One of the things that makes Advertising Week a challenge is that there are so many parallel tracks, and it's easy to completely miss a really good conference or panel. I just showed up at the Reuters building to catch a panel at noon on winning the marketing war, or something amorphous like that, but caught the tail end of a panel I really wish I hadn't missed on how to navigate the purchase funnel. the panel had Delta Airlines' digital marketing guy, someone from L'Oreal, and other interesting folks. Ah well, one can't be everywhere at once. But …

Coupons.com Monday announced landing $30 million in new funding from Greylock Partners to continue the coupon industry's expansion from print to digital, mobile and social. The latest round comes only a few months after Coupons.com raised $200 million in June from institutional investors, up to half of which will be used to "facilitate liquidity" for employees and early investors. (Greylock was not a prior investor.) That funding valued the company at $1 billion. Besides its own flagship site, Coupons.com powers the majority of coupons printed online via a network of tens of thousands of sites. Since June, the …

In the wake of Amazon's Kindle Fire launch, Barnes & Noble Monday announced Target as the latest retailers to selling its Nook e-readers. Besides B&N and Target, the $139 Nook Simple Touch Reader™ and the $249 Nook Color Reader's Tablet are distributed through Best Buy, Books-A-Million, Fred Meyer, Office Max, P.C. Richard & Sons, Radio Shack, Staples, and Walmart. Last week's rollout of the $199 Kindle Fire, and a new family of Kindle e-readers starting at $79, puts B&N under more pressure than ever as the leading rival to Amazon in the e-reader space. Whether B&N will make a round …

The National Retail Federation reports that this Halloween will breathe new life into zombies, with walking-dead costumes zooming into the fourth most popular costume for adults this year, up from No. 22 in last year's survey. As has been true in past years, traditional costumes are still the most popular, with witches coming in first, pirates second, and vampires third. The NRF predicts Americans will $2.5 billion on costumes this year, including $1 billion on children's costumes, $1.2 billion on adult costumes, and $310 million on pet costumes. For kids, princesses, witches, Spidermen and pirates occupy the top four …

Chrysler Group LLC today reported U.S. sales of 127,334, a 27% increase compared with sales in September 2010 (100,077 units), and the best September sales since 2007. But more telling, Chrysler's retail sales (excluding fleet) rose 50%. The company says it has beaten the average industry sales increase in eight of nine months this year. What did it? The company attributes the rise to Chrysler 200 mid-size and Chrysler 300 full-size sedans, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Compass, Dodge Journey crossover, Ram pickup truck, and the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans. Pretty much everything. "Irrespective …

Here at Advertising Week's main venue, Times Center, they have Bloomberg Radio blasting in the restroom. One of the hedge funders being interviewed about today's events on the floor of the exchanged said "we have optionality..." to do something or other.

Nielsen this morning released a white paper it claims establishes audience reach and effectiveness models for online advertising, including the fact that online media "delivers audiences more effectively than some popular TV shows." The white paper, "Reaching the Right Audiences Online: Early Findings from Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings," is a thinly veiled pitch for Nielsen's new Online Campaign Ratings service, which Nielsen is pushing hard to make the "currency" of the online advertising business. "Despite the considerable waste, the Web holds its own with TV," the paper notes, asserting, "For the first time, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings provides the opportunity …

The nation’s largest radio and outdoor advertising company has a new boss: Clear Channel Media Holdings announced late Sunday that it has named Bob Pittman (currently a CC Media Holdings investor and chairman of media and entertainment platforms) to be chief executive officer.  Pittman will join the board of directors for CC Media Holdings, Clear Channel Communications, and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (in the last instance as executive chairman). Pittman founded MTV in 1981 and was CEO of AOL during the ill-fated merger with Time Warner, before resigning as chief operating officer of AOL/Time Warner in April 2002.

Anheuser-Busch's Busch Media Group has narrowed the group of media agencies to three from which it will select one to assist its ad buying research and planning efforts for according to sources. The shops said to still be in contention include Aegis Group's Vizeum, Omnicom's OMD and WPP's MediaCom, per sources. The selected agency wouldn't get an AOR assignment, as A-B will continue to lead both buying and planning from the in house Bush Media Group. Paul Chibe, U.S. vice president, marketing, A-B InBev, who is overseeing the effort, didn't immediately return a call late Friday seeking comment about …

Luma Partners' Terrence Kawaja loves to do schtick. He's done it in everything from viral video mash-ups to his own version of Don Maclean's bye-bye "Amercian Pie" -- all to make salient points about our every dynamic and increasingly confusing industry of ad-related technologies. Now he's going to play Bill Maher vis a vis his own version of "Real Time" Tuesday afternoon as part of Advertising Week in New York. You can see the trailer/invitation here.