Last May, a Cheerios ad featuring a multi-racial family went viral. Its fans held it up as a sign of long-overdue demographic changes in advertising, and as with seemingly anything on the Internet, its detractors felt the need to make racist comments about it.

Within that context, it is easy to be jaded about Swiffer's new commercial, which features the Rukavina family. The mom is black and the dad is white and an amputee. And as a bonus, he's the one doing the household cleaning, not his wife. At first glance, it seems like a corny attempt by a casting director to create the perfect ad to start an Internet discussion.

The Rukavina family is real, however, and has had a career in the media. The commercial, like the rest of the family's television history, is primarily about the father, Zack, adjusting his life to losing his left arm to cancer:

Publicis Kaplan Thaler, the ad agency behind it, was certainly looking to get the cleaning brand attention through a "progressive" commercial, and it succeeded. This could have come across as obnoxious, but the final product is a sweet look at a family with a dad who can especially benefit from the product advertised.

Zack proposed to his wife Afi in 2012 on the Yahoo web series "Ultimate Surprises," and has appeared in television shows like "Switched At Birth." His family also appeared in a dramatized documentary about his life as an amputee.

SEE ALSO: Dove's Short Film Reveals The Painfully Honest Way Young Women View Themselves

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CarMax wanted a unique way to promote its Super Bowl ad a couple weeks before the Feb. 2 game. The solution: recreate the commercial shot-for-shot with puppies.

The version that will play during the game stars a man who bought the perfect used car. After thanking a CarMax rep, the agent starts a slow clap, in homage to the classic underdog football movie "Rudy." Soon, everyone the guy drives by continues the clap. Sean Astin, the star of "Rudy," even makes a cameo:

The puppy version replaces claps with barks, and is unsurprisingly cute:

The agency Silver + Partners produced both ads.

A 30-second cut of the "human version" will run during the game, and the puppy version will remain exclusively online. CarMax doesn't mind if the puppy version outshines the original.

"I will feel excited about any of our combined efforts around the Super Bowl that generate enthusiasm around our brand," Laura Donahue, CarMax vp of creative marketing, told Adweek.

It is CarMax's first Super Bowl appearance since 2011. 

Here's Sean Astin as he appears in the ad alongside his puppy counterpart:

SEE ALSO: The Muppets Are Coming To Toyota's Super Bowl Commercial

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Late in 2012, Google quietly introduced a new type of search ad. "Product Listing Ads" (PLAs) are those photo boxes that appear at the top of Google's results pages when you search for stuff that is shopping related, like "Ugg boots" or "iPhone charger."

Turns out the new format has been a huge success for Google, according to data from Marin Software, which buys PLA campaigns for its clients.

That's likely bad news for Amazon.

PLAs push Amazon's organic, non-paid search results farther down the page every time they appear. In search advertising, everyone knows that the top of the page is key. The bottom of the page is shopping Siberia — and that's where Amazon's pages are now frequently ranked on Google. Frequently, when you do a search that generates PLAs, the shopping ads will display ads for all Amazon's competitors on that product line. But not Amazon.

Amazon is known to be highly sensitive regarding Google's use of PLAs. The company has declined to buy any PLAs from Google to boost its search rankings. They must work, however, because several of Amazon's subsidiary units —  Zappos, Diapers.com, Wag.com Soap.com, and BeautyBar.com — have upped their PLA budgets during the course of the year, according to Jefferies Research. (Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Those increased budgets from all of Google's online retailers have swelled the search giant's coffers in 2013, Marin says.

Analyst Ben Schachter and his team at Macquarie Capital agrees. In a pre-earnings note to GOOG investors yesterday, he wrote, "We expect a strong quarter from Google, and believe that PLAs in particular will drive upside, as PLAs pricing/competition has been better than expected." Google will deliver its Q4 2013 earnings on Jan. 30.

This chart from Marin shows how spending on PLAs has quadrupled:

The data above are indexed, where 100 is the level in January 2013. Marin's dataset looks at clients spending more than $100,000 a month on search ads. Nearly a quarter of retail paid search budgets during the Thanksgiving-Christmas season went on PLAs, Marin says.

