• Microsoft's New Search Ad Unit
    Microsoft introduced a pilot for a new search ad concept in Bing Smart Search called Hero ads, designed to serve more information through the ad unit and image. The ad appears when users search for specific brands and terms in Bing Smart Search. The goal of Hero ads is to let searchers find the most relevant information and complete the most popular tasks for the brand they are specifically search on. The ad unit announced at a Microsoft event also included several business updates for Windows 8.1 through Smart Search. David Pann, GM for the search business, notes it's not about blue …
  • Brands Slow To Embrace Video On Instagram
    As Instagram begins to rollout photo and video advertising, a new study suggests video ads won’t necessarily take off on photo-sharing service. In the third quarter, video posts accounted for only 6% of all brand posts in the third quarter, according to the research by social analytics firm Simply Measured. Overall, a growing number of companies are embracing Instagram as a marketing platform, with 71 of the world’s top 100 brands having a presence on the service, up from 40 a year ago. That level of adoption puts it roughly on part with Google+ and Pinterest and makes …
  • Cheap Phones Boost Smartphone Sales In Q3
  • LinkedIn Defends 'Intro' Email Service
  • Drawbridge Taps Ex-Google Exec
  • 40% of Most Shared Instagrams Last Month Came from Brands, Unruly says
    Forty per cent of the 1,000 most shared Instagram videos last month came from brands, according to new data released today by Unruly. And nine out of ten Instagram video shares occurred on Facebook. Also, proof of Biebermania, unabated--14 of the top 20 shared Instagram videos came from Justin Bieber, with three of his top ones generating over a half million shares. Unruly said 80 …
  • Iris Mobile Lands $3 Million
    Mobile marketing startup Iris Mobile has raised $3 million in first-round venture funding from investors led by Origin Ventures and including Illinois Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners, among other investors. Started five years ago by a trio of former Motorola employees, the company has developed a platform that lets marketers embed rich content like video, photos and promotions into mobile messages. The Chicago-based company’s clients include Ikea, Cartier and Kellogg’s as well as agencies such as Leo Burnet, 89 Degrees, Edelman and The Marketing Arm. Iris Mobile plans to use the new financing to expand its product development …
  • Q3 A Strong One For WPP
    WPP this morning reported organic revenue growth for the third quarter of 5%, best of the major holding companies reporting so far. By comparison, Omnicom earlier said its Q3 organic growth was 4.1% while Publicis and Interpublic reported 3.5% and 2.8% growth respectively. Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser wrote that WPP's Q3 performance was "the company's best quarterly results in more than two years." And those results were dragged down a bit by the data and investment division, Wieser said, noting that the holding company would have achieved 5.4% organic growth but for investments to that unit. Geographically, WPP achieved growth …
  • Foursquare Adds Analytics Tools For Publishers
    Foursquare on Wednesday rolled out new tools for publishers that give them more insight on places popular with their followers and which of their “tips” on the social location app are resonating. In the upgraded Foursquare dashboard, publishers can now see a list of the top places people who have "Liked" their Foursquare pages have checked into over the last 30 days. Potentially, publishers could use that information to generate or inform advertising on their own Web sites or print publications. A screenshot of Time Out New York’s dashboard in a Foursquare blog post today showed the Barclay’s Center …
  • Hulu Plus Offers Free Mobile Clips
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