Google is building out its mobile ad arsenal by expanding its new click-to-call ad options. The company is providing the smartphone ad option to national advertisers seeeking to give mobile users the ability to tap numbers in ads to connect with businesses. The click-to-call ads had previously been limited to firms with local numbers.

Marketers are just beginning to explore what augmented reality can do for their campaign and brands. However new research - along with some speculation - suggests that the promise this technology holds is only just beginning to unfold.  

Women and people between 35 and 54 are most apt to perform social networking activities via mobile device, according to data from The Nielsen Company. A clear gender gap exists in social networking activity on mobile devices.

Talk about getting caught with your pants down. After running back-to-back ads in the Super Bowl utilizing the same creative theme -- people walking about without any trousers -- CBS has agreed to give one of the marketers involved additional ad time to make up for the gaffe, according to a person familiar with the situation.

While video email marketing is still an emerging technology, a new survey by GetResponse suggests that marketers are intrigued by the technology's potential to increase conversion rates - and plan to adopt it in the near future.  

It's not just B2C marketers that are increasing their interactive spend. Forrester predicts B2B companies will not only increase investment in interactive channels but shift their traditional marketing budgets online.

New research indicates that the long-held promise of TV/Internet convergence is gaining traction, albeit slowly. Leichtman Research Group data shows that just over 24% of all U.S. homes have a Web-to-TV connection, while 5% of adults are watching YouTube and Hulu on their TV screens each week.  

There's a new ad unit on the horizon. Online video ad network Smartclip released the SmartStitial video ad unit this week, giving marketers the ability to surround a video ad with a branded message.

It looks like Wal-Mart may bring some of its retail magic to the online video streaming. The big-box behemoth will buy VUDU, an on-demand video service that sells and rents movies and TV shows over the Internet. The deal is expected to close within the next few weeks.  

Tufts University this year has become the first selective college in the nation to encourage applicants to submit videos about themselves. More than 1,000 high school seniors have included one-minute video essays in their bids for a spot in the Class of 2014.  

Sezmi has launched a service blending free and pay-television broadcast channels with video on demand delivered over broadband. Initially available in the Los Angeles area, assuming it proves successful, the venture capital backed start-up company plans to expand nationally across America. Sezmi combines terrestrial transmissions with online video but could struggle to compete with existing pay-television providers.  

Skinny Cow - the first Nestle brand to use Facebook as a hub for its marketing activities - is turning to its online fan base to raise money for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Foundation. The campaign is encouraging women to enter a live draw on Facebook to win clothes by tagging their names against items on the Skinny Cow Facebook site.

Wouldn't it be a tragedy if the Internet was the cause of the demise of excellent content? David Moore, 24/7 Real Media founder and IAB board of directors chairman, posed the question to attendees during his opening remarks at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2010 on Sunday night in Carlsbad, Calif.  

Interactive ads are still very much a viable format, say the companies that are pushing this technology. Indeed with the many variations of this tech being developed, it is unlikely the video advertising will standardize on one format, at least in the near term.

Hoping to keep advertisers' attention, men's-focused media publisher Break Media on Wednesday is expected to roll out several new video-centric ad units.  

Who has time to sit on the couch and watch TV anymore? In the last 10 years, broadcasters have lost 25 percent of their audience. So to win back some viewers, the industry has a plan to grab their attention while they are on the move.  

Audi is running daily video webcasts during the two-weeks-long Winter Olympics. American ski team members T.J. Lanning and Resi Stiegler - who will not participate in the games due to injury - will co-host behind-the-scenes, 15-minute "webisodes" as they intermingle with fellow skiers.

Each Olympics brings one or two novel new events. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, which start in Vancouver on Friday, there is Ski Cross, in which four skiers plunge down a mountain at the same time. Then there is an unofficial competition that we'll call the Social Media Slalom. That is the race between the Web's two pre-eminent social media companies, Facebook and Twitter, to establish themselves as the most visible and viable online option for fans that want to connect directly to athletes and get the latest updates from the competition without the filter of big media. 

Addressable TV ads served by Invidi have been found to be more engaging to viewers, causing them to change channels less often, Starcom MediaVest Group and Comcast Spotlight announced today.

Internet consumers prefer free content -- so much that they will stop using those sites that would begin to charge. A new Nielsen survey says 79% of users would no longer access a Web site that charges them. The finding also assumes that consumers can find the same information at no cost. The new report from Nielsen surveyed 27,000 consumers from 52 countries.