"By December, retailers were allocating 23% of their paid search budget toward PLAs, a 92% increase over January," the company said in a blog post:

The cost-per-click to advertisers went up as more advertisers spent money on them:

And the click-through rate was also higher than average:

"The image-based ad format resonates well with users – consumers can see what they’re looking for – and streamlines the shopping the experience. The large images and prominent placement help retailers lure shoppers to websites as well as stores," said Matt Ackley, CMO of Marin Software. "We expect this percentage [of spending] to grow to 33% in 2014."

SEE ALSO: Google's New Shopping Ads Appear To Be A Huge Success — But Amazon's Not Buying Them

AND...: Google Has Discovered A Massive New Revenue Driver — And It's A Huge Threat To Amazon

FINALLY ... : CHART: Google Raked In The Ad Dollars When It Went After Amazon Last Year

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Many marketing professionals profess a deep knowledge of marketing on Facebook. But the social network has its own, very  selective group of marketers who it vets and designates as Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers (SPMDs).

These marketing companies are "best in class," and understand all the nuts and bolts of how Facebook's advertising products work together, as well as having a substantial understanding of other areas of digital marketing. 

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we spoke to four SPMDs who revealed some of their strategies and insights for Facebook marketing, and what the future looks like for Facebook's preferred marketing developers. We also explore how brands and marketers can adopt a more holistic Facebook marketing approach, test it, analyze it, and measure engagement. 

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here are some of the top insights gleaned from our conversations with SPMDs: 

• Moving beyond last-click attribution: One Adobe client, a hospitality and entertainment group, realized that their apps were driving sales through other online and offline channels. They only realized this once they stopped obsessing on the last click before a sale, and tracked customers across channels. 
• Pre-Testing Paid Media: SPMDs like Brand Networks and Adaptly understand that owned and earned media isn't just valuable in and of itself. It's also valuable as a source of analytics and data that will hint at what types of content will work as paid media. One airline brand using this technique saw total reach more than double to 63% of its targeted fans. 
• Measuring Quality Of Engagement: SPMDs understand that the best metrics don't just measure quality, but quantity too. SPMDs have the best technology and interfaces for sifting through data. 
• Understanding Facebook Activity In Emerging Markets: SPMDs and PMDs more broadly can be marketers' field experts, sensitizing them to seasonal, cultural, and local economic factors that can make or break their campaigns in foreign markets where Facebook's growing the fastest. 
• Influencing Facebook Product Development: SPMDs are the channel through which agencies and advertisers can gain a window into the inner workings of Facebook. SPMDs have influence at Facebook and have pushed Facebook to make many needed changes such as streamlining its paid media ad product line.

In full, the report:

• Presents interviews and quotes from our conversations with SPMD and Facebook executives.
• Examines the four types of Facebook expertise practiced by Preferred Developing Marketing (PMD) partners and Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers.
• Explains how the SPMD and PMD programs, after only 18 months, have emerged as cornerstones to Facebook's viability and development as a sophisticated marketing platform.
• Digs into the business models sustaining the PMDs themselves and addresses the future of the marketing developer industry.

To access BI Intelligence's full report on Facebook's Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers and the PMD ecosystem, including downloadable charts and data, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

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GoDaddy released the first of its two Super Bowl ads, and the web hosting company has made good on its promise to focus on its services rather than the scantily clad women that have characterized the brand's Super Bowl advertising in years past.

In a 30-second ad, race car driver Danica Patrick wears a muscle suit while running through the streets alongside a throng of shirtless, male bodybuilders. It is then revealed that Patrick and the bodybuilders are running to a tanning salon whose owner used GoDaddy to help list her business and its location online:

After noticing the crush of prospective customers with their faces pressed up against the glass, the owner squirts a shot of tanning spray in the air and whispers GoDaddy's new catchphrase, "It's Go Time."

The ad, reported by Adweek to be made by Deutsch New York, continues GoDaddy's pivot from the salacious Super Bowl ads that brought it to prominence. In September, CEO Blake Irving indicated in a New York Times interview that female small business operators had pressured online craft emporium Etsy to sever business ties with the company due to the way it objectified women in its advertising.

The offending ads typically featured attractive women, including Patrick, in sexually loaded situations and promised viewers a chance to see the women in more revealing attire by visiting GoDaddy's website.

The company announced its new branding direction in September with an ad featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme that focused on a female owner of a flower shop and how GoDaddy could help grow her business.

After Super Bowl ads featuring strip-teases, body paint, and an intense makeout session, GoDaddy very well could shock more viewers with two tame advertisements than it would with more of the risque fare it is known for.

