Fees continue to be the dominant method of compensating digital agencies, according to just released findings of a new member survey from the Association of National Advertisers. The ANA said both fixed fees and labor-based fees continue to dominate the digital marketing services agency compensation model. The survey, however, found that fees are increasingly being supplemented by performance incentives. "As the economy continues to recover, marketers are still pressing for fee efficiencies and performance commitment while pushing for cost control and accountability," the ANA report found. Respondents reported that the primary driver of cost control is a …

While thinking of brands in terms of category management continues to be the status quo for marketers, retailers are kind of over it, a new study finds. Instead, stores are looking for smarter ways to drive sales by leveraging consumer insights, with Kroger, Walmart and Target earning the highest marks for their shopper-centric tactics. So although 81% of marketers say the idea of category management is either very or extremely important, according to Kantar Retail's 2011 Category Leadership Benchmarking Study, only 72% of retailers agree, down from 78% two years ago. Mass stores and convenience retailers are even less …

Nielsen and MyWebGrocer are forming a new partnership to track the fast-growing area of online grocery sales. While online grocery shopping accounts for just 2% of total U.S. consumer packaged goods sales, it is expected to explode in the next few years, growing from $12 billion now to $25 billion by 2014. That increase "is because we're seeing big changes in how consumers connect to retailers, between the growth of mobile and the growth of iPads," John Burbank, president, Strategic Initiatives, Nielsen, tells Marketing Daily. "Consumers can now shop anywhere they might be, at any given moment. That's a …

It looks like Skype may have already gotten an immediate benefit from its proposed $8.5 billion acquisition by Microsoft in the form of higher traffic. The site's U.S. audience jumped 24% to 11.6 million between April and May, according to new monthly data from comScore today. Whether Skype will be able to maintain or increased that level won't be clear for several more months. But with Microsoft using its Web and software properties to cross-promote the Internet calling service, it stands to reason Skype should see a traffic gain. The Microsoft-Skype deal last week won the approval of the …

Poynt Corp., which offers a local search mobile app, is using ad-serving platform Mocean Mobile allow advertisers to run locally targeted ads that include rich media units. The GPS-enabled Poynt app provides local information and e-commerce capability through partnerships with companies including Citysearch, Yellow Pages, Superpages, OpenTable, Movietickets.com, and others. The app is available on major smartphone platforms in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Read more here.

Over the last 12 months, the amount of data the average smartphone user consumes per month has increased 89%, surging to 435 megabytes in the first quarter from 230MB a year ago. Data usage for the top 10% of smartphone users is up 109% while the top 1%, it's up a whopping 155%, according to new Nielsen data. According to the company's monthly analysis of more than 65,000 lines, smartphone owners—especially people with iPhones and Android devices—are consuming more data than ever on a per-user basis. "This has huge implications for carriers since the proportion …

Three key ad industry associations – The Associations of National Advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the 4A's – this week released their Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement, five principles that the trade groups described as, "the foundation of making measurement make sense. The principles are part of an industry-wide initiative being facilitated by consultants Bain & Company and MediaLink. The principles are: Principle #1 – Move to a "viewable impressions" standard and count real exposures online. Today we count "served impressions" as recorded by ad servers. Often, ad units are not in a viewable space to the …

By now most people who follow the auto business know not only the Toyota accelerator story but also the aftermath: that unintended acceleration wasn't caused by rogue computer code, faulty parts, quality issues, aliens, or genetically altered children from the former Soviet Union. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA could find nothing wrong with the cars alleged to have developed a mind of their own. So should the Edward R. Murrow award have gone to ABC's Brian Ross for his coverage of the unintended-acceleration story? Gawker thinks not (http://gawker.com/5812668/scaremongering-reporter-gets-award-for-scaremongering.) Gawker notes that in two of the winning …

Research in Motion said it shipped about 13.2 million BlackBerrys in the first quarter, falling below it's the low end of the 13.5 to 14.5 million range it gave in late March. Continuing to struggle against smartphone competitors like Apple and Google, RIM also said in reporting first-quarter results that it plans layoffs across the entire organization. One bright spot for RIM was initial sales its PlayBook tablet. Launched in April, the device taking on Apple's iPad and Android-based tablets like the Galaxy Tab, shipped about 500,000 units, better than the 400,000 expected by analysts. RIM earned $695 million, …

Mobile video ad network YuMe has acquired U.K.-based mobile video ad company Appealing Media and today also announced the lauch of YuMe Europe with its first office in London. The purchase of Appealing Media, whose customers include ESPN, IPC Media, Bauer Media and Universal McCann, gives YuMe a foothold in the European market. The company's management team, led by founder and CEO Owen Hanks, will join YuMe under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed. Appealing has helped brands and major publishers execute campaigns across native apps and the mobile Web. Separately, the company also named Tim …