• Mobile Weather Apps: Mike Kelly
    About 81% of The Weather Channel users rely more frequently on the topic of weather for apps, compared with 63% for all apps users, according to Mike Kelly, CEO of The Weather Channel. I can see it, especially on mobile devices. The consumer chooses a new way to navigate, according to Kelly at OMMA Global on Monday in San Francisco. "We're interested in the intersection of these devices," he says. That intersection includes TV + Web, TV, and TV + Mobile.
  • Nordstrom, Disney Celebrate "Small World" With Clothing Line
    It's enough to get you tapping the toes of your Dutch wooden shoes: Nordstrom and Disney Consumer Products are introducing a limited-edition collection of children's clothing to celebrate the 45th birthday of the 'It's a Small World' attraction at Disneyland. The inspiration for the four seasonal collections is decades old, and came from Disney artist Mary Blair's original mid-century artwork. And the upscale retailer has given the line a modern cause-related twist: TOMS Shoes, the footwear marketer involved in the project, will donate shoes for children in need, and FEED Projects' Small World items will benefit UNICEF. (That organization's …
  • Email, The Workhorse
    Reach over to the Blackberry or the iPhone laying on the nightstand after opening your eyes first thing in the morning. Email isn't the shiny new object, but it still drives a tremendous amount of activity and conversions, according to some. It's the workhorse, says Eric Kirby, CEO at Connection Engine, during OMMA Global in San Francisco on Monday. He says it's the workhorse that can drive other campaigns.
  • Is Email Still Relevant Or Old School?
    Stephen Pretorius, president at Acceleration, led a panel on Monday at OMMA Global in San Francisco discussing whether email is still relevant and does all the data even matter? The data absolutely matters depending on how marketers use it. How has the email space evolved? One things for sure, marketers are not using the data to their advantage. Every company has their own data capture analysis and it's important to build common targeted approaches to campaigns, from email to search to display. A second source of data is what you can append, meaning demographic data appended to files. Asking for …
  • Report: ISP Serving Own Ads At Google, Other Sites
    The Internet service provider Mediacom recently started serving its own ads at the top of Google, Apple and other Web publishers, according to BroadbandReports.com. Commenters at BroadbandReports first noticed the ads around one week ago. The ISP has not yet responded to MediaPost's request for comment.
  • Rumor: Saudi King Courting Facebook
    By now, you may have heard the one about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia offering to buy Facebook for $150 billion to prevent the social network from facilitating further social unrest in the Middle East. No, it's not true, but the attention the rumor generated this weekend -- making it into Iran's Tehran Times -- speaks to the surreal nature of recent world events. Indeed, who could have predicted a few years ago that Facebook would now be valued at upwards of $50 billion, and be partially responsible for overturning Middle Eastern governments, while threatening the stability of others? "The …
  • And The Oscar Goes To: Oscar.com
    Coinciding with the Oscar's telecast on Sunday, Oscar.com offered a glimpse into the promising future of multichannel, consumer-controlled event coverage, paidContent confirms. Though not without its glitches, the Web extension "played opposite the telecast about as well as Geoffrey Rush did Colin Firth in Best Picture winner The King's Speech," exclaims paidContent's Andrew Wallenstein. Wallenstein took in the awards show with the browser-based view known as All Access rather than the Backstage Pass view, which assembled the same video feeds for iPod, iTouch and iPad. "Even though All Access cost $4.99 (Backstage Pass was a more economical 99 cents), …
  • Can SocialEyes Make Video Chat Social?
    With the help of Facebook Connect, a new startup named SocialEyes is trying to make video chat "truly social," reports GigaOm. What does that mean? "The San Francisco company is building a video messaging platform that tries to move beyond largely one-to-one or group chatting experiences and looks like something Facebook would make it if went after video chatting." And what does that look like? The service, which will exist as a standalone site as well as a Facebook application, lets users maintain multiple chats throughout the day, while also tapping Facebook's social graph for conversations. "Users can pop …
  • J.P. Morgan After Tenth Of Twitter
    An investment fund led by J.P. Morgan is in talks to acquire a sizable stake in Twitter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. According to sources, the fund is seeking a 10% share for $450 million, which would value the top microblogging platform at $4.5 billion. Similar to a fund recently set up by Goldman Sachs to invest in Facebook, JPMorgan's Digital Growth Fund was established this month to give wealthy clients access to popular private tech companies. Citing a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, FT.com reports that the fund has raised $1.22 billion to date, while …
  • Cut, Color & Cappuccino: Americans Spending Again On Small Luxuries
    New research from the National Retail Federation shows that Americans aren't just spending again, they're embracing many of the little luxuries they shunned during the worst of the recession—like trips to the salon and the occasional jaunt to Applebee's. The survey focused on the shifting definition of what is essential for consumers and what is discretionary as the economy improves. Currently, 42% consider hair cuts and color an "untouchable" expense, and say they wouldn't give it up—a major jump from 36.9% last year, and even up from 2008's 40%. A daily cup of gourmet coffee, which fell from …
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