Digital Intelligence

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for August 2012 based on data from the comScore MMX service.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of Americans are planning vacation travel in the next six months, making the category the top “big ticket” item they plan to purchase in the period, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) analysis entitled “Consumer Travel & The Media.” Falling directly behind travel in spending intentions are computers (16%), furniture (14%) and a new car (11%). The findings also reveal that these soon-to-be travelers are heavier media users than the general population, pointing to advertising opportunities – particularly within digital – for airline, hotel, and cruise marketers.

BrightEdge, the global leader in Enterprise SEO, unveiled a number of enhancements to their S3 platform to help global brands integrate their digital marketing channels and increase ROI. The company unveiled demonstrated these features at Share12, the only Industry event for search and digital marketing.

The global online advertising industry is on the brink of a revolution. Around the world, real-time bidding (RTB) is transforming the business of display media by allowing marketers to bid for individual online users’ ad impressions in real time while paying only what they want. Leading the charge in Japan is So-net Media Networks, an arm of So-net Entertainment Corporation, which offers of one of the country’s leading advertising distribution services.

LiveOps, Inc., the global leader in cloud contact center and customer service solutions, today announced the immediate availability of LiveOps® Mobile Solutions for Direct Response (DR) with inbound and outbound mobile marketing campaign capabilities. Building on LiveOps’ innovative cloud contact center platform designed for today’s social and mobile consumers, this latest cloud application enables brands to easily communicate and market to mobile customers via relevant and targeted text messaging. LiveOps Mobile Solutions for DR enables brands to tap the power of mobile marketing. Marketers now have the ability to create, run, and manage mobile marketing campaigns to increase customer engagement and drive incremental revenue easily, quickly and effectively.

Online advertising data and technology company TruEffect has hired Kristina Vaccarelli to the new position of engagement manager and Taylor Shuman to the new position of client services coordinator. Both will report to Kristine Elliot, Vice President of Client Solutions at TruEffect.

RichRelevance®, the leading provider of dynamic e-commerce personalization for the world’s largest retailers, today released a new Shopping Insights™ study that benchmarks the performance of major social channels - Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest – in driving traffic to retail sites. The research drills into nearly 700 million shopping sessions on leading U.S. retail sites to uncover which channels are driving the most traffic and sales.

Total advertising expenditures in the second quarter of 2012 increased 0.9 percent from a year ago and finished the period at $34.4 billion, according to data released today by Kantar Media, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Total spending for the first six months of the year grew 1.9 percent to $67.1 billion.

Evidon, the global leader in revealing the invisible web, today announced the launch of Evidon Encompass Revenue Protection, the first technology to remedy one of the most vexing issues in online media—how tracking code gets onto a website.