Facebook has released a new mobile app geared to feature phones to give non-smartphone users better access to the social network. Created with developer Snaptu, the app works on more than 2,500 devices from manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG and 14 carriers worldwide. "The app provides a better Facebook experience for our most popular features, including an easier-to-navigate home screen, contact synchronization, and fast scrolling of photos and friend updates," stated a post on Facebook's blog. Similar to the free 0.Facebook.com mobile site launched last year, the Facebook for Feature Phones app will not carry …

The Nutmeg State has been reinstalled on a map of New England posted at the Portsmouth, N.H.-based Discover New England, according to The [New London, Conn.] Day. It had removed Connecticut from the map because the state stopped paying its $100,000 dues back in 2009. Gov. Dannel Malloy ordered the bill paid, joking, "We're back in New England. I just got sworn in a few weeks ago and now we're back. I was feeling a little naked there, with all that geography I'd learned thrown out the window."

Mercedes-Benz is launching a global campaign for the CLS coupe. The campaign includes print, TV and radio, pre-roll ads, an interactive web special and an iPad app as well as retail and interactive marketing activities. The campaign presents the CLS in a "purple-colored" cosmopolitan setting, according to a release from the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker. The company said the campaign will include 12 print advertisements with messages like "Sensuality and sense", and "Proud to present two high-lights." Television advertising plays on the idea of choice of freedom. A middle-aged man swaps his successful career for a simple life in …

Mobile ad network Millennial Media has officiallylaunched its software development kit for Windows Phone 7, allowing WP7 developers to more easily integrate advertising into apps for the Microsoft smartphone platform. The new SDK includes support for rich media and interactive ads for Silverlight-based apps. Windows Phone 7 devices to date account for only a tiny fraction of the ad impressions on Millennial's network, where Android leads with a 46% share of ad requests. The Windows Phone Marketplace so far offers about 6,000 apps geared to WP7 phones, with an estimated 100 being added each day. Some 22,000 developers have …

Android became the leading smartphone platform on Mojiva's mobile ad network in December as its share of impressions jumped 24 percentage points from November to 60% while Apple's iOS dropped eight percentage points to 30%. In a new report, Mojiva attributed the Android surge to increased holiday-season marketing efforts by carriers for Android phones and consumers embracing the Google operating system. Apple lost ground despite big sales of devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod during the season. Likewise, rival mobile ad network Millennial Media last week said Android overtook Apple's iOS as the top smartphone OS, with …

Nintendo has set March 27 as the U.S. launch date for its 3DS handheld gaming system. The system, which will allow for three-dimensional gaming without the requirement of glasses, will be available in black or blue color schemes and will carry a suggested retail price of $249.99. Like the DS and DSi handheld games already available, the 3DS will have two screens, with the bottom screen touch-enabled. Unlike the other versions, however, the 3DS’s top screen with display 3D visuals, giving characters and the game space added depth. The system also has a “Depth Slider” that lets players …

Special interest magazine publisher (Popular Science, Parenting, Field & Stream and Saveur) is teaming up with ever au current agency CP+B to develop "next-generation advertising formats" for tablet magazines. "The move," the companies said in a statement just released, "addresses a fundamental need in the industry: all-new advertising for all-new advertising platforms." "It's our aim to further advance digital ads on tablets to make them more entertaining, more informative and more engaging, connecting our audiences with our clients' products and services," Gregg Hano, vice president-group publisher for Bonnier's technology titles, stated. Not surprisingly, the effort will begin with a …

urns out that while consumers find lots of advertising annoying, they actually like posters displayed in malls--especially if it is a photo that includes a human face. A new study from EYE, a mall media specialist, found that even the second time a shopper passed a display, 47.8% took a second look. "It takes approximately10 seconds for people to move past a given ad as they are walking around," Michelle Schiano, VP/marketing for EYE, tells Marketing Daily, "and they spend two seconds looking at it. That means advertisers really only get two seconds of exposure, so you want to …

Ad spending on Facebook will reach $4.05 billion worldwide in 2011--more than double last year's figure of $1.86 billion in global ad revenues, according to a new estimate by eMarketer. By 2012, worldwide ad spending on Facebook is expected to reach $5.74 billion, up 42% over 2011. "2010 was the year that Facebook firmly established itself as a major force, not only in social network advertising, but all of online advertising," said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, in an article released today. "In 2011, its global presence is something multinational advertisers can't ignore." By contrast, eMarketer predicts …

Mobile ad network Verve Wireless has named Tom MacIsaac as its new CEO. He replaces Art Howe, the company's co-founder and former chief executive, who will continue at Verve as chairman of the board. MacIsaac, who will be based in Verve's Washington, D.C. office, was most recently CEO of digital media company ExtendMedia, and was previously chief executive of video ad platform Lightningcast. That company was acquired by AOL in 2006. In his new post, MacIsaac is charged with expanding Verve's local mobile monetization platform and display ad network. More than 1,000 local publishers including newspapers such as the …