Talk about a horror movie.  This week’s Strategy of the Week comes from the movie business.  Last week regulators in Washington, D.C. approved the establishment of a Hollywood futures exchange.  Now you can buy derivatives for movies.  Like the A-Team?  Bet on it.  Like the new Tom Cruise movie?  Bet on it.  Don’t like the new Toy Story 3?  Bet against it.  The idea is that betting on the movies lowers the risk for the movie studios and  offsets the risk of putting money into big productions.  The Motion Picture Association of America  hates the idea.  Others call it popcorn predictions.  But they lost the battle.  Pretty soon you’ll be able to bet on the box office and make a little money if your horse – I mean movie – comes in.

The oil giant BP, now smack in the middle of a PR disaster with the oil blowout in the gulf, could take a page out of the playbook of the New Orleans Saints.  Last week the team, fresh off its Super Bowl win in February, stopped by a bird sanctuary in Louisiana to raise awareness of the effects on wildlife.  In order to raise money, the Saints are raffling off a Super Bowl ring and hope to raise $1 million from the raffle to go to wildlife and Gulf Coast restoration.  Tickets are $2.  And in case you were wondering, the ring is real, an authentic Saints ring from Super Bowl XLIV.  This is a clear, simple, straightforward strategy to show the community the team cares.  It will demonstrate its commitment to Louisiana and actually do some good for the hard-hit Gulf communities and wildlife.  The winner of the raffle will be announced at the team’s home opener in New Orleans on September 9^th.

Who knew?  There’s a major battle raging between credit reporting companies and the federal government.  You’ll remember the commercial company, freecreditreport.com, and its funky band with tunes you can’t get out of your head.  You know, they played at a Renaissance Faire because their credit score was so low they couldn’t work anywhere else.  Their band became real famous, for an ad band anyway.  Up against them is the federal government’s agency, annualcreditreport.com.  The gov’s site has created a mock band, to spoof the ads from freecreditreport.com.  They’ve launched themselves as a free alternative – and pitched itself as a way to avoid the fees.   But Experian, the company that owns freecreditreport.com, has hit back.  It’s holding auditions for its next band, and the winner gets to go on the MTV awards to perform its new song.  It’s hard to compete with a free site from the federal government, but Experian’s got a good strategy for prevailing.