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As the US digital radio landscape matures, several trends are taking hold, including: Strong demand for two dominant listening modes: personal stations that serve songs based on users’ preferences, existing digital music collections and prior listening activity, and digital extensions of over-the-air stations A shift toward nondesktop devices, such as smartphones, tablets, in-car systems and other consumer electronics embedded with digital radio apps A mix of monetization models that ranges from free access on an ad-supported basis to premium tiers that cost up to $10 per month for ad-free, unlimited listening

Many companies that are marketing through digital radio use 15-second audio spots, some tailored to specific services. Advertisers are also creating branded playlists and sponsoring launch events, contests and festivals.

The full report, “Digital Radio: Usage Grows, but Lack of Scale Remains a Challenge,” also answers these key questions: How many people are using digital radio services, and how are they using them? What is the outlook for digital radio advertising? How are marketers using digital radio to promote their brands? How is competition affecting the digital radio landscape and potential marketing opportunities connected with it?

If the phrase “an embarrassment of riches” can be applied to any advertising campaign, it can certainly be applied to the long running series of GEICO TV commercials. In the past 15 years, GEICO has made the pedestrian line “Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance” memorable through a shrewd combination of good, old-fashioned sheer repetition and one of the most prolific and varied advertising efforts in living memory. They’ve made advertising icons out of a Gecko and modern-day, still-living-among-us Cavemen, along with a veritable cavalcade of odd characters, near-celebrities, and even other consumer products. Here’s a brief sampling of some of the best GEICO TV work of the past decade, and then some. This is a completely unscientific sampling. And no googly-eyed “Kash” spots either. Just sit back and enjoy.1. Self-Licking DogThis is the proverbial “oldie but goodie.” Just the right amount of “eww” and a harbinger of things to come.2. Squirrel Hi-FiveWe always knew there was a great squirrel conspiracy. We just had no idea it went this far.3. Mrs. Butterworth“Someone’s placed a logo right over my face!” Simply classic.4. The First Gecko SpotIf not for the Screen Actors Guild strike of 1999, we may have never seen the birth of this endearing character voiced here by none other than Kelsey Grammer.5. Airport CavemanTo this day, perhaps the most enduring spot of the Caveman series. Sold lots of singles for the band Röyksopp, too.6. Into the wall"Listen, go-kart track, grocery store, those remote-controlled boats; when it comes to Mike Wallace, the story ends with me putting him in the wall."7. Butta and JamIt was this one or “Free Pie and Chips.” In the end, the Gecko’s “That’s a complete dramatization, of course, but you get my point,” puts this one over the top.8. Caveman Therapy OneTalia Shire! Brilliant casting, and who doesn’t love “My mother’s calling; I’ll put it on speaker”?9. Trust ExerciseTwo words: “Oh, dear.”10. Charlie DanielsBest of the new Robert Stack “Unsolved Mysteries” Parodies. “That’s how you do it, son.”

Even when served in the most contextually relevant and targeted environments, most banners struggle to achieve click rates in excess of 0.10%. Even within the demographically information rich environs of Facebook, banner click rates are abysmal. At a recent SES Conference, Sarah Smith, online sales operations manager at Facebook said that the average campaign click-through rates on the social network were as low as 0.05%.

In his outlook for 2010, industry analyst Imran Khan predicts that spend on display banner advertising will increase by 10.5%.

Khan identifies two important developments in this regard: greater creativity in banner ad formats and a better integration of mechanisms to capture real-time consumer intent data.

Category: Best Use of Social ($2 million - $4 million) Few marketers, especially beauty brands, have made it their mission to improve their consumers' self-esteem. That's what Unilever brand Dove has done, making inroads since 2004 with its "Campaign for Real Beauty." But a lot can change in a decade. "In 2004 women were fundamentally benchmarking themselves against the images in a magazine," says Cindy Gustafson, managing director of the invention studio at Mindshare. "And in 10 years there's been an incredible seismic shift because of the advent of social media and technology. The fact is this is where women are now taking their self-esteem cues from." Mindshare analyzed 18 million tweets and found that a third of them contained negative beauty or body image content, and women were 50 percent more likely to tweet negatively about themselves. Dove decided to change the conversation and partnered with Twitter for the #SpeakBeautiful campaign, which encouraged women to use social media as a tool for body and beauty in a positive way. Given the image-conscious nature of awards shows, Dove launched #SpeakBeautiful during the Oscars' Red Carpet and published tweets every 30 minutes. It also sent 800 personalized messages to women during the event, hoping to inspire them to send positive messages. The results were impressive: The campaign scored almost 6 million tweets, over 800 million social impressions and reached a unique audience of 13 million. Compared to the Oscars in 2014 there were 30 percent fewer negative tweets and 69 percent more positive tweets about self-beauty. It helped Dove's brand perception, too. Among people who engaged with the campaign, 27 percent had a higher intent to purchase Dove products, according to Nielsen; brand sentiment also increased 17 percent, according to Twitter. —Kristina Monllos

