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"Sam Glassenberg, CEO of Funtactix, which develops social games for major motion pictures like The Hunger Games, said the in-game ad market presents both huge opportunities and new risks for brands and agencies. He cited statistics from NPD and said that there are almost 200 million online gamers out there who play games for an average of 13 hours a week. Yet, the majority of ad spend still goes to TV or banner ads and only a fraction to games, he noted. "How are we going to close that gap?" he asked. The discussion was organized by SponsorPay, a Berlin-based engagement advertising company whose application rewards users that watch an ad with virtual currency and other goodies. SponsorPay is one of a handful of companies out there including SocialVibe, Flurry and WildTangent seeking to help games developers monetize their product and brand advertisers engage consumers with such ads. Games entrepreneur Wilson Kriegel, formerly with Zynga, addressed this potential by discussing his involvement with mega-hit Draw Something, an online drawing game developed at his former company OMGPop, which Zynga acquired in March. The game allows people to draw things and share them with their friends. Since its launch early in 2012, it has seen over 90 million installs, 10 billion drawings created and was a top trending topic on Twitter.  Companies including McDonald's, Disney and Sprint have incorporated their ads into the game. Kriegel said that ad features including in-game banners, game features and in-game call to actions seen a clickthrough rate of 1 percent to 10 percent-unheard of in an industry where average CTRs are 0.7 percent."

"Facebook is making quick progress in growing its mobile advertising business, according to major ad platform Kenshoo. It sees 20% of all Facebook ad spend going to mobile. That's a big boost from October when Facebook said 14% of its ad revenue came from mobile. Meanwhile, 71% of Facebook ad spend targeted to mobile phones goes to Android, further proving Facebook has to focus more on Google's OS."

But it's AOL's own properties the company aims to build up as a go-to premium buy for brand advertisers. Display revenue on AOL properties grew by 2 percent. The company is betting on premium ad formats such as its rich-media laden Project Devil units to entice brands to spend more. AOL reported that more than half of the advertisers who bought the ads in Q1 re-upped this past quarter. Armstrong admitted that last year the company's focus was not data-driven, and stressed the firm's renewed mission to ensure that data - meaning results-related numbers proving the value of buying AOL's ad products - is at the heart of its sales approach. People cannot leave the building without data, said Armstrong. Mobile and video ad revenue are key to future growth for AOL, said Armstrong, who said that last summer 75 percent of insertion orders included both platforms. Today, it's close to 100 percent, he said. The company reported that videos, video views, and video revenue rose at double-digit rates, though it did not break out revenues for video advertising.

- Women outnumber men on the social network, 58 percent to 42 percent. - However, marketers spend more money targeting men, 53 percent to 47 percent. - Men are exposed to and click on more Facebook ads - 58 percent to 42 percent, and 60 percent to 40 percent, respectively. - On average, ads targeting men cost less in terms of cost per thousand impressions ($0.16 male versus $0.20 female) and cost per click ($0.51 versus $0.68), - Ads targeting men achieved superior exposure rates, reaching a larger percentage of their unique audiences.

Mobile ad spending nowhere near the time spent

ZenithOptimedia predicted that total global spending will grow 4.8% in 2012, reaching $489 billion by year-end. Its December forecast had been for 4.7% growth for 2012. At the time, the firm revised global forecasts down from an earlier version in 2011.

stats on ad spending

"According to the recent BIA/Kelsey forecast, U.S. social media ad revenues will reach $9.2 billion in 2016, up from $4.6 billion in 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate of 19.2 percent. According to the U.S. Local Media Forecast, the local segment of U.S. social media advertising revenues will grow from $1.1 billion in 2012 to $3 billion in 2016 (CAGR: 28 percent)."

One thing the study also reinforces is just how much advertisers are betting on Facebook: according to comScore's analysis, more than 15 percent of all U.S. online display ads were "socially enabled," meaning they contained a message asking viewers to "like" or follow the brand or the campaign on Facebook. That's almost double the number of ads that contained those kinds of messages in November of last year, the report said. That kind of bet is what drove Salesforce to spend close to a billion dollars to buy Buddy Media, which specializes in managing Facebook pages and social campaigns.

The end of ad supported TV. You know it's bad when ad agencies turn on you.

"Coke's involvement in Spotify is notable, as the soda marketer has tested the platform's various ad units repeatedly, while also helping to launch the digital firm's presence in Germany and Australia. Spotify has appeared on 100 million Coke bottles in Australia during the last five months, while receiving a similar on-package treatment recently in Germany. The music upstart is now in 17 countries and goes head-to-head in the U.S. with the formidable Pandora. For its past, Coke seems to be in a music-based turf war of larger scale, battling rival Pepsi for high school and college-aged consumers. Both brands have sponsored various concert series, with Pepsi spending significant resources in the last three years at South by Southwest."

The researcher predicts that U.S. desktop advertising will hit $35.39 billion in 2014, but then begin falling off in 2015. By 2017, the figure will be $32.51 billion, which is close to the amount posted in 2012. Meanwhile, mobile advertising will hit $11.76 billion in 2013, up from $7.65 billion this year.

"According to research firm Gartner, by 2017 the CMO will spend more money on information technology than the CIO. It's a startling statement, but based on the rapid rise in data and analytics, is a means to better target and engage consumers."