Digital Marketing

Boston - Cone Communications has launched its new social impact tool to help companies assess, communicate and prove their progress against addressing critical social issues. The Cone Social Return Assessment is a proprietary, diagnostic tool that uncovers gaps and opportunities within three elements critical to a company's successful program: awareness, engagement and impact, and provides a plan to optimize its business and social return.   

San Francisco – Williams-Sonoma had a strong first quarter of fiscal 2014, with net income climbing 17% to a better-than-expected $46.16 million from $39.17 million.

Net sales grew 10% to $974.33 million from $887.8 million, also topping estimates.

Total same-store sales grew 10%. Williams-Sonoma credited much of its success during the quarter to market share gains and advantages conferred by its multichannel operations.

Kirkland's experienced solid sales momentum in its stores and online during the first quarter of fiscal 2014 despite getting a slow start as a result of adverse weather. Even with a more promotional environment late in the quarter, sales remained strong and resulted in earnings performance at the high end of the company’s guidance.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears, Roebuck and Co. is launching a new promotional Web series starting reality TV stars Sean and Catherine Lowe and Sears celebrity designer Ty Pennington. Customers and Shop Your Way loyalty members will be asked to design the patio of the couple's new home via this Web series from Sears outdoor living.

Jacksonville, Fla. - A lack of robust reporting tools that can give a 360-degree view to all aspects of a customer purchase and profile can seriously hinder e-commerce growth and optimization. A new study of 4,346 e-commerce marketers conducted by MarketingSherpa and sponsored by EBay Enterprise company Magneto shows that companies with a testing and optimization strategy based on extensive historical data saw higher median conversion rates than those that test based on intuition, best practices or don't test at all.

San Francisco - Swift Communications, a multi-platform publisher based in Carson City, Nevada, is making a strategic investment in Engage3, a retail intelligence and digital marketing solution provider. The two companies are also working together to identify retailer and supplier partners in the markets Swift serves to drive additional consumer value.

The amount of the investment, which closed earlier this month and will be used to expand the features of Engage3’s solutions, was not released.

New York – Macy’s Inc. is testing the effectiveness of mobile video ads on Facebook. On May 16, the retailer began running video ads using Facebook’s auto-play feature on the mobile newsfeed in its iPhone app.

The ads appear at the top of the newsfeed and start playing when the user scrolls down. If clicked, they become full-screen size and audio turns on. Users are allowed to like, share and/or comment on the ads.

Miami – Burger King Corp. is preparing a new marketing slogan, “Be Your Way.” The new slogan, which appeared in an online video in April 2014, will be featured in a TV ad for the first time on May 26.