A recent study by Morgan Stanley says people spend nearly as much time online as in front of a TV, but you wouldn't know that by media spend, which, for most brands, is three times more for TV than the Internet. Three brands have successfully changed that equation, and are now spending less on traditional media. Apparel brand Converse is spending less than 10% on traditional media. Ninety percent gets spent on content development, according to CMO Geoff Cottrill, speaking at Ad Age's digital conference in New York. The brand has eight million fans on Facebook, but Cottrill said his …

Kudo Tsunoda of Microsoft talked up the benefits of collaboration between marketers and game designers for Xbox 360. The creative director for Kinect spoke on marketing's role in the development of Kinect to launch the M16 Game Marketing Conference in San Francisco. He started by talking about the "weird" tension between marketers and developers. But he then said Microsoft's Kinect marketing team had a big role in crafting the experience and product. He tried to give them props at the conference, acknowledging them and asking them to stand up, which they were reluctant to do. "That's the last time we …

Charlie Sheen has the best Web strategy going, writes Technorati scribe Iain Alexander. "From breaking a Twitter record, to hosting his own Internet show on Ustream, the actor has done what few in Hollywood have ever achieved," he writes. "Parody videos created by fans and websites dedicated to his one-liners are giving the actor non-stop free promotion and this, in turn, has created an audience of marketers for Charlie Sheen." Alexander says Sheen's ABC interview launched viral video spoofs, which have fueled his Twitter fan growth and other media interview requests. "With so many people discussing and sharing his antics, …

Kia hired German designer Peter Schreyer from Audi in 2006 to give Kia some chutzpah, particularly in the U.S. market. But his new concept electric car, the Naimo, which has debuted at the Seoul Auto Show, is all about a Korean aesthetic, per Schreyer. "This one we did with the inspiration of using Koreaness," he said at that show. "So it will have some clues in it coming from Korean crafts and art." The jade green color is meant to evoke Korean Celadon-style pottery. Other elements suggest Korean oak, hanji paper and architecture.

Microsoft has tapped Chris Capossela as CMO. The 20-year Microsoft veteran will be SVP of the company's new Consumer Channels and Central Marketing Group. He replaces Mich Matthews, who announced her departure last week. Capossela was most recently SVP of marketing for the Microsoft Business Division, which makes such productivity products as Office, SharePoint, and Exchange. He oversaw the launch of both Office 2007 and Office 2010, and cloud-based Office Web Apps and the forthcoming Office 365.

LeBron James, through his marketing firm Cleveland-based LRMR, has signed a deal with Boston-based Fenway Sports Group. The first deal of the global investment and sponsorship program makes James a minority owner of the Liverpool FC soccer club.

"Jailbroken" iPhones, devices whose Apple operating systems owners hack so that they can download applications beyond Apple's approved list, are a big no-no with the Cupertino, Calif., computer company. But Toyota's Scion division saw a mirror image of the Scion individuality and customization zeitgeist in people who jailbreak their iPods, iPhones and iPads. The company wanted to promote its 2011 tC vehicle by offering a customized theme for jailbroken Apple phones. Apple, however, got wind of it and went all tough-guy on Toyota, which has agreed to pull the theme and the ads promoting it from the Cydia jailbreak …

Hyundai lost its chief U.S. marketing executive Joel Ewanick to General Motors last year. Now Hyundai has hired Steve Shannon, a 25-year GM veteran and most recently executive director of marketing at Cadillac, as marketing chief at its Fountain Valley, Calif., headquarters. The new VP marketing will take the job on April 18, according to Chris Hosford, Hyundai's chief U.S. spokesperson. Shannon was the chief marketer at Cadillac until last March, when former CEO Ed Whitacre let him go as part of several shakeups that happened during that period.

Heineken's Amsterdam leadership is mulling a global agency consolidation, which would mean no North American agency duties. Sources say agency duties for the eponymous brand would go to Wieden and Kennedy's Amsterdam office. Euro RSCG will stay as global AOR for Dos Equis.

Kellogg has given its global digital strategy work for its corporate websites to an agency outside the Publicis holding company, whose agencies do most of the packaged goods company's work. The Battle Creek, Mich., company has tapped WPP shop VML for the corporate website work. Kellogg keeps Publicis-owned Leo Burnett for creative, Arc Worldwide for Digital and Starcom USA for media work across its morning foods, snack and frozen divisions.