How do you rebrand a city? Do you work with established symbols and perceptions, or take the brand in a new, aspirational direction? We spoke to Designworks’ Jef Wong about the New Zealand agency’s approach to place branding, airport design, and the inflight experience down under.

Every now and then Spafax editorial director and airplane geek Arjun Basu fills us in on the flightgeist. In this post, he explains how flying has becoming an excuse to catch up on his favourite TV shows or the latest Morgan Freeman flick.

Mobility, money and Latin America are three things we care about at Sparksheet. Wenceslao Casares is an expert in all of them. We spoke to the Argentina-born, California-based entrepreneur about mobile payment and media across the Americas.

To most marketers, Brazil may as well be on the moon. But the South American country is a hotbed for creative online engagement. Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Renata Acioli explains how Brazilian brands – from magazines and construction companies, to the local Pizza Hut – are using digital technology to earn some ROI.

Bob Garfield is a perfect fit for Sparksheet. For 25 years, he wrote Advertising Age’s AdReview column, where he surveyed the 30-second TV spot. He is the co-host of NPR’s On The Media, and his new book The Chaos Scenario explores how brands can survive the new media “apocalypse.” We asked him to take on the media and marketing worlds.

In Part II of our special interview with journalist, blogger, and Webby Award winner Roger Ebert, we spoke to him about the “Ebert Club” experiment, personal branding and the future of film criticism.

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert can’t speak anymore, but that’s turned his Internet presence into a powerful echo. So it’s hardly surprising that he was named “Person of the Year” at this week’s Webby Awards. In Part I of an exclusive interview, we spoke to him about the future of print, e-readers, and his recently announced memoir.

One of the oldest car brands in the world, Ford is leading the pack when it comes to new media. Fast Company even named the automaker as one of this year’s top 10 “Most Innovative Companies” in mobile technology, alongside Amazon and Apple. We spoke to three Ford executives about branding, social media and SYNC, Ford’s groundbreaking in-car entertainment and communications system.

About Sparksheet

Sparksheet is your site of reference for everything to do with custom media, branded content and travel marketing. Ideas and conversations about social media, revenue generation, B2B relationships and on-demand entertainment will keep you inspired and in the know. Read more

About Spafax

London-based Spafax, a wholly owned subsidiary of WPP Group PLC, has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Orange (California), Santiago (Chile), Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. With expertise in traditional and electronic publishing, inflight entertainment programming, production and management and revenue generation services for clients worldwide, nobody knows the global Transumer (consumer in transit) like Spafax.

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