Two Procter & Gamble Co. marketers are joining Rockfish Interactive to form a Cincinnati branch of the fast-growing Northwest Arkansas-based digital agency, giving a shop that counts behemoths Walmart Stores and P&G among its clients an additional foothold as it seeks to double headcount for the second year in a row.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In a sign of Google's renewed belief in AOL's future, the search giant has outbid Microsoft to retain AOL's search traffic for another five years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney reports it is structured as a revenue share and does not include any upfront payments or guarantees. Ad Age talked with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong about the deal.

Time Warner's U.K. children's TV channel Boomerang wanted to bring the pet-loving brand to life with a party in a London park for its adoring viewers and found the answer in a doggy ice cream van.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Steep discounts lured shoppers in August, contributing to a surprisingly strong performance from the nation's retailers.

BUENOS AIRES (AdAge.com) -- Nike Argentina is playing with the concept of air itself to promote the launch of the latest Nike Air Max with an online game that lets consumers make the shoe float and fly through the air.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and its Canadian equivalent Health Canada have found no link between Pampers Dry Max diapers and diaper rash or other skin conditions, the agencies announced today, despite a social-media uproar on Facebook and elsewhere this spring linking the products to rashes and "chemical burns."

We monitor discussions on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Digg, and present the good news and the bad news for big brands with current social-media buzz.

The ability to lead change and to get results is precisely what distinguishes the great CMO from the good CMO. There are eight critical leadership competencies that top leaders, including top marketing leaders, must have -- and outstanding CMOs outperform good CMOs in all eight competencies.

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Kimberly-Clark's Huggies is taking on Procter & Gamble's Pampers in the U.K. with a branded-content initiative that uses well-known comedians to focus on the funny side of parenting. The U.K. diaper market is dominated by Pampers and private-label products, prompting Huggies to look for a different way of communicating with consumers.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google renewed its search deal with AOL for another five years, locking down a large source of search queries that convert well, and blocking Microsoft's Bing from getting a foothold at another big portal.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Five years after the founding of YouTube, a few video ad campaigns have crossed a big psychic milestone: 100 million views and counting.

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Even Apple, which lives in a bubble of its own device-centered success, can't resist the lure of social networking. CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday formally thrust the company into the social-media fray with an iTunes-based network, Ping.

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- After a six-month try-out in Australia and New Zealand, Google is planning to announce today that it is bringing sponsored map icons to the U.S., allowing companies to pay for their logos to show up directly on Google Maps, indicating the location of their business.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Federal Trade Commission is once again handing out subpoenas to companies that market food to children and teens. Three years after initially delivering what is technically known as "orders to file special report" to 44 marketers, the FTC last week began sending subpoenas to 48 companies in order to prepare a follow-up to its 120-page report issued in 2008.

How many people watched the Emmys? About 13.5 million -- as USA Today's Gary Levin reports, that was good enough to top the week's ratings, achieving "a virtual tie with last year's show but ahead of the 2008 version, which matched the ceremony's worst performance." Levin also notes, "This year's event may have lost potential viewers by running three weeks earlier than usual, in August (when fewer people watch TV), because of NBC's NFL commitment."

As a Westerner who recently relocated to Shanghai, SapientNitro's digital media expert, Freddie Laker, is re-evaluating what he understood about China, and about digital marketing. Here are eight things he's figured out so far.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After a 24-year relationship with Omnicom Group's TracyLocke, the owner of Tabasco, McIlhenny Co., is inviting agencies to pitch creative ideas for its popular hot-sauce brand.

A new study shows that brands that invest in guest experience retain more of their customer base and can thereby reduce marketing expenses and increase profitability. The implications for marketers -- not just those in the restaurant industry but for those in any guest experience-driven industry -- are significant.

Scottrade has promoted Kim Wells to chief marketing officer. Ms. Wells most recently served as Scottrade's director-branding and website marketing.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Awl is expanding. The three-man enterprise will now include a fourth in its effort to launch a new website Wednesday called Splitsider, which will focus on comedy and entertainment news.