Hipsters, an AdAge expat, and the vp marketing at Denny's talked up "Always Open" the-comedy-talk-show-in-a-Denny's-booth program that John Dillon, the marketing veep at the restaurant chain said boosted awareness among younger Americans. The blurb is that Always Open, which has Dave Koechner -- humorist and actor -- has helped position the brand as America's diner and is a bona fide branded content success story. Denny's teamed with DumbDumb, a digital studio founded by Will Arnett and Jason Bateman. It may be because it's 99 degrees out in NY and walking over here I was accosted by no …

Nielsen Catalina Solutions, the joint venture of Nielsen Co. and Catalina Marketing, has named media research diva Leslie Wood to the newly created position of Chief Research Officer. She will report to Nielsen Catalina Solutions CEO, Mike Nazzaro, and be based in the New York area.

Denny's marketing exec John Dillon said the company was fairly comfortable handing over creative control to shows producers and performers because it knew "Always Open" had to be somewhat edgy and authentic to attract the 18-34 audience it was after. He admitted there was some negative viewer reaction to Sarah Silverman's discussion of "anal warts" but overall the show has helped raise awareness of Denny's with the target demo. Dillon said the show so far has attracted 3 million viewers, its original goal, and there's still more episodes to go. Certain shows, like those with Jason Bateman and Will …

In a step away from most retail advertising, the Gap's Old Navy division is uncorking two viral videos that don't promote Old Navy clothes at all--they just make fun of other people. Tagged "Dress like a guy. Not that guy," the spots are aimed at married men with kids, 25 to 35, and spoof fashion ads in general, and certain guys in particular. The first, called "SuparTool," spoofs the over-the-top high-fashion-genre, complete with too many torsos, men in masquerade masks, and a desolate little lamb who'd rather be somewhere else. A second asks "Are you a Corporado man?," as …

The Council for Research Excellence (CRE), a group of senior research professionals, has tapped Ernst & Young to conduct a study of methods for measuring the digital audience. The objective of the study is to examine how various digital publishers capture and maintain user data, and to understand how this data can supplement existing research-panel data to enhance digital audience measurement. "Over the months ahead, we will invite digital publishers, CRE member companies and others to participate in this study of data collection, maintenance and validation practices," said Dan Murphy, SVP, interactive research at Univision …

Similar to the strategy used by LinkedIn, Zynga plans to sell a small number of shares in its initial public offering, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The idea is that a company can retain more control, while raising money to expand. By selling little stock in the IPO, companies protect the value of existing investors' stakes," Bloomberg explains. As such, sources say Zynga may make less than 10% of its shares available to the public in its IPO. In the past year, according to Bloomberg data, U.S. technology IPOs offered up an average of 24% of company stock. LinkedIn is …

Payment startup Square is reportedly raising $50 million or more at a valuation that will likely exceed $1 billion. "It's still fairly early in the process, though, and the company is rumored to be meeting with additional venture and private equity firms to either fill out the round or encourage a higher valuation," TechCrunch writes, citing sources. "But at least one term sheet has been received by the company." Square is currently processing more than $3 million per day in mobile payments, which was announced prior to their new iPad payments service -- which can replace the entire cash …

The industry is buzzing about a report in Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes about Microsoft considering its own branded tablet. According to DigiTimes, the tablet would feature Windows 8, debut by the end of 2012, and rely on Texas Instruments and Taiwan-based OEMs/ODMs. According to sources, Microsoft plans to "copy" its branding strategy from product lines such as Xbox 360, Zune, Kin smartphone and TV, to compete in the tablet PC segment. If true, it would be a significant departure from Microsoft's strategy of building software and partnering with manufacturers who make PC and mobile phone hardware. As DigiTimes notes, …

As expected, Twitter has started automatically shortening URLs pasted into tweets by its users. "When users compose a tweet and paste a link of any length into the Tweet box, Twitter will automatically abbreviate the link to 19 characters when users hit send," CNet writes. In development for nearly a year, the service is being rolled out slowly, and will wrap and abbreviate all links shared on the site in the same way other URL-shortening services (think, Bitly) do. As CNet notes, Twitter said user security played a major role in implementing the new service. "Since we show a …

WPP's GroupM unit just unveiled a new digital media buying policy to prevent its clients' ads from appearing on Web sites that distribute illegally obtained, or "pirated," content. The agency said the policy is designed to throw some Madison Avenue weight behind the fight to prevent online piracy in all its forms and to protect the copyright-protected, intellectual property of all content-producing companies. The policy includes anti-piracy language for insertion orders that prohibits vendors from placing GroupM clients' ads on sites that support piracy or contain any illegally distributed content. "Effective immediately, the language will be built …