More on how Lincoln will do it's super bowl ad.

Alan Mujlally, CEO of Ford Motor, and Farley, head of global marketing were at Lincoln Center in NYC to talk up the new MKZ sedan and the new company, which is now called Lincoln Motor Co. in an effort to separate the brand.

Pinterest ranks as the fastest-growing social network this year, with its U.S. audience surging more than ten-fold to 27.2 million between July 2011 and July 2012. To put that in perspective, the next closest social property among the top in terms of growth was Google+, which increased 80%, according to new data from Nielsen and NM Incite. Facebook, of course, remained by far the largest social networking site, with monthly PC-based traffic of 152.2 million, but that figure was down 4% from a year ago. No. 2 ranked Blogger saw traffic dip 3% to 58.5 million, while traffic to …

The fanboy fervor surrounding the released of the long-awaited iPhone 5 in September made the signature Apple device one of the most searched terms in 2012. According to Yahoo’s annual list of top searches, the iPhone 5 was second only to “election” as the most common overall search this year, and one spot ahead of perennial celebrity search favorite Kim Kardashian. The iPhone 5 also topped the list of pop culture “Obsessions” as determined by Yahoo, which also included topics such as political polls, megamillions, “The Hunger Games,” music videos “Call Me Maybe,” and “Gangnam Style. Not surprisingly, the …

Startup Cinemagram, which makes a hybrid photo/video app and competes with the likes of Instagram, has raised $8.5 million in a venture capital round led by Menlo Ventures and including Atlas Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Real Ventures. According to the AllThingsD report, Cinemagram has been growing rapidly in the last two months, adding 100,000  or more users per day. Through its iPhone app, users create “Cines” by taking a short video, selecting a still image from the clip, and then defining a specific area of the image to animate. The content is saved as a GIF file that can …

Productivity app Evernote on Friday announced closing an $85 million round of financing led by London-based AGC Equity Partners/m8 Capital with participation from Valiant Capital Partners and prior investors. Evernote CEO Phil Libin said in a blog post the company has “no exit strategy,” but that the new investment nevertheless would help shepherd Evernote toward an eventual IPO. Three quarters of the latest round is a secondary investment—stock sold by existing investors—aimed at reducing the pressure to go public or sell itself, Libin noted. The company had previously raised $70 million last year, bringing the total to $251 million, …

More holiday-related social metrics, courtesy of a new study by Digitas and social analytics provider Brandwatch. The companies sifted through more than 2.6 million social media conversations from Nov. 20 to Nov. 26 to see what people were talking about in relation to shopping and retail stores. Among the top findings: -The most buzzed about items are tech gadgets (34%), specifically smartphones and tablets. But culture-related items (which include things such as books, movies, and show tickets) come in second with 22%. -Consumers pointed to Walmart as their top in-store shopping destination (24%), followed by Target (21%), Best Buy (14%), …

Facebook has been touting holiday marketing efforts on the site this year, highlighting seasonal campaigns by marketers including The Gap, Fab.com, and 1-800-Flowers. New data from Facebook ad partner Nanigans shows those efforts may be paying off. The firm said click-though rates for e-commerce campaigns were up 30% from Black Friday to Cyber Monday compared to earlier in November. At the same time, holiday season CPCs are increasing at a similar rate as in prior years, twice as high on average as in 2010. In one case study, Nanigans looked at the Facebook campaign of large B2C company, comparing the …

China will supplant the U.S. as the country representing largest base of iOS and Android users worldwide by the first quarter of 2013, according to a new report by app advertising and analytics firm Flurry. As of October, the U.S. was home to 181 million iOS and Android devices, with China just behind at 167 million. But that lead won’t last long. The 55 million active iOS and Android devices added in the U.S. in the last year pales in comparison to the 125 million added in China. The latter is in fact the fastest-growing iOS and Android market, …

Cyber Monday sales hit $1.46 billion, up 17% from last year, making it the biggest online spending day ever, according to new data from comScore. It’s also the second day this season to break more than $1 billion in sales after Black Friday. E-commerce sales for the holiday season to day (Nov. 1-Nov. 26) have reached $16.4 billion, up 16% from the same period last year and in line with comScore projections. The Web measurement firm estimates total online holiday spending will end up rising 16% this year to $43.4 billion. Among retail categories making the largest gains …