Email Data Source last week debuted a Twitter monitoring tool at the Ad:tech trade show in New York. The platform will be available to clients, with plans to market it to prospects as well.

Hewlett-Packard, a marketer that has moved 40% of its ad budget to the digital space, is beta-testing i-catcher, a behavioral tool that it plans to launch in March 2010. I-catcher charts consumers' attention to each piece of content on a Web page. Some HP customers are using the product in beta, but the company would not reveal the identity of those clients.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is raising concerns about a new bill currently being considered in Congress that would potentially expand the power of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Radio online revenues are expected to grow by double digits this year, totaling $441 million. The figure would represent a 12% year-over-year increase, according to a report by SNL Kagan, a financial data intelligence firm that specializes in media and communications. The firm predicts an even more robust increase next year, forecasting online radio revenue growth of 20%, year over year, to $530 million.

The American Heart Association next week will launch a viral video called "Hand-walker," which follows a man walking through a New York neighborhood on his hands. The video is part of an ongoing effort by the nonprofit to build awareness for the hands-only CPR technique, a two-step process that does not include mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

SMS is more than a teenage communication technology; it can and should be a critical part of the marketing communications mix. The direct and brief nature of SMS (each SMS message permits a maximum of 160 characters, including spaces), allows marketing teams to deliver concise, targeted messages that customers will actually opt-in to receive.

High-end fashion brand Lacoste is running its first all-digital campaign in the US in time for the holiday shopping season. Called "Momentum," the effort includes an interactive Web site, which consumers can use to create their own music videos with kaleidoscopes of Lacoste labels, images of its winter fashion collection and upbeat original dance music. Visitors can also view videos made by other users.

Chicken fast-food franchise El Pollo Loco conducted a 24-hour-long contest on October 26 that gave one customer free chicken for a year. The promotion was developed on short notice after the company heard about rival KFC's plans to give consumers a free piece of chicken the same day, said Julie Weeks, VP of communications at El Pollo Loco.

IHoops, the official joint youth basketball initiative of the NBA and NCAA, has launched iHoops.com, the online hub for parents, players, coaches, officials and administrators of youth basketball programs nationwide.

Google debuted a tool that measures the impact of brand awareness on online display ad campaigns this month. Called Campaign Insights, the platform compares two groups of Internet users, those who have been exposed to the ad and those who have not. It then measures the difference in searches and site visits of the two groups to identify the impact of the ad.