Following each morning session at MediaPost's Search Insider Summit (SIS) in Captiva, Fla., attendees break into groups to share ideas on specific topics. On Thursday, DataPop VP Client Services Dave Schwartz led the discussion on ecommerce. Here are some findings from the group: 1) Today, it is difficult to sell products at scale via Facebook. While there are certain things like Flash Sales or Limited Edition items cleared more easily through this platform, the ad platform, especially around segmentation and testing, needs improvement to target specific products to customers. 2) Brands must become very responsive in social channels …

If consumers could aggregate location-based or any data living in 100 places into one location, how would they manage it and would they give marketers access to it? The information creates a personal diary. At the Search Insider Summit in Captiva, Fla., Craig Danuloff, founder and president at ClickEquations, told attendees that consumers more often provide explicit data to share their whereabouts, enabling marketers to build a picture based on interest, intent, and specific location. Some have begun to share information on travel, dining and events they attend, but more opt-in to share some health and financial data, too. …

Location-based mobile advertising company JiWire has closed $20 million in third-round funding led by Trident Capital and including prior investors Comcast Interactive Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Norwest Venture Partners and Panorama Capital. That brings total financing raised to $45 million. The new capital will be used to increase investment in new ad technology and products, pursue additional M&A opportunities, and further expand internationally after entering the U.K. market last year. JiWire operates a network of 30,000 Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide at cafes, airports and hotels as well as mobile applications that offer geotargeted advertising that it says reaches …

Scott Brinker, president and CTO at ion interactive, opened Search Insider Summit at Captiva, Fla., on Friday talking about reinventing marketing. That means transitioning from social marketing, mobile marketing, data-driven marketing, video marketing, and inbound marketing, into new types of new marketing like computational marketing, agile marketing, real-time marketing and cloud marketing. What about content marketing and integrated marketing? What kind of marketing comes to mind for you? What about multi-marketing marketing, or just plain old marketing? What do you call marketing when a sponsor takes out about 100 people on a boat to a private island off the …

The worldwide smartphone market grew 80% in the first quarter compared to a year ago as manufacturers rolled out much-anticipated new devices and prices on older models dropped, according to new data from technology research firm IDC. The number of smartphones shipped in the quarter nearly doubled to 99.6 million units from 55.4 million a year ago. Powered by sales of Android-based handsets, Samsung and HTC have both seen their share of smartphone sales increase dramatically in the last year. Samsung's market share in the first quarter reached 10.8%, up from 4.3% a year ago, while HTC went from …

If Rene Descartes, the modern father of philosophy, tweeted on Twitter, his signature might have been "I tweet, therefore I think," according to David Reynolds-Gooch, Group Manager, 3M Corporate Interactive Marketing, at MediaPost's Search Insider Summit on Thursday.

The late Easter holiday sent consumers shopping after all, with the nation's biggest retailers turning in solid gains for April. And some were downright stellar: Limited Brands says its comparable store-sales gained 20% for the month, with the new Dream Angles lingerie launch driving sales up 25% at its Victoria's Secret division. A few teen retailers also stood out, with sales climbing 17.5% at Zumiez and 14.5% at The Buckle. Despite steadily rising gas prices, sales gains held steady across most categories, with Kantar Retail reporting an 8.7% gain in its composite index, which tracks 27 large retailers. Last …

Marketing silos are dangerous to marketers, Chris Baggot, CEO at Compendium, told Search Insider Summit conference attendees on Thursday. The email marketer is now the search marketer's best friend. The biggest problem? They don't know each other. I've been saying that for years.

At the Search Insider Summit at Captiva, Fla., on Thursday, David Szetela, founder and CEO of Clix Marketing, said search marketers will see 20% of conversions will come from the Web site, and 80% will come from mobile, applications, in-games, and in-audio streams by 2013. Voice input and output will become the next user interface breakthrough. Those were a couple of insights shared. SEM ramifications include applications such as Google click to call and AdWords Call Metrics.

Viacom just announced that long-time MTV exec Judy McGrath has resigned as Chairman and CEO of its MTV Networks division. Details surrounding here departure were not disclosed. McGrath, who began her career with the company as a copywriter at MTV in 1981, was named Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks in July 2004. The company said that a successor would not be named.