Duke Marr has joined R/GA as managing director of commerce, and will be responsible for growing the agency's existing commerce capabilities as well as new business development.

Following a pilot program last year, AT&T on Wednesday announced the national rollout of a location-based service that sends users alerts about sales or promotions from nearby retailers and brands using geo-fencing technology. To receive AT&T Alerts (formerly ShopAlerts), wireless customers text “JOIN” to ATTAlerts to opt in and begin receiving discounts and offers from participating brands including Gap, Staples, Zales, Last Call by Neiman Marcus, Duracell, Motorola, Discover. People can customize offer preferences and text messages to and from the service are free To help entice users, AT&T is offering new sign-ups $5 off a purchase of $10 …

Carmen D'Ascendis, director of global marketing at Brown-Forman Corporation and Wade Devers, group creative director at Arnold talked about Jack Daniels at the ANA Creativity Conference on Wednesday. Arnold is AOR for the Lynchburg spirits maker.

U.S. online spending topped $21 billion for the first 32 days of the holiday shopping season, up 14% from a year ago, according to the latest data from comScore. While sales surpassed $1 billion on three days, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they’ve fallen off considerably since. From Tues. Nov. 26 to Fri. Nov. 30, e-commerce was up only 11% compared to the year-earlier period. Further, the 14% overall increase so far is a bit below comScore’s projection of a 16% gain in online holiday sales this year. The softening of sales following Cyber Monday appears to support …

Coupons.com has integrated Apple’s Passbook with its mobile app, allowing users to save coupons directly to the digital wallet. To use the feature, an iOS 6 user with Passbook selects the Offers tab in the Coupons.com app to browse stores such as Best Buy, Coach, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Office Depot, then clicks Add to Passbook for offers they want. The barcode-embedded coupons instantly show up in Passbook for swiping at checkout. Coupons.com had previously integrated Passbook with its mobile site, allowing those without the app to add coupons via the Web. People also have the option of simply printing …

Continuing its push to buy up mobile talent, Yahoo has acquired mobile video startup OnTheAir. The company’s platform allows anyone watching a live stream to video chat with a host in front of an online audience. Under the deal, the five-person team behind OnTheAir will join Yahoo and shut down its own offering which they acknowledged in a post today had never gained the “widespread daily use” they envisioned. “Hiring the most talented mobile product thinkers and engineers is a big priority for us moving forward. Abel, Dan, Erik, Josh, and Mike are a great addition to Yahoo!, and we …

LinkedIn on Tuesday unveiled a new offering for the small business community sponsored by Staples. The Succeed: Small Business Network  will provide content including industry expert profiles and Q&As, events, incentive awards and weekly polls. It also includes a small-business version of LinkedIn Today, the site’s social news product, and a discussion section. In a blog post today, Jonathan Lister, VP, North American sales and marketing solutions, said Succeed will have a dedicated editorial staff to curate and manage the group daily and work closely with Staples. Through its sponsorship, office supplies retailer will have visibility throughout the group’s …

Facebook on Tuesday unveiled an updated version of its Messenger app that lets Android users create an account with only their name and a phone number. No longer are they required to have a Facebook account to download the app and send messages to anyone else using the service. Call it the latest move by Facebook to end the 20-year reign of SMS by giving more users access to its free alternative to text messaging. The Android Messenger upgrade will roll out initially in five countries—India, Indonesia, Australia, Venezuela and South Africa—before being offered more widely in the …

Weak economic conditions worldwide will hold the mobile phone market to its lowest growth level in three years in 2012, according to a new forecast from IDC. The technology research firm projects the mobile phone shipments will increase only 1.4% this year despite strong demand for smartphones. Smartphone shipments are expected to grow 39.5% to 224.5 million units in the fourth quarter, and 45.1% for the full year to a record 717.5 million. IDC predicts Android will end the year with a whopping 68.3% share of the smartphone market, with iOS a distant second at 18.8%. BlackBerry will …

Verizon Wireless will shut down its VCast Video subscription service on December 15, the largest U.S. carrier announced today. It will send subscribers instead to its Viewdini video portal for 4G devices offering access to services including Hulu+, Netflix and Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand. The step comes as Verizon faces increased competition from free video providers on mobile devices like YouTube in addition to the mobile extensions of video services people are already paying for like Netflix and Xfinity. In short, VCast became superfluous. The move also follows Verizon's announcement last month to close its branded app store …