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In the past several months, there has been no shortage of hand-wringing over the idea that teenagers are leaving Facebook in favor of other social media networks.

Facebook admitted as such in October, and just this past week, Business Insider reported that there are now 25% fewer teens using Facebook often enough to be targeted by advertisers than there were in 2011.

But a new report from Creative Arts Agency's The Intelligence Group suggests that while young people might be using Facebook less than they used to, the social media giant might still be the best place for brands to target them.

That's because The Intelligence Group found that a dominant 55% of the 900 millennials it polled said they would most prefer brands to communicate with them on Facebook rather than rivals YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Facebook's next closest competitor in the poll was YouTube, which earned 20% of the vote.

Jamie Gutfreund, chief strategy officer at The Intelligence Group, said these responses speak to the way teenagers are using Facebook differently than the users who came before them. 

While respondents aged 14-18 were about 25% less likely to describe Facebook as "cool" or "very cool" than the 25-34 demographic, Gutfreund said the social network is still providing valuable services to its users.

"It’s become more of a utility, but it’s certainly not dead," Gutfreund said. "It’s basically the Yellow Pages now. It’s not the go-to place for excitement, but it’s a good source of information."

Gutfreund says Facebook's fading cool factor with teens comes from the fact that the 14-18-year old demographic is the first group of people who've had their lives documented online from birth. Having had their parents post baby photos on their own Facebook pages, these teens are keenly aware of their so-called digital footprint and the unwanted attention that can come from sharing without caution.

As a result, these tweens crave anonymity, which provides them the opportunity to speak and share freely, without worrying that their posts will be seen by people (like parents and college admissions counselors) they'd prefer to keep in the dark.

According to The Intelligence Group's research, portions of which were provided to Business Insider, 55% of respondents aged 14 to 35 preferred to be anonymous rather than vocal online, and 74% said they are interested in ephemeral messaging services like Snapchat.

Perhaps more telling is that when The Intelligence Group polled Millennials in December 2012, 24% said they share a lot of themselves online, while that number shrank to 18% in its most recent report.

"If you think about [tweens], they grew up having an enormous amount of their lives public even before they had a chance to control it," Gutfreund said. "What we’re seeing in our data is that they really value the opportunity to be much more genuine online by being anonymous."

Gutfreund said that brands can still find success on Facebook, but they need to be cognizant that the users they target are aware of the data being collected about them and no longer impressed by brands merely existing on a platform that is no longer the hot, new thing in social media.

"Younger audiences know Facebook and brands have enormous metadata on them. They want everyone looking at the data to practice digital empathy and to use it wisely," Gutfreund said. "I think brands have to really focus on providing value, relevancy, great information, and something you can’t get elsewhere."

SEE ALSO: Teens Are Officially Leaving Facebook

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In 2010, Old Spice and its ad agency Wieden+Kennedy released "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" with actor Isaiah Mustafa, and the brand was never the same. Mustafa is making a comeback, this time in an online campaign that hides Old Spice ads behind nine hilarious websites for fake products.

Guys may start to notice banner ads online for products like "Soul Patch Powder" and a solid gold Bluetooth headset. If they are intrigued enough to check them out, they'll eventually get an "Internetervention," a message from Mustafa mocking them at length for their interest. Then he'll plug the new "Refresh" body spray.

W+K produced the sites with Stinkdigital and the films with Skunk. There is over 20 minutes of video spread out over the nine sites.

According to a statement from Stinkdigital on its website, "this was one of the funnest and most counter-intuitive projects we've done in a while."

After going through one of the sites' videos, you can try pranking your friends by sharing a link.

The satire in each of the sites is spot-on. There are the obvious selling points, like bulging muscles and boobs, and then there are the minor details, like Flash-animated American flags and a salesman claiming the powers that be want to shut him down.

Our favorite is the site for Executive Spray Tan Parties, partytanz.com, complete with a bonus autoplay video:

Looking to squeeze your fat into a muscular physique? Then check out theflatteringman.com:

Or maybe you're already jacked and want to just live in the gym, literally. Then head over to brodominiums.com:

For those who want only the finest, most luxurious headset, there is glitzelectronics.com:

There is smellpulse.com for those who want to both smell great and spray protein directly into their bloodstream:

The American government doesn't want men to realize their true neck potential. That's the idea behind zaneckworkouts.com:

If the ladies haven't been flocking to your bed, it might be because you need some leather sheets from toughsheets.com:

For those in need of a quick tribal band tattoo, freshbodycoupons.com has a special offer:

And last but not least, there is flavorpatch.com for the soul patch aficionado looking to spice up his facial hair:

SEE ALSO: The New Old Spice Ad Is Terrifying For Teenage Boys And Hilarious For The Rest Of Us

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Since Google's computerized glasses, Google Glass, became available to members of the public last year, much of the press coverage related to the product's exclusive user base has been negative.

