Adobe abandons boxed software for the cloud.

Samsung keeps hammering Apple in new ad strategy for Galaxy S4.

Tim Tebow tops Forbes' new list of most influential athletes.

Acer plans to launch windows tablet in June.

Aereo asks judge to prevent new lawsuits by CBS.

Audi considers building plant in Brazil but seeks clarity from government.

Disney plans new Star Wars games through Electronic Arts.

Estee Lauder sets sights on big September fragrance launch.

Facebook made the Fortune 500 list for the first time.Continue reading...

To paraphrase the late US Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois: "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there—pretty soon you're talking about real money."

That's why investors, analysts, journalists and CEOs all tend to listen to activist investor Bill Ackman: He can throw around $1 billion at a time, and it is very real money. Right now, for example, he's got a $1 billion short position on Herbalife, betting that the multi-level-marketing company's shares eventually will be worthless.

But for today, at least, there's reason to doubt the acumen of Ackman on Herbalife, a marketer of weight-loss shakes and skin lotions that he has condemned as a pyramid scheme. The company beat analysts' expectations about its quarterly earnings again this week and raised its full-year outlook, as well as celebrated the growing influence of Carl Icahn, an old-school corporate raider who's increased his stake in the company and publicly defended it against nouveau gadfly Ackman.Continue reading...

Mondelez International's first-of-its-kind Mobile Futures Network is teaming brands with top entrepreneurial minds to bring pilots to market in as little as 90 days. 

"The Mobile Futures program has been an extraordinary experience for all of us at Mondelez International,” said Bonin Bough, vice president of global media and consumer engagement. “It has given us the opportunity to work with and learn from leading mobile innovators to enhance how we engage with our consumers.” 

The pilots, focused on mobile-at-retail, social TV and SoLoMo (social/ location/ mobile) technology to enhance consumer experiences and drive impulse purchases have launched across multiple brands under the Mondelez umbrella. The global company hopes that the service-y and social tie-ins will help build brand relevance beyond obvious user engagements for brands like Chips Ahoy! and Stride Gum.Continue reading...

Oreo has made an unlikely pairing for it's latest China campaign, and we're not talking about green tea Oreos or the host of other local variations (ice-cream flavor, anyone?) introduced by the Nabisco division of Kraft-now-Mondelez.

It's an irony of history that Oreo's new China spokesman, film director Feng Xiaogang, was last found at the helm of Back to 1942 (一九四二), last year's three-hour, brutal epic about the Henan family that killed at least three million people.

But then again, Feng Xiaogang's career is full of little ironies. He's one of China's most popular directors of the last decade and yet almost nobody has heard of him in Hollywood. For Oreo, a western brand that has localized for the China market better than almost anyone, it makes him a perfect choice. Oreo's localization strategies like cucumber flavors and square shapes have won it press accolades and, more importantly, leagues of happy customers.Continue reading...

Trouble is brewing between Kraft Foods and Starbucks. The one-time partners have turned courtroom rivals over the $6.6 billion ground coffee category and the former’s advertising claims for its Gevalia Kaffe brand, which Kraft touts as "an exclusively smooth yet rich coffee experience that has been perfected by Swedes since 1853."

In its latest Gevalia campaign, Kraft says a blind third-party taste test “found nearly 60 percent of coffee drinkers preferred Gevalia's House Blend over Starbucks House Blend, versus 34 percent favoring the latter.”

Kraft’s premium coffee brand is leveraging its commissioned survey of U.S. adults to the hilt with its new TV campaign featuring a Swede named Johan, who is seen in the coffee aisle at a grocery store telling shoppers about the taste test while standing next to displays of ready to take home packages of Gevalia and Starbucks coffee.Continue reading...

This is not your grandfather’s retail environment.

In fact, with Target joining the likes of Nike, BMW and Mondelez in launching a mobile incubator/accelerator and funding developers to come up with apps that will take shopping into the future, it might seem more like your grandkids’. Target announced a contest earlier this month called “Co. Labs & Target Retail Accelerator,” that dangles a $75,000 prize to whoever develops the best new mobile experience for the company.

Target is looking for “transformative, technology-driven” ideas that should incorporate at least one of the company’s four priorities:Continue reading...

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils $12 million ad campaign (above) for Mayors Against Illegal Guns that lobbies for background checks to reduce gun violence, while NYC's municipal data geek squad makes headlines.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz defends same-sex marriage support to shareholders as brand expands loyalty rewards to other retailers.

PepsiCo shares jump on Mondelez merger speculation sparked by Telegraph story which Pepsi "downplays."

Apple acquires indoor GPS startup WiFiSLAM for mapping, patents iPhone drop protection technology and faces EU scrutiny following iPhone and iPad distribution complaints — and may report first quarterly dip since 2003.

FTC "pay for delay" generic drug case, set to go before US Supreme Court on Monday, will be closely watched by pharmaceutical industry and economists.

Below: BlackBerry, Blockbuster, Dell, Diageo and other brands in the news —Continue reading...

SXSW epitomizes how the cutting-edge becomes the status quo and eventually (but not yet) borders on the edge of passé. This year, “the event has a different feel, nearly as much a marketing event as it is about tech,” notes Digiday. 

The week-long festival in Austin, Texas is ever more a breeding ground for flashy campaigns, giveaways and concerts, a far cry from the festival's roots as a geeky tech meet-up. Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group told CNET, "The original posse is probably aghast at what [SXSW] has turned into." While there is still plenty of tech and start up presence, the event is now, more than ever, a joint digital venture between the marketing teams of the biggest brands and emerging tech stars peddling cool products and innovations.Continue reading...