly been singing each other’s praises as their project’s launch date nears. “He’s one of the best”, Radcliffe said of Hamm. “He is really funny and incredibly personable. The thing I haven’t heard people say is he is also one of the best technical actors”. Meanwhile, Hamm called Radcliffe his “comrade in arms.”

Radcliffe also addressed the bath scene depicted above, saying, “It was great, because you know you are the envy of every woman ever”. While that may be true, we hate to see Radcliffe selling himself short — we’re pretty sure there are plenty of Harry Potter fans who wouldn’t mind helping him wash behind his ears.

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But even Hendricks has moments of discomfort and self-doubt. During a recent interview, Australian Sun-Herald fashion editor Kate Waterhouse asked the star about her famous curves, saying, “You have been an inspiration as a full-figured woman. What is the most inspiring story that you can remember where you’ve inspired someone?”

It seems clear to us that the journalist meant no harm and probably meant to pay the actress a compliment. But Hendricks didn’t take it that way, and we’re willing to bet that what Waterhouse actually said and what what Hendricks heard were not one and the same. To Hendricks, the question probably sounded more like: “You’re too heavy to be conventionally beautiful, but somehow you’re confident and popular in spite of that. Let’s discuss.”

While some might see this incident as a PR failure, it’s more a reflection of the fact that “full-figured” is simply too close to the word “fat”, which remains one of our most painful insults. The connection inspires moments of insecurity even for a successful and self-assured woman like Christina Hendricks. She doesn’t have a PR problem — curves do.

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The ongoing dispute between AMC and Dish Network that resulted in Dish’s 14 million customers losing access to the home of “Mad Men“, “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad” early this summer isn’t showing any signs of resolution. In fact, in the above PSA-style ad, AMC takes its side of the argument to next level, appealing to viewers not affected by the dispute in an apparent effort to gin up some positive PR.

It’s basically the snarky, for-profit equivalent of those familiar ads for holiday season charity efforts: “You know how much you love your Thanksgiving feast AMC shows? Well, many others, perhaps even some in your very own neighborhood, aren’t as fortunate. Please consider inviting them into your home to share your dinner ‘Breaking Bad.’”

The ad then points out that Dish customers are still paying the same price for their TV packages as they were before AMC was dropped.

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Feel young yet? The Brooklyn-born Fein worked as an aspiring novelist in the early part of the 20th century before shifting gears to do publicity work for nearly all of the major studios back in the pre-”Mad Men” days when Lana Turner was big business and people still took the phrase “pinup girl” literally. Later roles included vice president of advertising and promotion at CBS.

In a 1988 Associated Press interview, Fein said “I’ve been lucky. I’ve been able to work with the best of them.” In a sense, we all aspire to accomplish as much as Mr. Fein did during his career–though, to be fair, he had more than 100 years to do it.

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That’s because Dish refused to agree to AMC’s supposedly unreasonable demands for a contract extension, effectively forcing a blackout of the channel and related properties (IFC, WE tv, Sundance Channel) for all subscribers. Note: AMC still claims that an unrelated lawsuit stretching way back to 2008 is the real culprit.

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Another clever promo from those eggheads at The New Yorker: This meta-comedic short film directed by Lena Dunham (HBO‘s “Girls“) features the writer/actress/producer introducing the concepts of an iPhone, an app, and the magazine itself to charmingly oblivious talk show host Jon Hamm (“Mad Men“). The interview — like so many on late night talk shows — centers on Hamm showing a clip of Dunham’s “new film”, in which she portrays an exasperated New Yorker editor trying to explain the importance of the new app to a flustered assistant (played by fellow “Girls” regular Alex Karpovsky).

This isn’t the first time the magazine has used big-name actors and directors to get the word out about their digital ventures — for their 2010 iPad app launch, they released another comedic short film starring Jason Schwartzman and directed by Roman Coppola.

Source: Ad Age

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The show started making news last night for including The Beatles song “Tomorrow Never Knows” towards the end of the episode. Right away, we started to see tweeters questioning how much was paid to get permission to use the tune.

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The words “Zou Bisou Bisou” are falling off of everyone’s lips and fingertips this morning following a rendition of the song on last night’s widely publicized season premiere of Mad Men. The title is trending on Twitter and a number of websites have done stories about the origins of the song and Megan/Jessica Paré’s rendition of it last night.

And AMC and Lionsgate Television Music, not missing a beat, released a digital version of the actress’ performance of the song on iTunes and has made a vinyl of the song available on the AMC website.

Before the season premiere, last week’s issue of Newsweek took on the Mad Men/1960s theme, adding to the news and pop culture reach of the show.

If you missed the performance last night, you can watch it here on Pinterest. (h/t @CaseeMarie) The original, in the clip above.

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The January 6, 1964 cover

Today commemorates 60 years on the air. TVNewser went to the party last night.

The New York Times‘ public editor Arthur Brisbane was feeling the heat yesterday over his take on whether reporters should be “truth vigilantes.” A lot of people thought that was a dumb question so Brisbane has come back to reiterate that it is not. Jill Abramson has also responded.

A Ron Paul super PAC has written a press release calling for CNN‘s Dana Bash to be taken off the campaign beat. CNN replied: “The notion that Dana is anything but objective is preposterous.”

Spin magazine has launched @SpinReviews. [via Fishbowl NY]

Newsweek plans to recreate the magazine’s 1960s design in the March 19 issue to commemorate the season premiere of Mad Men. [via Ad Age]

Pinterest says Martha Stewart, Real Simple, and Better Homes & Gardens are top pinners. [via minOnline]

The Huffington Post has launched a Good News channel for inspiration stories. Jessica Prois, who also heads the Impact section, will edit the new channel.

Click through for more media changes.

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