There was the story of the man who loudly complained when a Seattle restaurant manager asked him not to wear Glass on the premises and the infamous "White Men Wearing Google Glass" Tumblr, which made the latest gadget look like nothing more than a $1,500 vanity piece. Even tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis predicted that people would get beaten up for wearing Glass around people who don't want to be recorded.

Now, Google has released an ad from the agency Anomaly that attempts to prove that Glass has important, practical uses that go well beyond a Glasshole's desire to show off his or her wealth or film someone without permission.

In it, a voiceover tells the true story of North Carolina fireman Patrick Jackson, who is developing Glass software to allow his co-workers to do their jobs more safely. We see firefighters using Glass' maps features to locate a structure fire and pulling up floor plans of the burning building before they enter it. 

The video is certainly a contrast from the more recreational benefits Glass has been touted for, and could help to at least mitigate concerns that the device is an unnecessary toy with the potential to invade people's privacy.

Google Glass uploaded the video to its YouTube page Monday, and it has since gotten more than 200,000 views.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's largest carrier All Nippon Airways said on Tuesday it was pulling a TV advertisement featuring a Japanese actor in a large false nose and blonde wig after it was criticized online for having racist overtones.

The ad, which is in English with Japanese subtitles, promotes ANA's expanded international flight schedule from Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Japan, host of the 2020 Summer Olympics, is trying to attract more tourists amid a sharp rise in visitors over the last year, particularly from Asia.

In the ad, which began airing on Jan 18, two men in ANA pilot uniforms chat about how they will now be heading off to new destinations such as Hanoi and Vancouver.

"Let's change the image of Japanese!" one says, and turns to his companion, who now wears a large fake nose and a brassy blond wig, in line with Japanese stereotypes about Europeans. "Of course," he replies.

In another version of the ad, one man surprises his companion by offering to hug him. Public displays of affection, especially between men, are uncommon in Japan.

The ad unleashed a torrent of mostly negative comments on ANA's Facebook page, with some people saying they had cancelled their loyalty cards. Other online commentators, however, said they liked the commercial while some said it was simply strange, rather than racist.

ANA apologized for the ad on its Facebook page, and Japanese media said the company had also apologized to customers who called in to complain.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman said the ad would be taken off air. The airline had yet to decide what it would do with versions on other media, she added.

"We heard a lot of opinions from customers about points in our ad that didn't match with our intention," the spokeswoman said. "Our intention was to show Japanese becoming more active and essential to the world."

She said the wig and the fake nose were intended to show Japanese becoming more accepted overseas, adding the airline did not intend to discriminate against anybody.

"There were people who took it that way, so we are paying attention to this and cancelling the ad," she said.

The ad aired only in Japan, but also spread on Internet video sharing sites.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Good morning, AdLand. Here's what you need to know today:

Arnold Schwarzenegger went undercover at Gold's Gym as Howard Kleiner, a passionate regional manager who couldn't help himself from offering ridiculous tips to customers, like doing 10 reps of "water drinking." Schwarzenegger did the stunt as a way to promote the charity After-School All-Stars. The video is filled with great moments, like when "Howard" yells at a guy struggling on a cardio machine to stop being a baby. "It's Gold's Gym. It's not a baby gym.":

Frederic Bonn is the new executive creative director for JWT New York. He served in the same role at Razorfish, where he worked with clients like Mercedes-Benz, Uniqlo, and Citibank.

Giles Hedger has been promoted to chief strategy officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide. He has previously served as group managing director/chief strategy officer at Leo Burnett London. 

Gum giant Wrigley has eliminated its North American chief marketing position. Marketing will now be overseen by Casey Keller, Wrigley North America president. 

McDonald's named Deborah Wall senior vp-chief marketing officer for the United States. She is the first woman to hold the position at the company.

USA Today has partnered with Adobe for this year's Super Bowl Ad Meter.

