Marketing Day: Pinterest Acquires Kosei, Facebook Adds Super Bowl Targeting & Taco Bell CMO On Mobile Marketing

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on MarTech and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Pinterest Acquires Product Recommendation Startup To Improve Ad Targeting
  Palo Alto-based Kosei’s technology maps 400 million relationships between products, which will help Pinterest better understand what its users want to see next.
• Facebook Adds Super Bowl Ad Targeting Segment
  The dynamically updating “Big Game” segment will reach beyond football fans to those talking about Super Bowl party planning, commercials, recipes, etc.
• NBC Will Push Super Bowl 2015 Commercials Straight To Tumblr
  NBC launches an ad hub for the big game on Tumblr; will post television spots immediately after they air on the broadcast.
• James Patterson Sells One New ‘Exploding Book’ For $294,034 & Offers 1,000 Others A Self-Destructing Interactive Reading Experience
  The action-oriented author tries to inject a little excitement into book marketing.
• (Dis)Content Marketing: How To Survive The Shakeout
  Contributor Steve Dille explores the explosive growth of content marketing, drawing on lessons from email to help content weather a potentially rocky future.
• A CMO’s View: Taco Bell’s Chris Brandt Makes Mobile A Priority & It Has Paid Off With Nearly 2M App Downloads
  Taco Bell CMO says his brand’s mobile app shot to the top of iTunes Food & Drink category the day it launched.
• Microsoft Brings Cortana To Desktop; Announces HoloLens To Bring Holograms Everywhere
  Microsoft is adding its virtual assistant Cortana to desktops and says HoloLens will bring holograms into everyday lives.
• When To Deploy A Tag Management Solution: 8 Scenarios
  You’ve heard about tag management and you’re interested in deploying it, but when? Contributor Erik Bratt suggests things to consider, timing-wise.
• Social Media Is The Least Popular Channel For Customer Service [Survey]
  While customer service complaints on social media may be the most public, they aren’t the most popular (by a wide margin) according to a new study.
• To Help Dial In Global Efforts Twitter Picks Up ZipDial
  Not wanting to miss the call on a ZipDial acquisition, Twitter has acquired the company to strengthen its global foothold.

Recent Headlines From Search Engine Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Search News & Information:

• Right To Be Forgotten: Google Tells Europe It Won’t Scrub Global Index
• Bing Ads Rolls Out Enhanced Sitelinks Globally, Adds Sitelink Device Preference
• The Secret To AdWords Success, Told By A Former Googler
• Google Ventures-Backed RetailMeNot Climbs Out Of Its Google Penalty
• Yahoo Sees Big 1.6 Percent Monthly Search Share Gain At Google’s Expense In New comScore Data

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

Affiliate Marketing

• How to Use SEMrush for Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Blog
• Interview: Kerri Pollard’s Insights for Affiliate Programs, www.affiliatemanagementdays.com
• New Affiliate Marketing Monitoring Service Launched from Media Thirst, performinsider.com
• TechRadar turns to affiliate links in editorial, digiday.com

Analytics

• 5 Clues That Something Is Wrong with Your Data, 3qdigital.com

Blogs & Blogging

• 3 Tips To Make Your Business Blog Work, angelabooth.com
• How to Start a Business Blog in 2015, blog.getresponse.com
• How to Use Quora to Generate Blog Content, www.searchenginepeople.com
• Why Every Entrepreneur Must Become a Blogger, www.problogger.net

Business Issues

• Apple Buys Semetric, Gearing Up to Take On Spotify, blogs.wsj.com
• Google, Khan Academy join in student privacy pledge, Washington Post
• This is the difference between Microsoft and Apple, qz.com

Content Marketing

• 3 Content Marketing Trends to Rule Them All in 2015, www.ryanhanley.com
• 4 Ways Your Audience Can Provide Content Ideas, www.verticalresponse.com
• Content Marketing is a Team Effort, www.toprankblog.com
• Everything You Need To Know About Sponsored Content, moz.com
• Five important channels for effective content distribution, econsultancy.com
• How Content Influences the Buying Process and Grows Business, www.webinknow.com
• How to Overcome Your Fear of Being Ignored Online, www.ryanhanley.com
• Is “My Name Is Willie (Beamen)” the Greatest Piece of Sponsored Content of All Time?, contently.com
• LinkedIn Beats Twitter for Content Marketing, Says Study, www.adweek.com
• Three Realizations Needed to Prove Content Marketing ROI, relevance.com
• What The Dover Police and Maroon V Can Teach You About Viral Content, pushingsocial.com
• Where Is Content Headed?, www.b2bmarketinginsider.com

Conversion Optimization

• Putting The Focus On Conversion Rate Optimization, www.ppchero.com
• Seven Conversion Rate Tactics That Increased Sales by $21 Million, www.marketingprofs.com

