WPP has made another strategic acquisition in the Asia Pacific region, acquiring Campaigns and Grey in the Philippines, said to be one of the country's leading shops. The acquisition was made through the holding company's Grey Advertising unit, which has had a stake in the agency since 1994. The deal, valued at $6 million, will give WPP a controlling stake in the firm. C&G clients include drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim and Procter & Gamble.

While Internet based retailers are still among the fastest growing, a new ranking from The National Retail Federation shows that some specialty chains are also flying high. In fact, grabbing the No. 1 spot is Ascena Retail Group, which owns women's budget apparel chains DressBarn and Maurices, as well as Justice, which targets teens and tweens. (The company acquired Tween Brands in 2009, which helped propel sales up 59% last year to $2.4 billion.) Amazon came in No. 2 on this year's Hot 100 Retailers list, published by the trade association's Stores magazine, while Tesco's Fresh & Easy …

Firehouse Subs has become the first restaurant chain in the U.S. or elsewhere to roll out the Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains throughout its units. The Freestyles in the Firehouse units allow customers to choose from more than 120 sparkling and still beverage brands from a single machine, as well as make customized drinks. One beverage offered on the machine is Firehouse's own signature Cherry Lime-Aid. Firehouse, which has 437 U.S. restaurants, partnered with Coca-Cola in 2009 for an Atlanta  test of the Freestyle. According to Coca-Cola, Firehouse sells more soft drinks than the average fast casual chain, and …

Publishers using DoubleClick Ad Exchange will find new reporting features in the platform. Google expanded the beta for Multi-Dimensional Reporting, which it believes can help analyze trends and performance across multiple criteria such as ad units, ad sizes and countries.

Cincinnati-based Empower MediaMarketing (EMM) has agreed to acquire Cincinnati-based analytics company Market Intelligence Group (MIG). Terms were not disclosed, but Empower said the combined entity will form Empower's new Market Intelligence Practice, which will combine MIG's data mining, management, analysis and visualization with Empowers' experience with "paid, owned and earned marketing" metrics.

Interpublic's Shopper Sciences division, the Mediabrands' unit that is devoted understanding and influencing all the things that lead up to and cause a consumer to make a retail purchase decision, has named Devora Rogers group director-global business development. Rogers, who will based in Los Angeles, was director of product strategy at Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab in L.A., where she consulted with global brands, including Sony, Charles Schwab, Bayer, Vizio, and Bose.

Gannett Digital has named Internet news veteran Mitch Gelman as vice president for product, overseeing product management of Gannett's Web and mobile properties including USAToday.com and the company's local newspaper and broadcast sites. From 2001 to 2008, Gelman managed operations at CNN.com as senior VP and executive producer. He has also had stints at Si.com and ESPN.com. More recently, he was a vice president at Examiner.com and chief operating officer at entertainment technology firm THX Ltd. Read more here.

A New "business climate" survey of communications executives from consultant KPMG reports that there is less optimism about employment in the sector going forward. In the survey 47% said they anticipate their companies' headcount increasing this year. By comparison, 57% of those participating in KPMG's business climate survey last year anticipated an increase. However, looking back, only 34% of the executives surveyed this year said their companies had actually increased employment levels in the last 12 months. And 41% said their companies had cut jobs in the last year while 23% said they anticipate cuts over the next 12 months. …

Online music video hub Vevo continues to expand its network, striking syndication deals with additional sites including ArtistDirect.com/Rogue Network, Batanga (Hispanic music news), Gorilla Leak (indie music), MeFeedia (video recommendations) and Canadian TV properties Entertainment Tonight Canada and AUX.tv (Glassbox.tv). In the coming weeks, Vevo will also power music video programming for Synacor, which provides white-label entertainment portal solutions to companies including charter.net. The company already distributes content through sites including YouTube, AOL, BET, Fuse.tv, Last.fm, MP3.com and Univision. Vevo had 66.4 million unique visitors in June, putting it among the top 15 U.S. …

For marketers augmenting search or video campaigns with display targeting, the ad world got a little smaller. ValueClick announced it would acquire Dotomi and make it a wholly owned subsidiary. Privately held Dotomi provides ad display data for about 100 retail brands. Under the terms, ValueClick will acquire outstanding equity interests in Dotomi for $295 million, about 55% in cash and 45% in ValueClick common stock. ValueClick also will assume unvested Dotomi restricted stock and options that will vest between one to three years. Dotomi management will receive the majority of their consideration in ValueClick common stock, which will they …