Santa Monica's Adconion Director named Nathan Jokinen, former digital strategist at Target, vp of strategic development.

Shutterstock released an infographic on global design trends for 2014, determining trends based on tens of millions of image and video downloads. According to its predictions, flat will once again be king, along with filtered images.

Previously on Business Insider Advertising:

• How The Greatest Super Bowl Ad Ever — Apple's '1984' — Almost Didn't Make It To Air

• Old Spice's Fake Websites Rank Among The Brand's Funniest Advertising

• Danica Patrick Sports A Muscle Suit In GoDaddy's Super Bowl Ad

• CarMax's 'Rudy'-Inspired Super Bowl Ad Comes In Both Human And Puppy Versions

• New Google Ad Says Glass Isn't Just For Elitist Jerks

• Why Advertisers Shouldn't Panic About Teens Leaving Facebook

• Swiffer's New Ad Features A Multi-Racial Couple And An Amputee Dad Who Cleans The House

• Here's A Preview Of The Ads You'll See On Super Bowl Sunday

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Too many brands and businesses still try a scattershot approach at social media. They try to be everywhere, spread their efforts too thin, and end up diminishing their impact and annoying users.

Particularly for smaller or niche brands — or really, anyone on a constrained budget — it makes more sense to double-down on a single platform, learn its culture and idiosyncrasies, and become an expert at cultivating its audience base. Social media sites are only getting more diverse, and not every brand belongs on every network.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we dig into the best strategies on each of the social networks,  and the reasons why platform-centric approaches are so much more effective.

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

When choosing where to focus brand efforts, here are a few of the key ways to approach each of the major social networks:

1. On Instagram, ask users to share their photos about your brand, as Nike does in their Instagram feed, telling users, "You tell the story ..."And don't forget hashtags, but don't use more than one.
2. Don't fear YouTube on a budget. Yes, it will look bad if a brand video is done poorly. But if there are already TV assets available, these can be ported over to YouTube. Services like Vine are also making users more receptive to short videos that require less investment. 
3. Use Twitter to find influencers and get them to promote the brand. Integrating a Klout score can help more easily identify who these influencers are.
4. Make your voice and persona on Facebook authentic and distinct. This means defining who the brand is speaking to and what the brand's voice should be. Facebook can be an intimate channel with broad reach as long as the voice doesn't sound scattershot or disembodied.
5. Use Pinterest for curating beautiful images that relate to the lifestyle of the brand, along with strong images of the products themselves. Create boards that are not just about the products but about thematic ideas that fit in with products.
6. Make LinkedIn a content destination. If an executive at your company can become an "Influencer" on LinkedIn, that represents a huge opportunity and should be pounced on. If not, you can still focus on making sure top executives are building connections. Creating a LinkedIn Group is important. A new Group can be hard to get off the ground, but is the best way to build a critical mass for the brand's thought leadership.  

These are just some of the recommendations. Once a brand or business commits to a particular social media channel, possibilities begin to open up. The report includes in-depth explanations for how to approach each of the social networks and the benefits of a platform-specific approach.

BI Intelligence subscribers also receive full access to weekly in-depth reports, daily charts and a daily newsletter on topics in social, mobile, digital payments, and video, as well as hundreds of datasets and charts you can put to use. 

For full access to the report on Platform-Specific Social Media Content Strategy sign up for a free trial subscription today.

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M&M's is putting its Yellow character, mascot for the brand's peanut M&M's, front and center at this year's Super Bowl. 

In a teaser video for an ad at this year's game, the Yellow M&M is seen twerking on-camera when he is hit with a tranquilizer dart.

The Yellow M&M then crumples to the ground and is dragged off-screen by an unseen, off-camera character. Viewers are told they can find out what happens to Yellow next on Feb. 2, the date of this year's Super Bowl. 

In making the teaser, M&M's could be attempting to tap into the pop culture phenomenon of "twerking," a dance marked by frequent butt-shaking that reached the mainstream when singer Miley Cyrus did it in a salacious performance at MTV's Video Music Awards in August.

M&M's will carry this narrative into its 30-second Super Bowl ad, which will be created by its ad agency, BBDO New York. 

Keep up with all of the latest Super Bowl advertising news Click here to see our continually updated preview of this year's ads

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BI Intelligence is a subscription-based tech research service from Business Insider, covering mobile, social, payments, and other leading topics in tech. We provide in-depth analysis and daily news briefs accompanied by downloadable charts and data to our thousands of paid users.

