Calvin Klein and perfume company COTY are using an increased amount of social media and Internet marketing to promote CKFree, a cologne aimed at men ages 18 to 34 who identify themselves as independent, modern thinkers.

While the social media channel provides a glut of data for those listening and participating, marketers have struggled to find relevant ways to tie time and money invested in the channel to ROI and sales objectives. DMNews asked marketing experts for advice on making social media more accountable.

Juice maker Welch's, which spent $4 million online last year, launched its "Real. Grape. Goodness" integrated effort, November 12. It includes TV, online and print components.

Federal regulators and pharmaceutical company marketers sought to clear up regulations for online and social media marketing strategies at the Food and Drug Administration's November 12 hearings on the topic.

Pharmaceutical company Novartis launched a $200 million integrated ad campaign, which includes a number of digital elements, on November 12 for over-the-counter heartburn drug Prevacid 24HR. The effort's digital elements include online ads that drive consumers to the prevacid24hr.com Web site on targeted portals like WebMD, as well as Yahoo and other lifestyle destinations.

As Google looks for ways to monetize YouTube, the video-sharing Web site is testing an in-stream ad unit that lets viewers skip through an ad with the goal of making online video advertising more relevant. The concept of the ad unit is that while users are given the tools to skip the ads they don't want to see, when they do in fact watch them, they will do so with more engagement.

Interactive marketing will grow at a 16% compound annual growth rate over the next five years, but the retail and financial services sectors will continue to have the largest share of overall interactive marketing spend at a combined 32%, according to a Forrester Research report released this week.

For many retailers, 2009 has been the year of social media. Forrester Research reported that 64% of retailers surveyed invested in social media this year. Investment so far has been primarily around interactive marketing and a fairly straightforward presence in blogs, or other third party social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. But for retailers interested in expanding their distribution channel, social media and social networks are quickly becoming an area that they cannot ignore.

Google has agreed to acquire AdMob, a mobile display ad network, in an all-stock deal valued at $750 million. Susan Wojcicki, VP for product management, and Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering, said on Google's company blog on November 9 that "this acquisition will enhance Google's existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice."

Visa is conducting an integrated campaign for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver to urge consumers to use the company's credit and debit cards while traveling there. The effort builds on Visa's effort for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which used the tagline, "Go World."