Conversation marketing. Engagement marketing. Social media. Earned media. Consumer-generated media. User-generated Content. Crowdsourcing. Outsourcing. Co-creation. No matter what you call it, the evolution of the way brands reach and interact with consumers has led to mass experimentation with the alluring, yet often hard-to-execute marketing tactic: the video contest. more

Newspaper websites in the top 25 markets continued to grow at rapid rate, reaching 83.7 million unique visitors in April 2010, up 10.1% from a month earlier, and up 15.0% from January 2010, according to data from comScore Media Metrix data released by Newspaper National Network LP (NNN). more

Total measured advertising expenditures reached $31.3 billion in the first quarter of 2010, up 5.1% from the same period a year earlier—the first increase in quarterly ad spending since the first quarter of 2008 and the largest gain since the first quarter of 2006—according to data from Kantar Media. more

Despite widespread consumer adoption of social media, advertisers on average allocated just 4% of their media spend to the channel in 2009, relying instead on traditional, proven online media choices that were in place before the economic downturn, according to data from interactive agency Razorfish. more

If we were to suggest plain text for your next email campaign, you'd probably laugh in our faces. "The superiority of HTML email to plain-text email for driving response has become an accepted truth in email marketing," says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog. "Alchemy ... more

To successfully reach the Hispanic audience, marketers should understand that what works with the general market can't simply be transferred to the Latino market. Instead, messages must be culturally adapted to capture the thought, meaning, and feeling, not just the words. more

Most companies know they need to pay attention to social media, because it provides the richest data sets of consumer information that have ever existed. So brands know there's an opportunity, and they fear being left out if they aren't tapped in. But what's the difference between monitoring social media and ... more

In an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Skeen writes that search-engine optimization provides several return-on-investment measures with a greater potential impact on a company's bottom line than many traditional tactics. However, he notes, because SEO is less tangible than some other areas of marketing investment, it's often harder to clearly show ... more

The consumption of Internet video—content stored and distributed over Internet protocol (IP) architecture—is forecast to overtake the consumption of broadcast TV programming by 2020, according to a report by The Diffusion Group (TDG). more

Mitchell Harper of BigCommerce recently wrote a cool piece on Mashable detailing how companies can use YouTube to boost their brand SEO. Step One? Consider creating a YouTube channel, he advises: "Every video you post to your channel can be tagged and indexed, increasing the odds your brand name will ... more

Though most marketers understand the value of connecting with consumers on an emotional level, nearly two-thirds (62%) say their brand's messaging is focused on rational and functional elements rather than emotional benefits, according to a survey form the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). more

Over two-thirds of high-tech marketing professionals (68%) say lead generation is their top marketing priority this year and 74% cite social media as among the top emerging marketing channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, according to a Unisfair survey slated for release in late May. more

Does your marketing content tell buyers what they want to hear—or only what you want to say? Writing at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee reports on a study that found content is relevant to a customer's needs only 42 percent of the time—and a lack of compelling content reduces ... more

Three-quarters of Americans (74%) say when a celebrity endorser gets involved in a scandal, how they feel about the brands that the celebrity endorses is not affected, according to a new Adweek Media/Harris Poll. Just over one in five surveyed consumers (22%), however, say they feel worse about the endorsed ... more

Apparently, nearly everyone is looking for a bargain these days, especially women: 93% of women age 16-54 who use mobile devices say they are always on the lookout for special offers; moreover, 68% of such women say they are interested in receiving discounts via their mobile phone, according to a ... more

Over one-half (57%) of surveyed US consumers say they plan to purchase an e-reader or tablet within the next three years—29% plan to purchase one within the next year—according to a study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). more

...will go unnoticed by Google. That's what some search pundits are saying these days: To achieve smooth-and-easy SEO, you need to spell out who you are, plain and simple, for the search engines—even if it means inserting a keyword in your primary domain name. "[C]ore branding principles tell us that ... more

Time to start thinking "i" again—this time for the iPad. Like it or not, it's a mobile device, and 120,000 were preordered in the first 24 hours of its release in April. And as of May 3, iPad had already hit 1 million units sold, and 12 million iPad apps ... more

As marketers struggle to find the marketing mix that delivers the greatest impact for their businesses, most have yet to fully adopt emerging channels: Only 14% say they now use mobile, social media, and video channels in their marketing mix, according to a survey from Omniture. more

US Internet users received a record 1.1 trillion display ads* during the first quarter of 2010, up 15% from a year earlier, with Facebook the top display-ad publisher and AT&T the top advertiser, according to comScore's Ad Metrix. more

Amid double-digit declines in traditional ad spending, the emerging category of social media sponsorships grew 13.9% to $46.0 million in 2009 and is forecast to climb 23.6% to $56.8 million in 2010, driven by higher demand among advertisers to reach social media's target audiences, according to a study by PQ ... more

Marketing campaigns that actively engage consumers online for longer periods of time—by enticing them to "Dwell"—are more likely to generate high conversion rates and are three times more effective at driving brand-related Web searches, according to a study by Eyeblaster. more

Mad Men-style advertising, based on interrupting entertainment or news, is still with us—but most marketers recognize that it's unsteady on its feet. The reality is that people are tired of being "targeted" with ads and so are inclined to take evasive action. It's time to dust off the tried-and-true customer ... more

Ad networks offer a flexible and more efficient way to reach and segment consumers. Advertisers can meet ambitious goals by leveraging the networks' mass reach, diverse targeting options, and flexible pricing platforms. more

Women consume two times more mobile content than men, accounting for 67% of downloads among unique users on Myxer's mobile content site in April 2010, and downloading on average 17% more content than men during the month, according to Myxer. more