Copywriting, Design & Usability

• Designing for Different Online Personality Types, uxmag.com
• Helping Users to Absorb Change: Four Steps Designers Can Take, www.uxmatters.com

Display & Contextual Advertising

• TubeMogul To Dive Into Display, Among Other 2015 Plans, adexchanger.com
• We’re Really Screwing Up The Banner Conversation, adexchanger.com

Domaining

• The wild story about how the domain name CM.com was just registered, domainnamewire.com

Ecommerce

• Amazon ends its mobile wallet app trial after six months, www.internetretailer.com
• Holiday Ecommerce Sales Topped $100 Billion, www.emarketer.com
• The Easiest Way For Authors To Make More Sales On Amazon, www.marketingwords.com
• What Changes At ModCloth And Nasty Gal Mean For Ecommerce, techcrunch.com
• Why sales & discounts hurt your ecommerce brand, econsultancy.com

Email Marketing

• 10 Ways to Deal with the Stupid Amount of Email You Get, www.annhandley.com
• 4 Reasons Now is the Time to Re-Assess Your Email Program, blog.returnpath.com
• 5 Ways to Boost Your Email Marketing with Blog Content, www.iacquire.com
• Design, Deals, Location and More: 5 Examples of Effective Email Personalization, blog.movableink.com
• Email is officially middle-aged!, www.reachmail.net
• Hack Your Email Growth Rate with This List-Building Tool, www.convinceandconvert.com

General Internet Marketing

• What Agent Mulder and Jimmy Kimmel Can Teach Marketers, www.blindfiveyearold.com
• The Most Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses, www.marketingprofs.com
• Three digital marketing mega trends for 2015, econsultancy.com

Internet Marketing Industry

• Choozle Closes $4.1MM in Series A Funding, blog.choozle.com
• Smaato Announces SPX: The Smaato Publisher Platform, www.smaato.com

Mobile/Local Marketing

• Five new mobile marketing strategies for 2015, econsultancy.com
• Google Docs For Mobile Gets Real-Time Spell-Checking, Touch ID Support, techcrunch.com
• QualityTime App Tells You If You’re Spending Too Much Time on Social Media, AdWeek
• Sensory Marketing Is the Next Frontier in Mobile Advertising, adage.com
• The Importance of a Mobile Friendly Website, apexassisting.com
• Will Softcard deal be enough to save Google Wallet?, www.mobilecommercedaily.com

Reputation Management

• How to Brand Yourself Without Sounding Like Everyone Else, blog.linkedin.com

Social Media

• Facebook Ads Suicide: 6 Deadly Errors to Avoid, adespresso.com
• 10 Key Factors That Will Determine the Future of Google+, www.copyblogger.com
• 5 Social Media Time Saving Tips for Small Businesses, www.dexmedia.com
• 6 Powerful Facebook Marketing Secrets That May Surprise You, www.jeffbullas.com
• 8 Ways To Raise A Social Advocacy Empire From Your Employees, www.socialbro.com
• 86% of Top Global Brands Use Instagram, simplymeasured.com
• A Breakdown Of The Social Media Sales Funnel, www.b2binboundmarketer.com
• Create More Engaging Content on Twitter, www.mackcollier.com
• Facebook News Feed Ads Exist to Make Money, relevance.com
• Fact or Fiction: Can Social Media Improve Customer Relationships?, blog.hootsuite.com
• Five Ways Twitter Analytics Can Make You A Better Marketer, www.wordstream.com
• How Facebook Retargeting Can Help Grow Your Business, www.semrush.com
• How to Add Video to Your Facebook Marketing Strategy, blogs.constantcontact.com
• How to Build a Winning Twitter Ad Campaign, www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• How to Double Your Traffic from Pinterest in 30 Days, profitblitz.com
• How to Increase The Click-Through Rate On Your Tweets, blog.bufferapp.com
• Launching Digits login for web, www.Twitter.com
• Let’s Talk About Snapchat Advertising, ppc.org
• Ready to Ramp Up Your Instagram Marketing?, www.marketingtechblog.com
• The Marketers Guide To The New Twitter, blog.visual.ly
• The No. 1 Mistake That Even Some Brilliant Social Media Marketers Make, www.marketingprofs.com
• Your Facebook behavior predicts how good you are at tests, qz.com

Video

• Product Page Videos Produce Higher Conversions, Sales Value, www.reelseo.com
• The Rise of Social Video in 2015, www.socialbakers.com
• Vessel Signs More YouTube Stars to Subscription Service, Launches Limited Beta Test, variety.com
• Video is the Past, Present, and Future of Marketing, www.blogherald.com
• YouTube Music Key Restrictions, googlesystem.blogspot.com