Online ad firm Vibrant had its fourth annual contextual ad awards last week. The event, which was held at the Bowery Hotel in NYC this year, is kind of an in-house awards show giving kudos to brands that use Vibrant's contextual ad technology to best advantage. Though it's an intramural contest among Vibrant clients, the judging panel comprises notables from beyond the firm's own garden wall: senior agency and brand executives, and some 600 public votes from industry executives, were part of the judging, based on creative strategy, contextual relevance, end user perspective and ability to effectively communicate brand message. …

WPP is expanding mobile marketing agency Joule to Australia and New Zealand through a partnership with Sydney-based advertising and media agency Switch Digital. Glynn Honey, formerly managing director at Isobar Australia, will oversee Joule's operations in Sydney and Melbourne, with another office to open in Auckland in 2012. As part of the joint venture, Joule will extend its global mobile campaign management and technology platforms to the region. "We see Australia as a market with significant opportunity where our global learnings and skills can be leveraged," said Rupert Day, CEO of WPP's tenthavenue unit, of which Joule is a part. …

Starbucks has teamed with barcode technology provider Scanbuy for a promotional campaign placing QR codes in the coffee chain's outlets around the country as well in magazines such as People, newspapers and outdoor ads in U.S. cities. The codes link users to a Starbucks mobile formatted landing page where they can watch a video on Starbucks Caffe Verona, find a store, and learn more about Starbucks' various fall coffee products (how they taste, what food goes best with them). In a mid-year report, Scanbuy said the retail and wireless industries accounted for some of the most scanned 2D barcode campaigns, …

Mobile ad startup MoPub Thursday announced the launch of a real-time bidding platform for mobile advertising. The MoPub Marketplace aims to provide publishers and independent app developers a new outlet for selling inventory through a competitive auction process. The addition of RTB builds on MoPub's ad-serving technology allowing publishers to monetize mobile media through directly sold ads, ad networks and cross-promotional campaigns. The company serves ads across Android and iOS devices and the mobile Web. Other firms that have rolled out RTB exchanges for mobile advertising this year include DataXu as well as Turn and TubeMogul, each in partnership with …

Digital marketers are going to get more selective when it comes to video ad networks. Buying 70 video ad networks and/or exchanges? Forget it. Andrew Budkofsky, executive vp and sales partnerships Break Media, a video ad network and digital video producer, says there is going to be a "shakeout."  Marketers are not going to buy …

To help demonstrate RTB isn't all about direct response advertising, video ad platform TubeMogul recently ran brand surveys on five video advertising campaigns totaling 44.7 million impressions and 4,487 random survey-takers. Four of the five brands are from Fortune 500 companies, and the list reflects the automotive, consumer packaged good (CPG), insurance and restaurant industries. Once exposed to a pre-roll ad, respondents were re-targeted with in-banner surveys within 30 days and not given any direct incentives to answer. To calculate brand lift, a control group was asked the same set of questions and the raw difference between the percent of …

Interpublic's Mediabrands unit just named Yin Woon Rani president of North America for UM, filling the role that UM Global CEO Jacki Kelley had prior to being promoted to her current position in January. Kelley has served in the dual role of Global CEO and President of North America since January. Rani joins UM from WPP's Grey Worldwide unit, where she ran the GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare team.

Fox recently decided to restrict its customers in seeing digital versions of its TV shows through most of its TV distribution partners.  Except for some -- including Dish Network, who can view Fox shows the next day after its traditional TV airing -- most of its consumers will need to wait eight days. This is the start of "authentication" arrangements -- TV Everywhere initiatives -- that most major media companies want, all to make sure their distribution partners, cable, satellite and telco companies, don't get hurt.

Fox recently decided to restrict its customers in seeing digital versions of its TV shows through most of its TV distribution partners.  Except for some -- including Dish Network, who can view Fox shows the next day after its traditional TV airing -- most of its consumers will need to wait eight days. This is the start of "authentication" arrangements -- TV Everywhere initiatives -- that most major media companies want, all to make sure their distribution partners, cable, satellite and telco companies, don't get hurt.

Daniel B. Burke, who served as president, CEO of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., from 1990 until his retirement in 1994, died at his home on Oct. 26. He was 82.