Digital Marketing

San Francisco -- Visa is launching a new service, Visa Checkout that enables consumers throughout the United States, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device, with just a few clicks.

The concept of “programmatic shopper marketing” is transforming the ways brands engage with shoppers to drive sales, and creating a new set of skills for marketers to master.

By Anders Ekman, DataMentors

San Francisco -- Search ad spend increased 25% year-over-year and 2% quarter-over-quarter, according to Kenshoo, a leader in predictive media optimization technology.

Among the key findings in the research:

• Search click-through rate increased 26%, driving a 15% increase in clicks year-over-year;

• Social ad spend increased 51% year-over-year and 21% quarter-over-quarter; and

• Social impressions increased 13% year-over-year.

Scholastic is unveiling a new multi-platform series, TombQuest, which includes five books by Michael Northrop and an online game.

TombQuest is aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds and is an addition to Scholastic’s three previous multi-platform series, which have published some 22 million copies since the first launched in 2008, and the accompanying websites have 3 million registered users.

Dallas -- J.C. Penney Company announced the launch of a new back-to-school marketing campaign that celebrates self-expression, showing how the perfect fit inspires kids to stand out and feel one-of-a-kind. The campaign kicks off today with two television spots, "Stand Out" and "My Fit," as well as a Hispanic marketing spot.

New York – Barnes & Noble Inc. is running month-long omnichannel “Get Pop-Cultured” pop culture promotion during July. The effort promotes books, characters, movies, artists, illustrators and pop culture icons with themed events, author signings, panel discussions, contests, exclusive content, giveaways and prizes, sneak peeks and activities.

Sears is looking to position itself as the go-to retailer for teens, and to that end has launched an exclusive fashion collection by Seventeen Magazine.

The full collection is available at 450 Sears stores nationwide as well as on Sears.com. Shop Your Way members and customers can shop the collection, enter sweepstakes and explore exclusive content from Seventeen Magazine at shopyourway.com.