Now is the perfect time to try BI Intelligence if you haven't already. We've got big plans for making the service even more valuable to subscribers, including bolstering our coverage areas and expanding our team. Here's a look at some of the changes under way:

• We've broadened the scope of our coverage from mobile and social media to digital payments and video. 
• We're delivering daily analysis on our four topic areas, as well as regularly publishing comprehensive reports on some of the most complex developments in the tech industry.
• Our newsletters will offer more must-read news exclusives of interest to industry insiders. 
• To keep pace with our editorial plans, we have also grown our staff of analysts and editors. And we have plans in the works to keep expanding our team. 
• Along with our new coverage areas, we've also redesigned our site to make it easier to use. 

To get a sense of what we do, see the chart below showing global smartphone market share. We produce charts and reports every day that dig into what the latest market developments are, why they matter, and what's going to happen next. 

Here's a sample of some of the recent topics we've covered:

• Beacons— what they are, how they work, and the industries where they're about to have a huge impact
• Social Media Demographics— who does what on social networks
• The Credit Card Payments chain— parsing out each player involved in every credit card transaction, and identifying who in that chain is the most vulnerable to disruption
• Mobile Video— how mobile has begun driving viewership among the top digital video platforms
• Social Media Engagement— examining social media from a time-spend and interaction perspective to see which networks are really driving engagement
• The Internet Of Things — the race to connect every household and business device to the Internet is under way, and it's going to have a huge economic impact on nearly every industry
• Mobile Commerce Among Top Retailers — how Amazon, eBay, and Walmart are drawing in more mobile shoppers every day, and getting them to buy

In the next few months, BI Intelligence will analyze:

• Bitcoin
• Wearables
• Social Big Data
• Real-Time Bidding
• Drones
• Smart TVs
• Digital Wallets
• Native Advertising
• Low-End Smartphones
• Frictionless Payments 

If you'd like to try out BI Intelligence, you can sign up today for a free two week trial. 

Subscribers receive weekly in-depth reports, daily charts, and a daily morning newsletter with the latest in the global mobile, social media, digital payments, and video industries. If multiple people in your organization are interested in a subscription, email us at intelligence@businessinsider.com for enterprise pricing.

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Volkswagen's luxury brand Audi had a big hit with last year's Super Bowl commercial, a stylish but relatively realistic story of a shy teenager stealing a kiss from the Prom King's hot date at the dance. The resulting black eye was worth it, as he triumphantly drove home in his borrowed S6.

Judging from the new teasers, this year's ad will be coming from a completely opposite angle. Here we present the star of the upcoming commercial, the demonic Doberman-Chihuahua hybrid, the "Doberhuahua":

Here's the first teaser, which promises that "something scary is coming" on Feb. 2, the day of Super Bowl XLVIII:

And in the latest teaser, Sarah McLachlan implores viewers to respect the Doberhuahua. Even people who are not fans of McLachlan's music likely know her from the heartrending anti-animal cruelty commercials, which this video is parodying:

The San Francisco agency Venables Bell & Partners has returned to produce its seventh straight Super Bowl ad for Audi. The 60-second commercial will air during the first in-game break of the third quarter, which is traditionally one of the most-watched spots of the entire game.

Audi will be showcasing its entry-level sedan, the A3.

Audi is the second-largest luxury vehicle company, after a tremendously successful rebranding over the past few years that largely targets young adults buying their first nice car.

SEE ALSO: Volkswagen Super Bowl Teaser Stars Carmen Electra, Puppies, And A Midget Firing A Tennis Ball At An Old Man's Crotch

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Thousands of brands use Instagram as a way to connect with customers. 

A recent study by University of Wisconsin and photo integration company Olapic reveals what kind of images actually drive sales. 

University of Wisconsin researchers used Olapic's data for the study. Olapic implements shoppers' Instagram photos onto brand sites like Lululemon and West Elm. 

Here are five Instagram tricks the study found to be effective in driving sales: 

1. Using yellow and blue in images. The study notes that other scientists have found that these colors are also effective in ads. 

2. Writing longer captions. When captions are short, "the sentimental content is likely to be minimal," the researchers write. Communicating more with shoppers increases the likelihood that they'll feel connected. 

3. Avoiding question marks or exclamation points in captions. Dramatic punctuation was found to have a negative effect on shoppers. 