Category: Best International Campaign ($1 million - $5 million) No one can dispute the success or ubiquity of Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign, which substituted the iconic Coke logo with people's names in a bid to personalize their carbonated experience. But how to keep it bubbly? Coke and MediaCom U.K. planted the flag for Year 2 of the campaign in England, giving viewers of Channel 4's 4oD digital catch-up TV platform (now called All 4) a chance to see their own names on bottles—a potential reach of 11 million. Led by Chris Binns, managing partner and head of engineering, MediaCom U.K. latched onto 4oD subscribers' sign-in names to create personalized ads for each viewer, ending the messages with the tagline "Share a Coke With …" followed by the viewer's name on the bottle. In total, the effort generated 4 million dynamically generated, highly personalized TV ads. And 4oD subscribers carried the effort one step further, with many taking to Twitter to register their happiness at seeing their names on the small screen. ("How did the 4oD Coke advert know my name and put in on a can? I'm so confused and happy!" tweeted @remzitomlin.) The effort, says Binns, "delivered that moment to millions of consumers in their own homes, in a natural way while they were doing something they loved [watching TV], rather than … hoping that they would find their bottles on store shelves." Furthermore, campaign awareness in the U.K. rose 17 percent, while ad recall jumped 71 percent and purchase intent gained 24 percent. —Michael Bürgi

Category: Best International Campaign (less than $1 million) To give fashion fans a sneak peek at the Alexander Wang x clothing collection at the department store H&M, media agency UM turned to Twitter as "the key to unlock the mysterious box of Wang." The IPG shop aimed to show fashionistas around the world that its client had the most exclusive apparel from a leading designer, and it built buzz (while downplaying competitors' campaigns) by focusing on bloggers and social media influencers in the high-fashion vertical. First, the client created a literal box that appeared in London's St. Christopher's Place. Curious fans could only view the fashion-forward contents of the box by tweeting the campaign's hashtag, and H&M followed by sending both personalized tweets and images/videos of the Wang items in question to these aficionados. Using this strategy, UM was able to create significant hype around the collection's release, despite having a smaller budget than previous campaigns. UM creative director Marcia Siebers says the campaign was "a direct consequence of our unique relationship with H&M," adding that the live personalization "built anticipation for everyone who got involved" and delivered a unique experience to both those who visited the physical site and those who watched online with "the speed that our fashionista customers demand." The campaign led to a 32 percent increase in positive mentions among influencers when compared to the client's preceding launch. It also facilitated a 179 percent monthly bump in Twitter mentions, with 80 percent of users tweeting about the collection more than once. Most significantly, all six London H&M stores sold out of the collection within 24 hours. —Patrick Coffee

A Lexus 2013 ES changes colors, turns on its headlights and exposes its interior as throbbing music plays in this highly interactive print ad in the Oct. 15 Sports Illustrated.

Using a Lexus-created technology called CinePrint, the ad comes to life only when you put an iPad behind the printed page that’s displaying the iPad edition of SI or on lexus.com/stunning.

As the release from Lexus notes, most traditionally “interactive” print ads direct users away from the page (think QR codes.) However, “CinePrint Technology flips that on its head, creating a tactile and visceral connection that brings one closer to the printed page with a multi-sensory experience that combines sight, sound, and touch.”

t turns out that “portrait” is a surprisingly accurate description of what she ended up with. From Jane’s Brand Timeline Portrait, we discover that Jane is a woman who flosses, who has a cat, who turns on her TV before she leaves for work in the morning. Jane is a woman who lives in Toronto and takes public transit to work, who drinks beer on a Friday night before going home, smoking up and getting down. There’s been some debate in the comments thread of her post over whether the LG logo followed by several Durexes indicates that she used her phone to make a booty call soon after 10 p.m. Fortunately, the BTP still leaves some details to the imagination.

Brand Timeline Portrait has spread all over the internet.

As an advertising account executive, Jane was perhaps predictably untroubled by the implications of her day in brands. “As a marketer, it just shows that these brands have done a good job of marketing themselves.”

Last week, Volkswagen and Deutsch, Los Angeles, unveiled a 60-second Super Bowl teaser on YouTube and then on broadcast TV during an episode of "The Middle" on ABC. The spot stars mutts barking a canine rendition of "The Imperial March," aka "Darth Vader's Theme," the track featured in last year's VW Super Bowl darling, "The Force."

The dozen dogs, selected from a pool of 40 who "auditioned," were chosen not for their vocal chops but, in some cases, for their resemblance to "Star Wars" characters, according to Tim Mahoney, chief product and marketing officer for Volkswagen of America. "See if you can find Chewbacca," he said, adding, "If you have a pet in the house, this ad drives them crazy."

The ad was directed by Keith Schofield of Caviar Content, who said the dogs were shot together and then separately on the set, barking to a temporary track created by Endless Noise's Jeff Elmassian, who was also behind the arrangement of John William's original Vader march for "The Force." Prior to production, "we talked about how this should probably be handled like a music video," said Deutsch Director of Integrated Content Vic Palumbo. "We needed to create the track first and then figure out who the dogs are, what notes they're going to be singing."