For marketers, the age of disruption is over, says Kimberly Kadlec, J&J's worldwide of the global marketing. Addressing the more than 2,000 attendees of the ANA's Masters of Marketing conference, Kadlec spotlighted some of J&J's most successful recent efforts, "showing that we really can make connections that change the world."

Sunnier days in Orlando: The Association of National Advertisers kicked off its annual conference, this year called the Masters of Marketing, with more than 2,000 attendees and upbeat predictions. Bob Liodice, the ANA's president and CEO, talked about media growth, with digital up 17%, mobile up 97%, and social, now at $4 billion, predicted to grow to $10 billion by 2016, as well as 6% gain in plain old television.

Cross-platform ad technology firm Tapad has expanded its sales force nationally with the hiring of two new executives. P.J. Miele, previously at AOL Advertising, has been named vice president of West Coast sales, launching the company’s presence in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Miele has also held national sales roles at Experian and Yahoo. Leading Tapad’s sales operations in the Midwest is Kimberly Waichulis as vice president of the Central region, based in Chicago. Before joining Tapad, she served as regional VP at MediaMind, and before that had senior roles at TradingPartners and VisaNow. Both Miele And Waichulis report …

New menu offerings drove 7% same-store U.S. sales gain in latest quarter.

Apache's software for publishers will no longer override Microsoft's do-not-track headers, researcher Jonathan Mayer reported on Twitter this week.

Sprint has partnered with Zoove to let subscribers use the mobile marketing firm’s StarStar dialing codes to create vanity shortcodes in place of conventional 10-digit phone numbers. The StarStar Me offering allows people to choose a name, nickname or unique word in place of their mobile phone number to adopt numbers formatted like **SARAH (**72724) or **CHLOE (**24563). Sprint subscribers can get two StarStar Me numbers per mobile phone number, each for $2.99 a month. Calls can be made to StarStar Me numbers from any Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T mobile phone within the U.S. The other major wireless …

Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless said today Microsoft will sponsor free Wi-Fi at locations in Manhattan and San Francisco from now through the end of the year. The effort will promote the launch this month of Windows 8 and Windows Store for Windows 8, in particular, by showcasing new apps via the program’s branded welcome screen. Under the deal, Microsoft will sponsor Wi-Fi in six New York subway stations in the Chelsea neighborhood as well as hotspots in San Francisco at locations including Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, UN Plaza, the Financial District, and Nob Hill. Starting Nov. 1, the software …

Publicis Groupe's MediaVest USA has been awarded media agency of record duties for The Travelers Companies, provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. The appointment, per sources, was made without a formal review and is effective immediately. The incumbent was WPP's MediaCom. The client spent around $100 million on ads the previous two years according to Nielsen. The scope of work includes media planning and buying, as well as content, and data and analytics solutions for all Travelers' lines of business, including personal and business insurance, the companies confirmed. The shift was due in part to the …

More bad news from beleaguered social games maker Zynga. The company on Thursday said it expects a loss for the third-quarter on weak demand for certain games and lowered its full-year outlook. The company expects to report a net loss of between 12 cents and 14 cents a share and, or between break-even and a loss of 1 cent per share on an adjusted basis for the quarter. In preliminary results released after the market close today, Zynga forecast Q3 revenue in the range of $300 million to $305 million. Analysts have projected break-even earnings on revenue of almost …

After launching its own app store front last year to compete with Apple’s App Store and Google Play, Opera Software is adding new promotional features for developers. The Norway-based company today announced a number of new marketing options in the Opera Mobile Store accessed through its flagship Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. The new ad options include sponsored product listings on the home page as well as on major content categories; rich media ads showcasing apps; browser launch page banners in the new Opera Mini 7 software; contextually relevant text ads and App of the Week promos on …