Social network Ello takes a principled stand against advertising and data brokering. The social nets had it coming, after a year of aggressively touting their own prowess as marketing tools. But Ello may prove to be yet another counter-cultural ripple easily absorbed into the digital "revolution."

Cross-channel is a consumer heartache. Juggling deals and offers across screens is frustrating and inefficient. Shoppers need seamlessness more than anyone.

Marketers covet accurate first-party data, but consumers have become more skeptical about providing the information. At Publishers Clearing House Digital, visitors browsing the Web site are happy to part with personal information for a chance to win big prizes, per Jason John, the division's first appointed CMO. The focus will turn the digital group into a media and entertainment network supported by mobile, social and new data capabilities.

The mobile ad network Todacell, Tel Aviv, will release research Wednesday that suggests matching the color in a mobile advertisement with a country's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita can improve click-through rates and return on investments. In tests by the company, CTRs rose up to 150% and ROI improved by up to 50% for ads running on its mobile ad serving platform.

When the creative and the media align, mobile display and video campaigns outperform desktop. But it takes discipline, Millward Brown argues in its latest research. Respecting the user's time, space and situation are all critical.

The agency MRY released a study this week that analyzed topics that will affect the future of connected cars: changing attitudes toward car ownership, interest in car sharing services, and the impact of connectivity on the automotive purchase.

One m-commerce platform is seeing a majority of visits to its retailer sites coming from mobile. More important than raw visits is the increased comfort consumers have with using their devices more broadly across the path to purchase.

Toyota employed mobile location-aware targeting along with localized offers this past month that demonstrates how geo-fencing can combine with behavioral profiling in subtler ways.

For marketing naysayer who continues to denounce the possibility of anyone wanting to steal company or client data, perhaps the most recent Apple iCloud hack will convince them otherwise. Granted, the hacker shared nude photo of Hollywood celebrities, rather than consumer data, but the event should serve as a reminder that cloud storage still isn't entirely secure. The technology is too new.