How much is that doggy bed in the window? Shopkick knows.

The mobile application, which melds in-store and mobile retail, rewards consumers for just walking in, with further deals for scanning partner brand products at more than 250,000 stores across the U.S. 

Launching a year ago this month (it officially turns one on August 17th), its users have surpassed 6.5 million product scans as 12 new major brand partners sign on: CoverGirl, Disney, General Mills, Levi’s, Libman, Mead Johnson, Meguiar’s, Mr. Clean, Olay, Revlon, Tilex and Trident.Continue reading...

With the launch of its latest ad unit, “Sponsored Stories,” Facebook is turning users' in-network activities — status updates, Places check-ins, Likes, app activity — into advertisements. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest challenge remains how to monetize advertising in a non-intrusive way. “Sponsored Stories” is a euphemism for a digital transformation from information-based to social-based advertising.

“We’re moving from the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to the ‘wisdom of friends,’” says Facebook executive Dan Rose of the new ad format.Continue reading...

What do IBM, Verizon, Levi’s and Mattel have in common? Sponsorship of the newly founded Annenberg Innovation Lab, a digital incubator looking to nurture cutting-edge thinking around social technology and communication.

The Lab’s initiatives will focus on real-world applications as students and faculty from USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism tackle a range of issues related to technology and communications.Continue reading...

Denim shopping is an activity that can easily reduce a woman to tears. Many women – and probably some men, too – have tasted the agony of trying on pair after pair of jeans, only to give up, demoralized and committed to a new exercise regime.

Clothing companies, recognizing this frustration, have recently been competing to offer the most enjoyable, least infuriating jeans shopping experience, some even offering the opportunity to do the whole thing online, in the privacy of one’s own home, with Zappos-style user-friendly return policies a key sweetener in the home clothes shopping deal.Continue reading...