Mobile commerce has become widespread in the US: 80% of smartphone owners say they have used their devices to help make buying decisions in the past year and two-thirds have made a purchase with their phone, according to a study by LEK Consulting. Moreover, mobile shopping apps are giving on-the-go ... more

If the only thing consistent about your radio spots is that they always sound different, you may have a problem. If you're aiming for a brand sound, you'll never hit your mark if you constantly change elements. more

Small and midsize companies (SMBs) continue to move marketing dollars to digital channels, according to BIA/Kelsey, which now forecasts digital spending among US SMBs to reach $16.6 billion annually by 2015—roughly 70% of total SMB marketing budgets. more

In-house marketing executives say they want to be challenged by the agencies they work with, but only 3% say agencies most often lead the charge for marketing innovation in their companies, according to a new study by The Horn Group and Kelton Research. more

You're driving. Through Iowa. Endless fields of corn. Row after row of stalks the same size, the same height, the same color. That, actually, is much like a drive through radio advertising. How can you hope to stand out? more

US advertisers are expected to spend nearly $77 billion on interactive marketing by 2016—as much as they now spend on TV—according to a new report by Forrester Research. By 2016, search, display, mobile, email, and social media together are expected to constitute 26% of all ad spending, up from 16% ... more

After being embraced early on by young adult men in the US, e-readers have become increasingly popular among women and older adults, according to a new report by Nielsen. Though tablet ownership is still dominated by men, growing numbers of older Americans are buying the portable devices. more

"As you get started in SEO, you'll read a lot about things you should be doing to optimize your website for organic search," writes Marty Diamond at the Diamond Website Conversion blog. "What you may not hear as much about, however, is what you should avoid doing." To help you identify ... more

Ranked by videos viewed, gaming-focused entertainment network Machinima was the most popular YouTube video partner among male audiences in July 2011, delivering an average of 18.5 videos per male viewer during the month, according to data from comScore Video Metrix. VEVO led the way among female audiences with an average ... more

Stories are what language is built around. They make people lean forward and listen. And if you want your marketing and advertising to be much more engaging, use storytelling. more

Android owners in the US spent an average of 56 minutes per day interacting with the Web and apps via their phones in June 2011 and of that time, two-thirds (67%) was spent using mobile apps while one-third (33%) was spent browsing the mobile Web, according to a report from ... more

Many mobile users are unsatisfied with the mobile Web experience: 18% of smarphone users say their recent mobile browsing experiences have been frustrating and 70% describe their experiences as "just OK," according to a new survey from Modapt and Morrissey & Company. more

Quick! Recite the first five billboards you saw on your drive to work this morning. You don't remember, right? OK, how about the first three headlines you saw on your favorite news source? Nope? OK. One last chance: Name one commercial you saw on TV last night. more

Some 14 million mobile users in the US—or 6.2% of the total mobile audience—scanned a QR (Quick Response) or bar code on their mobile device in June 2011, according to data from comScore MobiLens. more

Time Magazine, People, and Self earned the top three spots among a list of 87 prominent magazine brands for exceptional marketing performance across digital, social, and mobile channels, according to the newly launched L2 ThinkTank Digital IQ Index, which measures and ranks the digital competence of magazine brands. more

This article and video are the second in a series that lays out some best-practices not only for radio in a digital age but also for marketing and advertising generally. more

Ads viewed on tablet devices are more likely than ads on e-readers to attract the attention of consumers and engage them in key buying-related activities, according to a new study by GfK MRI Starch Advertising Research, which explores how digital magazine readers respond to ads on the two platforms. ... more

Though word-of-mouth recommendations still have the greatest influence on purchasing decisions among small and medium-sized businesses, online forums and blogs play a huge role in the process, too—and a more influential one than advertisements or consultations with salespeople, according to a new survey from Ivy Worldwide. more

In a post at Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie reports on the disappearance of Google's real-time search—and consequently, the disappearance of up-to-the-minute Twitter feeds from Google. "If you're a bandwagon-driven Internet marketer, and you go diving after the latest gimmick, then you're probably panicking about now," he writes. "A little voice ... more

Google Android widened its lead in the US smartphone market in June 2011, accounting for 40.1% of smartphone subscribers, up 5.4 percentage points from the previous three-month period, according to data from the comScore MobiLens service. more

This article and video are the first in a series that lays out some best-practices not only for radio in a digital age but also for marketing and advertising generally. Many of the principles that the author discusses can just as appropriately be applied to email or social media marketing—or, ... more

Brands that conduct Facebook marketing can gain huge benefits by targeting the friends of their Facebook fans, according to a new report by comScore and Facebook, which also found that Facebook users spend 27% of their time browsing homepage newsfeeds. more

Brands are using a new and expanding set of advertising tools to reach social consumers: 67% of surveyed brand managers say they conduct some type of social media advertising and another 18% plan to implement such activities in the next year, according to a new study by The Pivot Conference ... more

Watching video online is becoming more popular in the US, particularly among rural audiences: 71% of online adults now use video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, up 5 percentage points from the 66% who did so a year earlier, according to a new report by Pew Research. more

After trailing Yahoo for nine months, Google Sites was the top-ranked Web property in June 2011 with 182.5 million visitors, followed by Yahoo Sites with 178.4 million and Microsoft Sites with 173.6 million, according to comScore Media Metrix service. Amazon Sites jumped one spot to rank at No. 6 with ... more