Patrón Tequila is on track to support besieged Gulf Coast residents via a new, national, epicurean-themed fundraising train tour. Organized by The Patrón Spirits Company in partnership with the St. Bernard Project, a community-based organization dedicated to helping New Orleans-area residents, the tour features the "Patrón Tequila Epicurean Express," a restored, vintage 1927 train car. The car will ride the rails from city to city throughout June, stopping in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New Orleans, L.A. and points in between.   At each stop, top local chefs will create Patrón-inspired events at the train to benefit the …

Microsoft and Razorfish/Universal McCann took top honors for the Bing VCS campaign at the third annual Vibrant Awards held at the Top of the Rock in Manhattan Thursday night. IBM and Ogilvy Worldwide NY took the Silver Award for the U.S. Open Sponsorship Program campaign. Unilever and Mindshare took the Bronze Award for the Real Food Project campaign. Best Use of Technology Award went to Toyota and Saatchi + Saatchi L.A. for Recall. And Industry Choice Award went to Best Buy and Razorfish Seattle. Each entry was evaluated by a panel of experts and members of the advertising …

TV executives can sometimes forget what one TV series - – actually one episode of on TV series – can do for a cable or broadcast network. What was Wednesday night's top-rated cable network? USA, TNT, Fox News or ESPN, you say? No, not the usual suspects. It was Versus, the Comcast-owned sports cable channel, which aired game three of the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals. Versus posted 3.6 million viewers. Not only bettering all other cable networks in that metric, but also getting the best numbers among 18-49, 18-34, 25-54, and key male demographics. This was the …

Google's plan to purchase real-time budding company Invite Media has prompted two groups -- Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy -- to ask the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. The groups say the $70 million deal poses privacy and antitrust issues.

As shoppers inch their way toward pre-recession spending levels, they're changing channels again, and May retail results indicate just how elusive defining the "new normal" may be. Big gainers for the month include warehouse clubs, with Costco's same-store sales up 9%, and BJ's Wholesale Clubs up 6.8%, as well as some luxury retailers, with Neiman Marcus up 7.8% and Saks up 5.8%. Gains were more muted at department stores and specialty apparel companies, and many in the teen sector declined.

Video game maker EA Sports looks to bring the excitement of team sports to the usually staid world of golf in a new television and viral campaign promoting the company's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. In a new television commercial airing this week, a Ryder Cup tournament is shown with all the pomp and celebration of a football game, including a mascot leading the team through a banner and former NFL coach Mike Ditka strategizing about how to play a hole with Tiger and other professional golfer teammates. At the end of the spot, from San Francisco agency Heat, …

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent to TRA Analytics covering the technology and processes TRA uses to provide single-source audience data to TV networks, agencies, and advertisers.  U.S. Patent No. 7,729,940 (the "940 patent"), entitled, "Analyzing Return on Investment of Advertising Campaigns by Matching Multiple Data Sources" also covers TRA's solutions for integrating other types of media and purchase data as well as TRA's report metrics, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), multivariate analytics, algorithms and privacy solution.

Marketing effectively to U.S. Hispanics requires an understanding of diverse psychographics, identity profiles and emerging segments that goes well beyond the language, country of origin and acculturation level targeting definitions now in standard use, according to newly released research jointly conducted by Starcom MediaVest Group and NBC Universal/Telemundo.

Google said Wednesday it has been working with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to provide bulk patent and trademark data to the public for free. Until now, USPTO's public data in bulk form has been provided solely as a fee-based service. All granted patents and trademarks, and published applications, with both full text and images are free. Google also plans to make file histories and related data available in the future, too. Google Patent Search launched in 2006. At first, not all searches were up to date, but relevance improved over time.

Auto service provider Midas International Corp. is joining with Spin magazine to ask consumers to "Rock the Highway" this summer. The Itasca, Ill.-based company is offering a sweepstakes and a “Search for the Next Great Road Song” contest. Sweepstakes and contest details and Midas’ tips for car care and safe teen driving are available at a new microsite: www.midassummer2010.com. Music fans can vote on their favorite classic road trip songs by visiting www.rockthehighway.com during June, July and August. Each month, entrants can enter to win road trip-related prizes such as …