4. Not using filters. "A surprising thing about this study is that while Instagram is all about users making their photos more beautiful with filters, they expect brand images to be more authentic," Olapic co-founder Pau Sabria told us in a telephone interview. "There is a different standard for brands." 

5. Posting infrequently. Shoppers don't want to be inundated with brand images. Brands who were selective about posting but had high follower counts did better than those who posted several times a day, according to the study. 

SEE ALSO: Joe's Crab Shack Made One Change That Turned Around Business

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We know that mobile is becoming the place for media consumption. It is where people are doing their social networking, video viewing, reading, and of course, location-based searching. But how can companies truly capitalize on this consumer revolution and adapt to their mobile-centric customers?

A recent report from BI Intelligence, discusses how tech companies, social networks, and app developers are shifting business models to accommodate their growing mobile-centric user bases.

Access the full report and data by signing up for a free trial to BI Intelligence today>

Here are some highlights from the report on mobile media consumption:

• Mobile usage is at an all-time high. U.S. consumers now dedicate more than one-fifth of their media consumption time to mobile. That's a share five times greater than in 2009.
• In fact, we've passed a usage tipping point. Consumers are spending as much time on mobile as they are in the traditional online category (which includes all activity on desktops and laptops).
• Mobile was the only media type to grow in total U.S. consumer minutes spent per day from 2010 to 2012.
• Mobile video is already big, but it's poised to become even bigger. Why? One key trend is that not only are consumers watching more videos on mobile devices overall, they're also sticking to their mobile devices for longer periods of time while watching. This gives marketers more time and opportunity to place ads within streaming video content.
• The 219 million mobile-only users now make up close to 20% of Facebook's total user base and Pinterest’s U.S. mobile-only user base grew 28% reaching 18.3 million in June 2013. Facebook in particular has made significant progress monetizing this growing  audience: mobile advertisements now represents more than a 41% of its ad revenue.
• Search is also becoming increasingly mobile. Tablets and smartphones now account for 26% of all local search traffic.
• Yelp has been one huge beneficiary of increased local-mobile searches.  Google's dominant search engine is still taking the lion's share of local-search ad dollars, but Google's threatened by stand-alone apps like Yelp that attract specialized searches. Every search on Yelp for a local Chinese restaurant is a lost revenue opportunity for Google, and we expect local-mobile to be one area of tumult and increased competition in the next couple of years.

The full report provides in-depth analysis and detailed data on these trends, including a dozen charts with underlying data sets that subscribers can download and use in spreadsheet format. 

For full access to this report along with dozens of in-depth mobile industry reports and a library of hundreds of charts, sign up for a two-week free trial of BI Intelligence.

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IHOP recently posted an impressive, 4% sales gain. 

The company credits its recent success with a new-and-improved menu, reports Venessa Wong at Bloomberg Businessweek. 

"It’s like a Jedi mind trick that gets customers to order a side of bacon,"Wong writes. 

Here are a few of the major changes IHOP made:

1. New "Add a side" boxes next to entrees. The placement makes it more likely that customers will be enticed to order more food. 

2. Photos of the entrees next to the items. This keeps the diner's attention more than blocks of text. 

3. Trimming the menu. IHOP now offers 140 items, down from 180. Joe's Crab Shack has also benefitted from cutting menu items. 

Here's what a page from IHOP's menu looked like before the redesign. Note the crowded text and confusing layout: 

And here's the same page on the new menu. It features better organization and enticing photos of the combo meals: 

SEE ALSO: Joe's Crab Shack Made One Change That Turned Around Business

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H&M released a teaser video for its Super Bowl ad starring David Beckham, and fans of the English soccer star's chiseled physique will be happy to know the clothing retailer is planning to give them a heaping helping.

The premise of H&M's ad is that Beckham is locked out of a photo shoot on a rooftop while wearing only his underwear. The ad will definitely feature Beckham zip-lining across rooftops and scaling tall buildings to get to the shoot, but fans can vote on social media on whether they want the commercial to end with Beckham losing his boxers along the way:

Though it remains unlikely that viewers will get to see Beckham's manhood live on national television, a press release issued today by H&M promises that "this new entry is a high-octane ride with tantalizing views of Beckham in never-before-seen positions."

The choose-your-own-adventure teaser asks Beckham fans to visit HM.com to vote #COVERED or #UNCOVERED.

