Chitika on Tuesday announced a multi-year extension of its partnership with Yahoo under which it syndicates Yahoo’s search listings across its ad network of 250,000 Web sites. More recently, Chitika has expanded the relationship to include monetizing serving sponsored search results on select owned and operated properties on Yahoo and in mobile. “Extending and expanding our relationship with Yahoo reaffirms our commitment to deliver innovative online and mobile ad technology solutions, which will help contribute to the growth of Yahoo!’s search marketplace,” said Chitika CEO Venkat Kolluri, …

Long-time client-side media exec Maarten Albarda has joined the advisory board of social media marketing platform Syncapse. Albarda, a consultant, had been vice president-global connections at Anheuser Busch InBev, and global director-media & communication innovation at The Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, he founded MLA Consulting LLC to advise marketers, agencies, startups and media companies on integrated marketing communications.

Android’s share of the U.S. smartphone market dropped for the third straight month this year, while Apple’s iOS gained more ground on its main competitor. The Google platform’s share fell by 1.4 percentage points to 52%, while iOS increased to 39% from 36.3%, on average, for the three months ending in March, according to new comScore data. With Android and iOS controlling 91% of the market, BlackBerry and Microsoft are still fighting over the scraps, with the former claiming 5.2% share, and Windows Phone, 3%.Among smartphone makers, Apple strengthened its lead to 39% share, while Samsung increased slightly to …

In a holding company-level deal, Zurich Insurance Group has named a consortium of Interpublic shops as its new global marketing agency. The roster includes a "network leadership team" led by McCann Worldgroup, including McCann Erickson, MRM and UM. "The assignment will be led by McCann Worldgroup and covers advertising, media and digital/interactive marketing services across Zurich's segments and geographies," Interpublic said in a statement, adding that the team will provide "unified marketing services operating in all global geographies, ensuring the Zurich brand is efficiently and effectively brought to life."

Following a series of downgrades for the U.S. and worldwide ad economy by some leading industry forecasters, Interpublic's Magna Global unit says it is staying pat for 2013, and upgrading its outlook for 2014. "Although consumers and businesses will remain cautious in the short term, fiscal austerity has not broken the recovery, and therefore we maintain a prediction of +1.0% for top-line normalized ad revenue growth this year, as suggested by our long-term statistical model," writes Magna Director of Global Forecasting in the revised forecast, adding, "That top-line growth rate translates into +2.4% ex-P&O for core media advertising (TV, radio, …

Facebook on Thursday launched a new informational site for journalists, publishers and media companies on using the social network to promote stories and other content, and drive more traffic to their Web sites and Facebook pages.   The media portal includes best practices guides for journalists and for media companies along with other resources including sections for relevant case studies and research. The initial case study posted focuses on how Slate  double its Facebook referrals between the second quarter …

At MediaPost's Email Insider Summit, it could be a case of respect for email marketers. Stephanie Miller, vp of member relations and chief listening officer of the Direct Marketing Association, asks "how do we get a set at the table?" to a group of panelists when it comes to the bigger marketing picture. Katherine Youngblood, senior manager of email marketing for InterContinental Hotels Group says "it's kind of your rich Uncle Bob. Everyone goes to them when they need money. but no one wants to sit with them." Alan Clifford, vp of email marketing & merchandising for LivingSocial says you make …

Digital agency 360i said today the aggregate size of the social media audience it markets to on behalf of brands including Coca-Cola, Oreo and NBC last week reached 200 million people. With that in mind, the firm outlined eight guidelines for overseeing social communities online based on feedback from its community and content managers.   In general, the findings highlight the importance of getting in tune with a given audience while at the same time not being afraid to take risks with new approaches to marketing and content development. Read the full post here.  

Facebook on Tuesday announced the global rollout of Promoted Page Likes, which are meant to provide an easier way for businesses to promote their pages. Similar to Promoted Posts, they help page owners add new fans without having to go through ad dashboard. Instead, companies can create ads directly from their page by clicking the Promoted Page Likes option in the admin panel.     Users select a daily budget based on how many people they want to reach and can target ads based on proximity to their business or city, state or country. The …

Sports Authority has hired Paul M. Okimoto to be Chief Marketing Officer. Okimoto is responsible for leading the strategic development and oversight of the company's overall marketing plans to drive traffic and sales at stores nationwide and through the e-commerce platform.