Mercedes-Benz spread the word about its smart fortwo car in China in a new way, using technology that inserts ads into residents' online spoken English lessons.

Verizon Wireless took to the streets of New York City -- Times Square, to be exact -- to promote DROID's built-in location-based voice search feature. Passersby took control of two digital out-of-home billboards -- Thomson Reuters and Nasdaq -- in real-time, using only voice commands.

There is no shortage of campaigns running rampantly across the Internet that fail to successfully marry media to creative, or product to audience. Are we losing sight of simple but vital "marketing common sense" in the digital age?

Everyone likes a good mystery, which helps explain why people gravitate towards puzzle ads. They're especially fun to solve, especially those targeting a niche audience, guaranteeing that the average person remains unaware of the brainteaser's agenda.

Goodwill was looking for a way to increase its yearly donations through an initiative that costs nothing. Sounds impossible, but Goodwill's pro bono agency, BBDO West, came up with a way to use something already found in clothing -- care tags -- as a courier of Goodwill's message.