The 30-second spot will run during the second quarter and promote nine new items from the David Beckham Bodywear line that Beckham has designed in collaboration with H&M since 2012. It will be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive"), and feature the song "Nobody but Me" by The Human Beinz.

Also of note, the ad will feature technology from e-commerce firm Delivery Agent that allows viewers with Samsung smart TVs to see information about the clothes Beckham is wearing, and to purchase these items directly through their TVs. H&M says its campaign is the first to allow this sort of shopping.

The Super Bowl will take place Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

SEE ALSO: Here's A Preview Of The Ads You'll See On Super Bowl Sunday

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As the eternal debate rages on over whether the Super Bowl is about the game or the advertisements, Stephen Colbert has submitted a third option. He thinks the game is about him.

Check out what he and his eagle (from the "Colbert Report" opening montage) had to say about the game in this teaser video Wonderful Pistachios just released for the two Super Bowl ads Colbert will star in:

Wonderful Pistachios returns to the Super Bowl after featuring "Gangnam Style" singer Psy in its ad last year.

The game will air Feb. 2 from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Super Bowl ad prices for this year's game average $4 million for a 30-second ad.

SEE ALSO: Here's A Preview Of The Ads You'll See On Super Bowl Sunday

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As anyone with a pulse is certainly aware, we are inching ever closer to one of the most sacred days on the American calendar: Super Bowl Sunday.

See what advertisers have planned for the Super Bowl >

And just as the NFL Playoffs are whittling down a field of hungry competitors to two lucky participants, advertising agencies across the globe are cutting excess footage and tweaking taglines in preparation for the industry's most prominent showcase.

Though many brands and their agencies will no doubt be frantically piecing together their strategies all the way up to gameday, some have started to give us a taste of what we can expect to see in between the action of Super Bowl XLVIII. They include mainstays like Budweiser and unknown newcomers like Squarespace.

We've summarized everything we've learned here, and we'll continue to add updates as they become available — right on up until kickoff.

Bud Light

This year's Super Bowl is an especially big one for Bud Light, the official beer of the NFL. Amid slipping sales, Bud Light will introduce a new tagline — "The Perfect Beer For Whatever Happens"— in three ads totaling 2 minutes of airtime.

In the coveted A1 spot, the first ad of the first quarter, Bud Light will promote its new reclosable bottle with a 30-second ad, called "So Cool," from the St. Louis agency Cannonball. The ad will feature the world debut of a song from a well-known artist. Bud Light has also said the ad will offer consumers some sort of "digital reward".

Bud Light's other attraction will come later in the form of a 60-second ad and a 30-second ad that together will tell a cohesive story called "Epic Night". The first Super Bowl work from BBDO since it was named Bud Light's agency of record earlier this year, "Epic Night" will seek to win over millennials with surprise celebrity appearances from the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don Cheadle, and Reggie Watts.

Bud Light has hinted in teaser videos that "Epic Night" will also include reality element involving 412 actors, 58 hidden cameras, and one unsuspecting Average Joe, who will have to decide whether he's "up for whatever happens next" in the wild ride Bud Light has planned.

The campaign will include digital integration from the agency AKQA, and represents Paul Chibe's last Super Bowl as the head of U.S. marketing for Bud Light's parent company, A-B InBev.

Here's one of Bud Light's teaser videos for "Epic Night," starring Don Cheadle and a llama:

Wonderful Pistachios

Last year's Wonderful Super Bowl commercial featured Korean pop star Psy getting all "Gangnam Style" with dancing pistachios. This year, Stephen Colbert will star in two ads for the company.

The commercial will kick off a year-long campaign with the Emmy-winning host of "The Colbert Report."

"Since I was a child, I've dreamed of working with America's premiere nut company. The fact that it turns out to be the good folks at Wonderful Pistachios is just the pistachio on top of the ice cream sundae," Colbert said.

Here's the teaser video for this year's ads:

H&M

H&M's commercial will star retired soccer icon David Beckham and allow viewers to purchase products from his Bodywear clothing line directly from their TVs.

The 30-second spot will run during the second quarter and promote nine new styles from Bodywear, which Beckham has helped design since 2012. H&M says its internally produced ad, enabled by technology from the firm Delivery Agent, is the first to allow people to buy products seen in a commercial via their TVs.

H&M released a teaser for this year's ad, giving viewers a chance to determine how it will end: