When you reside in Portland, Ore., a city with 48 craft beer microbreweries, you are definitely living in "Beervana." Making "Beervana" a perfect fit for Portland-based BridgePort Brewing Company, Oregon's oldest craft brewery (founded in 1984). BridgePort's new "Long Live Beervana" campaign, from Portland-based marketing agency R/West and Hidden City film productions, features its first-ever television commercials – one version for Portland and one for the brewery's second-largest market, Seattle. To those in the know, Beervana connotes not just plentiful availability of craft beer, but a "state of true beer enlightenment" and a distinctive regional vibe, and …

The mobile video audience crossed 20 million for the first time in the first quarter of 2010, up 51.2% from a year ago, according to the latest Three Screen Report from Nielsen. That total is also up from the audience of 17.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, but still represents less than 10% of all U.S. mobile customers. Time spent watching mobile video was flat over the last year, at an average of three hours, 37 minutes per viewer. Separately, Nielsen found the average time spent simultaneously using TV and Internet in the home grew 9.8%, …

Apple's iPhone and iPod touch still account for more mobile web consumption than all other devices combined, according to May data released Friday by Quantcast. The Apple devices generated 58.8% of mobile Web traffic last month, with BlackBerry handsets being the next closest, at 10.4%, just ahead of Motorola (10%). HTC was fourth, at 9.2%. However, Quantcast points out Apple's dominant share of mobile Web use continues to erode as competitors gain ground, especially Motorola, thanks to the Droid. Android has been making inroads on the iPhone operating system as its spreads across some 60 devices, though …

The amount of time spent watching television is still increasing: viewers watched two more hours of TV per month in Q1 2010 than in Q1 2009, according to the latest release of Nielsen's Three Screen Report: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-consumers-watch-nielsens-q1-2010-three-screen-report/ Other findings:

• Average time spent simultaneously using TV and Internet in the home grew 9.8%, to 3 hours and 41 minutes per month
• The number of people who are timeshifting has grown 18% since last year to 94 million, with the average user now timeshifting …

There will likely be some interesting boardroom conversations taking place at London-based agency holding company Aegis Group following Chairman John Napier’s comments Thursday on the U.S. government’s scrutiny of British petroleum giant, and environmental SNAFU artist BP’s efforts to stop the oil leak and clean up the mess it’s making of marine life surrounding U.S. shores. Napier, who until the recent promotion of Jerry Buhlmann, had also been Aegis’ acting CEO, is also chairman of Britain’s RSA Insurance Group, and acting in that capacity, has taken a very public stance criticizing the Obama Administration’s comments about BP’s efforts to date. …

Former USC head coach Pete Carroll issued a statement Thursday on YouTube in response to the NCAA sanctions imposed on the school's football team. The Trojans football team is facing a two-year ban on playing in bowl games and stripped the players from scholarships. The penalties stem from improper benefits accepted by Reggie Bush. Reports also suggest that the team will also forfeit games while Bush was at the school. Carroll says after nine years of working at the university he's shocked that the NCAA made the ruling. He says the facts don't match the sanctions, and …

Content delivery network Akamai has agreed to acquire mobile services platform Velocitude. The move is aimed at bolstering Akamai's presence in the mobile market, extending its Web optimization services to handheld devices. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. By adding Velocitude's technology, Akamai said it would be able to dynamically adapt customer Web sites for different devices and screen sizes. Since most sites aren't tailored to cell phones, mobile Web browsing on handsets has often proven a frustrating experience for users. By improving the quality of mobile browsing, Akamai could help expand uptake of the emerging medium. …

Social media is likely not the #1 priority these days at Denny's, what with searches for both a new CEO and a new CMO now underway and heavy investor pressure to rejuvenate the brand and jump-start its sales. Still, from a marketing standpoint, it's interesting to note that the company is pushing forward with efforts to enhance its social media outreach, even as a new top-level strategic team tackles the job of reassessing the business's fundamentals.

Those set on choosing a custom background on Google.com's engine will have to wait. Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, explains in a update to a blog post how a glitch in the system has prompted a rollback to simplicity. "We had planned to run an explanation of the showcase alongside it—in the form of a link on our homepage," Mayer writes. "Due to a bug, the explanatory link did not appear for most users. As a result, many people thought we had permanently changed our homepage, so we decided to stop today’s …

Chrysler is waiting for new products to come down the pipeline, and that is a tense wait. But the Auburn Hills, Mich. unit has a Rubicon-style rope to cling to in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. The vehicle, the first under the Chrysler/Fiat SpA alliance, is a critical and (I know it's overused) iconic nameplate in the Jeep lineup. The company is rolling out a new ad campaign for the redesigned SUV, and at one time back in the days when SUV meant truck, one of the top sellers. The new Grand Cherokee is, like most SUV's these days, a …