The Brooklyn-based agency Huge, partly-owned by the Interpublic Group, announced today that three key executives would move into leadership roles and David Skokna, one of the company's founders and its ECD, would be leaving to pursue other endeavors. Founding partner Sasha Kirovski is also leaving the company. Among several personnel changes, three key executives currently with Huge are taking on larger roles. Aaron Shapiro, currently responsible for strategic leadership will become CEO. Gene Liebel will take on the mantle of Chief Strategy Officer and oversee the company’s product design and analytics practices.And Joe Stewart, who has been Huge's …

Google's vice president of search products Marissa Mayer will take on a new role overseeing location and local services. The move points to the Mountain View, Calif., search engine's emphasis on, well, location and local. As the VP of search, she introduced more than 100 products and features. Udi Manber, vice president of engineering for Web search, will take Mayer's search duties.

It may come as a shock to many marketers—and some stand-up comics, too—but it turns out women aren't all that mouthy. A new study from Harbinger, a firm in Toronto that specializes in marketing to women, finds that the way women use word-of-mouth varies sharply by product category, as well as by life stage. But perhaps the biggest shock is that even the most techno-savvy would rather not learn or talk about products online: Women are still three times as likely to talk to friends and family as they are to go to their computers. And 92% say they …

 J.D. Power and Associates says it is expanding market research with a program called J.D. PowerPanel to launch this quarter. The extension of survey-based customer satisfaction and product quality research is designed to draw consumers to participate in online market research via popular websites and portals.  "The J.D. PowerPanel will augment our existing sources of online panel engagement to provide more robust sample volumes and enhanced diagnostics for our research," said Kevin Keegan, SVP of global research operations at at the LA-based firm.  J.D. Power and Associates is collaborating with uSamp, based in Encino, Calif., to develop the …

Henkel North America's Right Guard deodorant brand will extend its marketing partnership with the National Basketball League. The company began promoting its line of Total Defense deodorants with the NBA last year, with a marketing promotion that put the NBA logo on Right Guard's lineup of five Total Defense products and a spokesperson partnership with Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. The company says this year it plans retail promotions, NBA-themed advertisements, and online content. This year the company will extend the partnership to include NBA in Canada. Right Guard says it will also support the Women's …

Buick is promoting its Regal sedan through a new integrated campaign that is being executed under the auspices of a partnership the automaker has made with Time Inc. Advertising Sales & Marketing and Time Warner Global Media Group. The program makes Buick sponsor of "40 Under 40," a cross-title editorial package that takes a Fortune Magazine staple to six other titles: Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Golf, Sports Illustrated, Time and American Express Publishing's Food & Wine. The idea is that each of the magazines will extol the virtues of under-40's in their vertical. The publisher says campaign will exceed 100 …

Microsoft on Monday unveiled the first devices  powered by Window Phone 7, the long-awaited mobile operating system upgrade it's counting on to vault itself back into the high-stakes smartphone race. The company is launching nine models using the new platform worldwide from manufacturers including HTC, LG, Dell and Samsung. AT&T and T-Mobile USA are Microsoft's carrier partners in the U.S. First announced earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in February, Windows Phone 7 features "Live Tiles," or dynamic widgets, meant to organize Web content, applications and other data into subject-specific hubs to personalize and streamline interaction on …

Confirming the ability of Google engineers to create a range of technologies, the company revealed Saturday it has developed a fleet of auto-drive cars manned by operators that just completed a 140,000-mile trek through California. The cars drove from the company's Mountain View campus to its Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. These cars drove down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. The cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to identify other traffic, as well as …

Online video ad network and analytics firm TubeMogul has closed a $10 million second-round of venture financing from Foundation Capital and Trinity Ventures. That brings its total raised to date to $14.5 million. The company says it will use the funding to expand  PlayTime, its real-time media buying and analytics platform and its InPlay self-serve video analytics tool. Read more on the TubeMogul blog.

CVS Caremark says it has successfully positioned itself to pounce on new business created by health care reform: It estimates the federal expansion of health coverage will affect 32 million Americans, generating upwards of 200 million prescriptions a year. "We think this is a big opportunity for us," CVS Chairman/ CEO Tom Ryan told analysts and investors in a presentation in New York, which was also webcast. "The key driver is the alarming growth of chronic disease in the U.S., with 140 million already affected by chronic disease, and 170 million going forward." Among those with these illnesses, which …