I just heard from John Ross, the founder of Interpublic's Shopper Sciences unit, that he's leaving to join INMAR Corp., where he will lead the development of a retail promotions and sales performance practice.Ross, who previously was head of Interpublic's Lab, and prior to that was CMO of Home Depot, is one of the experts on retail marketing, and especially on so-called shopper media, and launched Shopper Sciences to develop new scientific approahces to researching, measuring and improving the practice.The move comes at a time when Interpublic's Mediabrands is integrating a number …

Former Yahoo executive Marc Grabowski has joined social media marketing firm Nanigans as chief operating officer. The Boston-based company confirmed the hiring first reported by the AllThingsD blog. At Yahoo, Grabowski was a top display advertising exec, helping to lead the company's Interclick acquisition as well as mid-market sales and reseller relationships. Most recently, as VP, media sales, he oversaw a team of more than 200 online advertising sales and account …

Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless in June launched a partnership with Google Offers to sponsor free Wi-Fi at more than 200 hotspots in Manhattan, including six subway stations through Sept. 7. Now that deal is being expanded nationally, with Google Offers sponsoring free and discounted Wi-Fi at eight malls and 16 airports in major cities including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. The airports include New York’s John …

Conde Nast on Monday announced making an undisclosed investment in cloud-based ad platform Flite, which it will also use to deliver rich media ads across its magazine Web sites. Flite's ad tools are meant to turn display ads in to app-like experiences by integrating features such as video, social media, live chat and e-commerce as well as the ability to update ad content on the fly. Brands already using Flite nclude L'Oreal, CBS, General Mills, Microsoft and P&G.

Ad spending on mobile messaging will reach $7.4 billion by 2017, fueled by a surge in location-based SMS text ads, according to a new forecast by U.K.-based Juniper Research. While SMS may lack the pizzazz of rich media ads, they offer wider reach and a better chance of being opened, even if unsolicited, the firm said. And, of course, they're also a cheaper ad option. “Sending adverts using mobile messaging gives advertisers a simple, cheap and effective way of reaching …

Barnes & Noble is expanding its Nook business to the U.K. through a new storefront launching this fall. The new www.nook.co.uk site, marking the booksellers first international foray, will debut in mid-October with e-reading devices in the line including the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. U.K. shoppers will also be able to browse the Nook Store's 2.5 million titles. Barnes & Noble also said its planning to soon announce partnerships with leading U.K. Retailers to support the Nook launch through both physical stores and online channels. Additional details on …

A federal judge has rejected the proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit about Facebook's sponsored stories program.

The wrong kind of Michael Phelps-related Olympic advertising? Apparently when it comes to non-Olympic advertisers. Seems that an print ad for Louis Vuitton has Phelps in the bathtub modeling some new, high-end swim trunks -- photographed by noted lens-er Annie Leibovitz. But that print ad leaked before August 15th.   And that could be trouble. The International Olympic Committee has specific rules for Olympic athletes in promoting non-Olympic sponsors from July 18 to August 15. Coca-Cola or Visa would be fine. And if that happens, in theory, an athlete could …

Discover today confirmed its inclusion among the credit cards supported within Google Wallet. Google recently launched an updated version of its mobile payments app that lets users store and access card accounts from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover via cloud-based technology. But Discover is the first to use Google's Save to Wallet API to let cardmembers save their cards directly to their Wallet from Discover's online account center, according to TechCrunch. “By offering the ability to join Google Wallet through our Account Center, Discover is providing our cardmembers with even greater flexibility …

"The modern Russian [out-of-home] market needs to come out of the shadows. Today it looks like Frankenstein's monster. It is made up of weird segments, with some parts overgrown, while others are obsolete, a monster that interferes with its own development." - CEO of Russia's AIZ Media, and a founder member of the nation's association of digital place-based networks on joining the U.S.' Digital Place-Based Advertising Association DPAA as an international member.