Japan's Softbank acquires 70 percent of Sprint for $20 billion.

Santander walks away from $2.7 billion RBS deal.

Microsoft makes new push into music via Xbox.

Red Bull basks in post-skydive glory.

ABA sues New York City over soda ban.

Advent offers to buy beauty retailer Douglas.

Allstate scores points with peers with "Mayhem" campaign.

Amazon flags e-book refunds.Continue reading...

Lexus is pitching a hybrid tablet/print experience with CinePrint™, its proprietary ad technology to merge print and digital. The Toyota-owned luxury automaker demonstrates the 2013 ES in a video demo (below) of its ad in the Oct. 15th issue of Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated magazine — just slip a tablet under the page to see it come to life.Continue reading...

The September issues of fashion magazines tend are closely watched because of September's annual fashion frenzy, but at least one October fashion magazine issue is garnering attention. And not for its take on hemlines and the new runway collections, but for one of its ads, which will play a video. In print.

The October issue of Marie Claire UK incorporates a black-and-white commercial for Dolce&Gabbana fragrance, the first UK display advert of its kind. Appearing on pages 34 and 35 in a limited run of a few thousand copies of the issue, a male and female model pose in a coastal scene and when the page is opened, the 45-second spot (directed by Mario Testino) automatically plays. And hopefully won't remind readers of those annoying greeting cards that play music upon opening.

D&G's description of the spot: "In the campaign that launches the Dolce&Gabbana classic fragrances Pour Femme and Pour Homme, Mario Testino sets a scene of fairytale romance, as the backdrop for a tale of love and transgression, like a gem of ancient storytelling. Starring Laetitia Casta and Noah Mills, and set to the strains of 'Città Vuota' by Mina. Shot on location in Sicily in the magnificent baroque village of Erice and the beach of La Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro."

The underlying technology that whisks them from the screen to the page is produced by Americhip, which has been developing multisensory advertising and marketing technologies since 2001.Continue reading...

It's hardly Christmas in July — not with record heat over most of the United States. But nevertheless Target is trying to spread the deep-discount feel of some of its winter-holiday events into the dog days of summer, which are now. In the process, Target also appears to be making a direct run at JCPenney (which just announced it has hired Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, who has been moonlighting as a "Target fashion expert" in addition to her day job at Marie Claire magazine).

The Minneapolis-based Target is expanding its popular summer-exclusive "Bonus Black Friday" sale to two full days, this Friday and Saturday, with the discounts and the positioning meant to be reminiscent, of course, of the biggest day on the calendar of American retailers, the day after Thanksgiving. It's one way to attempt to generate some store traffic during the traditional lull before the back-to-school storm, which pours down in August.Continue reading...

Hearst Magazines Digital Media unit is now the the first publisher to launch a scalable social platform for thirteen of its brands with Buddy Media on Facebook, making it the largest publisher presence on the Buddy Media Platform. 

Buddy Media will power Hearst’s ‘sapplets’ — branded social media applications — a boon for advertisers that extends content from participating brand sponsors and drive e-commerce traffic.  

The ‘sapplets,’ available on Facebook in July (with additional roll-out in August) cover 13 Hearst media properties including Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, RealBeauty.com, Redbook and Marie Claire, marking the latest foray in Hearst's increasing digital marketing prowess.Continue reading...

AOL struggles in first quarter, while display advertising business grew.

Chipotle hiring probe expands.

ConAgra (maker of Chef Boyardee, Slim Jim) increases bid for Post cereal owner Ralcorp.

American Airlines offers in-flight streaming to personal devices.

Apple's iPhone 5 faces delay as app revenue projected to hit $3 billion.

Applied Materials to buy Varian Semiconductor.

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile scrap "Isis" payment platform for mobile wallet.Continue reading...

A ping for a pong. Mix one part camera-phone with image recognition technology with one part brand loyalty and social engagement, and what do you get? Pongr, a mobile photo-sharing game based on brand logos.

Snap a picture of an ad, a television commercial, a billboard, a packaged product, send it in to Pongr and earn brand rewards. Earn enough points and become virtual CEO of your personal favorite brands. Consumers can earn and trade virtual stocks, propose deals, collect a virtual paycheck, and crowdsource deals.

Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson tells brandchannel that “every picture sent through Pongr expresses consumer interest in some product or brand. We give brands the ability to respond immediately (with a call-to-action) when pictures of their brand are photographed."Continue reading...

When your brand is build on being provocative and something of an iconoclast, you're going to go after other brands, including other iconoclasts. Which is what Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and Jezebel are doing.

Gawker's post-feminist blog recently accused Comedy Central's The Daily Show of being sexist by not featuring more women. Stewart swiped back on-air (see the 2:05 mark here) while his female staffers responded with a mocking note posted on the show's website.

It's all great for business as far as Gawker Media owner Nick Denton is concerned.Continue reading...