Travel search engine Kayak.com debuted an integrated campaign this month to build brand awareness. After doing research with TNS Media and finding that 68% of consumers that book travel online were not aware of Kayak, the site decided to focus more on marketing. It hired Goodby, Silverstein & Partners as its agency of record in mid-August.

Third-quarter earnings for the "big four" advertising holding companies were dismal year over year, yet experts queried by DMNews painted a rosier picture for digital advertising — because it shows ROI.

Alisa Jacoby, senior brand manager at Eight O'Clock Coffee, discusses the success of the brand's Mad Men-themed campaign, including e-cards, an avatar creator and a quiz.

When Bigelow Tea wanted to attract more visitors to its Web site and better engage them, it launched the Tea Talk blog and corresponding social network presence on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. The social media presence especially came in handy last year, when a subset of customers was outraged at the discontinuation of the Fruit and Almond Tea, and Bigelow — the person — answered.

Now that we are beginning to feel relief from the economic uncertainty that has been hanging around, I hear a lot about the invention of some new roles inside organizations looking to get into social media. Typically this means, "Hire someone who knows our 'space' really well and someone who is an expert in social media."

Companies need to be smart about their innovation strategies and look at their innovation initiatives as a key brand touch point. Plenty of organizations have tried to implement an open innovation strategy of their own, yet how many truly succeed? Whether it's Chrysler Listens or Change.org, some organizations are still struggling to become effective. Without knowing the right methods and processes when launching open innovation initiatives, crowdsourcing can lose its potential for turning innovation into actionable ideas.

With consumers' budgets already stretched thin by the recession, many nonprofit marketers are adding digital elements to their end-of-year fundraising efforts. For instance, the United Way recently launched a partnership with Games that Give, a casual gaming site that gives consumers an avenue to donate to charity.

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 Interactive Advertising Bureau is alerting constituent groups to a bill in Congress that could expand the power of the Federal Trade Commission.