That's right, TED European Director Bruno Guissani just announced that TED is going to repeat its "Ads Worth Spreading" initiative at the Cannes Festival of Media in 2012.

Chatfield is offering a contra view of the mobile revolution – that it's making us feel "oppressive," 'habit-forming" and even, "addictive." Chatfield has provided a pretty good recap of the run-up of the mobile media revolution beginning with a picture of a heavyweight championship boxing bout at New York's Madison Square Garden, the first one in which an announcer utilized a telephone to relay the fight to radio broadcasters around the country, and the first time a "mediated" event had an audience larger than the one at the event itself. Things get worse from there, Chatfield suggests, citing …

At least that's what I'm sensing from the crowd's reaction to the opening presenter, M-Via CEO Bill Barhydt. And I'm not sure it's the substance of his presentation, so much as the delivery. He certainly is talking about some powerful content, the way mobile communications are transforming underdeveloped nations and societies. But he's reading it off his tablet, and it's just not compelling. Sorry, but I am a big TED fan and I was looking forward to this session, which is being hosted by Starcom MediaVest Group during the Festival of Media in Cannes. Maybe the next presenter will be …

Midway through his interview at the Cannes Media Festival in, where else, France, Electus CEO Ben Silverman uttered a surprising non sequitur that seemed to go over the heads of locals: Jerry Lewis' name. "I brought up Jerry," Silverman said during an interview with Yahoo's Ross Levinsohn, "because we are in France." I guess they didn't get the joke, because nobody laughed, but I guffawed in the Cannes press room, which caused some local journos to look at me askance.

Dana Thayer, sernior VP of marketing and sponsorships for Chelsea Piers, which has used Groupon to offer discounts on golf lessons, among other things, said one aspect of she likes relative to other ad formats is its "trackability." Once someone redeems a coupon that customer is put into a company database so future purchases can be tracked after that. I see [Groupon] as an integral part of the media mix," said Thayer, who also advertises via formats including print, out-of-home and online. She added that strong customer service following up a Groupon deal is also …

Social commerce is the focus of one of the last OMMA Social panels of the day. To kick things off , Yon Nuta of comScore threw out a few stats on the sizzling daily deal space. So the research firm expects the group-buying market to triple to $3 billion this year. When it comes to the two biggest players in the category, Groupon's audience has grown 250% from a year ago versus 182% for LivingSocial. Groupon's deals skew toward restaurant coupons, which make up more than half (56%) of deals. LivingSocial, by contrast is more …

In a presentation on what goes into a great social video campaign, Amanda Farrell, VP/Sales, North America, Unruly Media, laid out 7 steps, which included "coming up with a great idea" and "creating great original content." Isn't that like saying if you want a write a bestseller, come up with a great idea and then write about in a really compelling way that appeals to a mass audience. Easier said than done. It also underscores that regardless of the format, video, social or otherwise, great ideas and creative executions can't be automated and are still hard to come up with. …

While spending levels on social game advertising per individual brands may still be at an experimental level, SocialVibe's Jay Samit emphasized that marketers are hardly ignoring social media or social gaming, with 29 new brands including JetBlue joining the company's social ad network just in May. That network claims a reach including 29 million moms, 52 million pet owners and 26 million in the 35-54 age range.

If engagement is so great in social game advertising, why aren't brands spending more in the space? A lack of standard measurement and pricing is one big barrier, according to Jun Group's Mitchell Reichgut. Because it's hard to sell this kind of non-traditional ad format on a CPM basis it makes it harder for media buyers to get their minds around. Typically, some type of cost-per-engagement (CPE) pricing has to be applied to suit social game ad buys. In short, it requires more creativity when it comes to pricing which can make it a harder sell. The general ever-evolving …

Jay Samit, CEO of SocialVibe, says he’s pioneering a new 12-step program: Impressions Anonymous. For the greater good of the ad industry, Samit says he targets ad buyers with the pitch: “Hi, I’m Jay, and I was an impressions addict.” From there, he explains how anyone can be cured of their impression compulsion, first by realizing that there are far better media measures out there. A far better measure of ROI, for instance, is “share of voice,” and users’ propensity to share branded media with their “friends.”