According to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, while last year's Fortune 500 study drew attention for the leveling off of blogging with only 23% hosting a public facing corporate blog in both 2010 and 2011, the latest iteration documents leap forward, as the F500 show the first signs of really embracing a range of social media tools.

According to a proprietary 2012 College Marketing Report from the Barnes & Noble College Marketing Division, despite the prevalence of social media and Internet usage, college students still consider TV ads the most effective form of advertising. They prefer to receive emails over texts from marketers; their engagement with brands on Facebook tops all other social networks; and most are very open to direct brand engagement, including supporting on-campus ambassador programs, says the report.

The Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project says that campaign and policy-related material on Social Networks (SNS) plays a modest role in influencing most users' views and political activities. Democrats and liberals are the most likely to say the sites have impact and are important and the politically engaged stand out in their use of the sites. Those who describe their political beliefs as moderate or liberal are more likely than conservatives to use social networking sites: 74% of internet users who describe themselves as liberal use SNS and 70% of internet users who are moderate are SNS …

According to Martini Media, teamed with Digiday to poll marketers and ad agency personnel, the study "Engaging the Affluent Online," finds that agency executives say 37% of mass marketers' branding dollars are spent in digital marketing, whereas only 31% of luxury marketers' budgets are spent in digital. However, 43% of the respondents feel that their luxury clients are moving into digital advertising more quickly than mass market brands, with another 1/3 feeling that they are moving into digital at the same pace.

According to The Online Publishers Association, with Frank N. Magid Associates, over two-thirds of Smartphone owners reported that they "cannot live without" their Smartphones. 44% of the U.S. internet population, (107 million consumers), ages 8-64, owns a Smartphone, up from 31% in 2011, and is expected to reach 57% by Q2 2013.

New findings from a Nielsen online survey of respondents from 56 countries around the world provide insights into how 16 various factors impact grocery purchases worldwide in today's belt-buckling state of the economy. 85% of respondents worldwide say that rising food prices are impacting their choice of grocery purchases, with more than 52% stating higher prices are a major influence.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), OOH advertising revenue rose 4.3% in the second quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, accounting for more than $2 billion. Revenue for the first half of 2012 has reached nearly $3.5 billion.