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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."

"Google's "Smartphone Launch Predictor" study found that 52 percent of purchase-related searches occur before a smartphone is launched. According to Google, the key to a successful smartphone launch is getting ahead of the release and marketing early. "One of the biggest factors is getting early buzz. Getting early buzz is key [for a successful smartphone launch]," Google Industry Director for Tech Kyle Keogh told ClickZ. The study found that the earlier a firm markets a smartphone the more likely they are to succeed in sales. According to Google, an extra 1,000 news stories put in place weeks before a launch can lead to a 9 percent spike in smartphone sales. Google's research discovered that users tend to do general product searches in the week during launch. After launch, it was discovered that consumers dig deep and search for key specifications on a device. Video is also becoming a key research tool for consumers shopping for a smartphone. According to the study, video views for smartphones increased 60 percent this year. Google says that if a smartphone gets over 1 million video views during launch week it will likely sell over 1.3 million units."

""If you think about the unique identifier - the cookie - it's just a way to identify a browser and then have the smarts behind it to serve a particular ad. If you have Open Graph data from Facebook, you would have to work through issues with personally identifying information, but you are essentially adding some behavioral data, which is what they are doing on their own site now. I don't know how far they could extend that, but there is a big push in the industry to start to utilize more sources of data for more specific targeting.""

""With YouTube external annotations, we're trying to make it a very seamless process," said Lisa Green, industry director at Google. "If while you're watching it, you see something you really want, you can click... We've allowed the user to make the decision to make the purchase" in the video. The beta feature is available to all existing clients, although Google won't disclose how many advertisers have shown interest or signed up thus far. Juicy Couture, one of the first brands to adopt the shoppable feature, released a new video directed by Terry Richardson featuring Candice Swanepoel at the famed Chateau Marmont hotel. The fashion label features nineteen different products in the second video. YouTube's shoppable video ads will display a shaded rectangle in the middle of the screen whenever a product appears. When a user rolls over that embedded video link, the product name is displayed with a link to the purchase page. Google's product and sales teams are working with advertisers to bring these new ads into their videos on YouTube, Green said."

""Content marketing" may be an industry buzz phrase, but the truth is, many traditional marketers are lost when it comes to how to get started. Here are  characteristics to keep in mind to generate content with real impact:"

Between 2011 and 2012, the number of "mobile point-of-sale" terminals registered by businesses worldwide more than doubled, according to U.K. industry research firm Timetric. The newly released report doesn't see such a dramatic rate of uptake to continue year after year. But researchers do project that the percentage of checkout counters using mobile point-of-sale systems such as those offered by Square, ShopKeep, Intuit and PayPal will jump from fewer than one-fifth last year to nearly half by 2017.

news via Vine and Instagram

"The Mini could help expand the overall tablet audience, which tends to be more affluent than the overall mobile audience. "We know from industry studies that 56% of tablet owners make over $75,000, and 46% have made a purchase after interacting with a tablet ad, so this creates a new, potentially very lucrative frontier for digital marketers," noted Kurt Hawks, general manager of mobile ad network Greystripe.

"Fast-growing Internet services like Netflix Inc. (NFLX), online movie purchases and DVD rentals from Redbox kiosks lifted U.S. home-video spending in the third quarter, countering the continued drop in DVD sales. Total sales rose 0.2 percent to $3.94 billion, the industry-backed Digital Entertainment Group said today in an e- mailed statement. Revenue from subscription streaming more than doubled while online purchases of movies and TV shows rose almost 38 percent, the group said."

Google is reportedly readying its entry into the online TV industry with a YouTube service by the name of "Unplugged," which would feature a skinny bundle of TV channels.

In a reflection of its expanding premium content strategy, YouTube has unveiled two new original channels focused on cars: Motor Trend and Drive. The Motor Trend channel, created by Source Interlink Media, will include original content from the likes of Motor Trend. Meanwhile Drive will take viewers behind the scenes and "[celebrate] the rich culture of cars." Content will include news, reviews and commentary from industry figures such as Chris Harris, Mike Spinelli, Leo Parente, and Alex Roy.

But perhaps more importantly, the company this week is delivering what it's best known for - deals. Ideeli has partnered with Carmen MarValvo, BCBG Max Azria, Nicole Miller, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Betsey Johnson, and other well-known fashion shops to pitch exclusive Fashion Week-focused offers from those designers. Manela added, "The fact that now…we can offer customers not only a strong lineup of [Fashion Week] featured designer sale events, but also exclusive on-site interviews and insight from designers themselves can be directly attributed to the strong relationships [we have] built across the industry."