Now that marketers have reinvented marketing – what does the agency of the future look like? Technology and data will play a major role, according to Dave Tan, who heads search engine marketing (SEM) development at Google. There's a ton of data marketers need to leverage. Marketers continue to move from unified and standard media consumption to fragmented, all leaving trails. That data trails will need technology to make sense of the numbers. Think of it as a digital platform, not a channel, Tan said. Reaching these consumers by knowing what media to buy mean knowing how to …

Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder of comScore, looked at complimentary strategies between TV and online video at the Search Insider Summit in Captiva, Fla., Thursday. He said consumers only watch about three hours of online video weekly, but the amount of time continues to grow faster than television. One reason is because more long-form video content continues to come online, up about 15% per year. Some of the important points Fulgoni highlighted includes: search is an important part of the decision making when it comes to consumer products, display ads are affective in driving offline sales, rich media and …

John Yi, online sales operations at Facebook, opened the first day of the Search Inside Summit in Captiva, Fla., with a new look at how marketers view word of mouth (WOM) and conversations. "Social by design," the buzz phrase for the coming year, signifies the Web being rebuilt around people. More than half of people today on the Internet get information through friends and family, Yi said. The information is increasingly relevant to us because it influences our friends. For example, 60% of jobs are found through friends, and 90% of people say they trust their friends for music recommendations …

The rich aren't just back, they're really back: Worldwide spending on luxury goods is expected to increase 8% this year, according to the latest forecast from Bain & Co. Fueled by strong spending in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, Russia, China and the Middle East, the report forecasts luxury spending of 185 billion euros, or about $275.4 billion, up from 172 billion euros last year. And 2010 actually came on stronger than many expected, with a 14% jump in luxury goods in the fourth quarter pushing sales past their pre-recession levels. For 2010, sales totaled 172 billion euros—busting past the …

Online industry PR vet Laura Goldberg is replacing Marnie Black as the head of public relations at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Black is joining AMC TV as a PR executive.

Facebook accounted for nearly a third (31.2%) of U.S. display ad impressions in the first quarter, nearly double the 16.2% from the year-earlier period and up from 26% in the fourth quarter, according to the latest data from comScore. The 346 billion display ads Facebook served in he quarter was more than triple its nearest rival, Yahoo, which generated 112 billion impressions, or 10.1% of the total. Microsoft ranked third, with 4.8% of impressions, followed by AOL, 3%, and Google, with 2.5%. There were 1.1 trillion ads served overall in the quarter. AT&T ranked as top advertisers, …

Combined revenues from the four major mobile app storefronts run by Apple, Google, Nokia, and Research In Motion will rise nearly 80% in 2011 to $3.8 billion, with the App Store expected to account for three-quarters of the total, according to a new IHS Screen Digest forecast. While Apple will still dominate the category, Google's Android is projected to have the steepest growth, with revenue jumping almost 300% to $425 million. Read more here.

Nielsen Catalina Solutions and mobile ad company 4INFO Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to measure how mobile advertising affects consumer shopping. The new service, said to be "first-of-its-kind," links purchase data from 60 million shopper households tracked by Nielsen Catalina with mobile viewing data from 70 million unique users tracked by 4INFO's AdHaven platform.

Both Avon Products and Alberto-Culver say sales and profits are up, and both companies reined-in marketing spending. At Avon Products, income from continuing operations jumped 256% to $152.2 million in the first quarter, up from $42.7 million in the same period a year ago. And sales rose 7% to $2.59 billion, from $2.42 billion in the same period last year, or 4% in constant dollars. But total units declined 1%, as did the number of active Avon representatives. The New York-based company says sales of its beauty products advanced 8%, with gains in each category: Fragrance sales increased …

Jai Singh, most recently managing editor of the Huffington Post Media Group, has joined Yahoo as editor-in-chief of its media network. In that newly- created role, he will "help transform the company as it increases its original content creation, build the unique voice and programming of Yahoo's leading properties, and help drive best-in-class tools and practices," according to a Yahoo statement. Singh will report to Mickie Rosen, senior VP of the Yahoo Media Network. At HuffPo/AOL, where he's been since 2009, Singh was in charge of all day-to-day news management and editorial operations. He will start with Yahoo May …