Marketing

Verizon Communications is proposing a novel and potentially disruptive fee structure for its FiOS pay TV service: It wants to link the fees it pays to television channels to how much traffic they get. Verizon reportedly is in negotiations with several mid-tier and smaller media companies over a fee ...

A day after posting disappointing quarterly earnings, Groupon ousted its founder and CEO Andrew Mason. The company's stock jumped 4 percent in after-hours trading as the news became public. "I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding -- I was fired today. If you're wo...

Facebook users will soon see ads in their feeds that are more specifically targeted to what they like and where they've shopped -- both online and offline -- thanks to a series of agreements with data companies announced Wednesday. The agreements expand the social network's Custom Audiences program ...

For the past several years, the money spent on online advertising has grown at the expense of other media platforms. That trend will probably continue, suggests a new report released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau; it finds that brands will benefit from a 15 percent shift from the TV a...

Advertisers targeting mobile device users have some homework to do on the Google mobile ads system. The search giant this week provided more specificity about its AdWords Enhanced Campaigns, which lets mobile advertisers adjust bids by device, location and time of day within a single campaign. For e...

Google may be planning to launch an ambitious brick-and-mortar retail operation to show off its consumer products. It will open standalone retail stores across the U.S. in time for the holidays, according to the latest rumor, to showcase its Nexus tablets, Chromebooks, Glass and other products. The ...

The Twitter accounts for fast-food chain Burger King and automaker Jeep were taken over by hackers this week, prompting calls for stronger authentication practices while forcing marketing professionals to once again confront the shadowy regions of social media. Burger King was the first brand to rep...

Frank Boulben is the new chief marketing officer at BlackBerry and he has his hands full. Did you ever stand in front of a mountain of work and wonder how to get started? Marketing was one of several key weaknesses before RIM became BlackBerry. Can Boulben refresh, reinvigorate and save the smartpho...

Mobile messaging -- which includes SMS, MMS and rich media messaging -- has quickly become a staple in the world of marketing campaigns for many large brands. Mobile messaging, although still in its infancy, has drastically impacted the marketing landscape and is vital to any program. Mobile messagi...

BlackBerry 10 may have had its thunder stolen by "BlackBerry" -- that is, the announcement that "Research In Motion" has been deep-sixed, and the company name is now the same as its iconic brand. The rebranding is an effort to put more juice behind the launch of the highly anticipated new BB10 opera...

Bronto Software this week released a significant update to its Bronto Marketing Platform: a remarketing engine that helps retailers link online and in-store purchases in order to create targeted email messages that speak to the individual user. New features allow marketers to collect data such as pu...

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously replied "because that's where the money is." Many e-commerce businesses adopt Willie's strategy by focusing their marketing efforts where all the people are. That may work for robbery, but it's a poor strategy for e-commerce. Instead, adopt an ...

Gamification, using game-play mechanics for non-game applications to engage users and drive desired behavior, has become all the rage, or so it seems. Like any hot trend, there is a tendency to overcompensate for the sake of participating in the new, hot concept. The herd mentality leads everyone to...

Even when Darien Gold's pilates clients aren't in her studio, they can work on their moves by following the instructions and imitating the positions on her mobile app. Gold uses the app to expand the reach of her business, according to Bharath Lingam, CEO of PurpleTalk, which worked with Gold to dev...

The decentralization of software and services has greatly changed the way businesses need to approach and appeal to their customers' whims. Before, software vendors could work with distributors to get their boxes onto shelves and into customers' hands -- but when was the last time you went to Fry's ...