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Lionsgate, producers of TV show Mad Men, stumped up a reported $250,000 to close last week’s episode of the programme with the Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows.

Build that app and they will come, right? Wrong. There are more than 1 million applications in app stores and developers are finding it ever harder to get discovered, and downloaded. So, what does it take to be a success?

Guess Watches has launched its One To Watch global blogger search and is on the look out for fashion-savvy types to become official contributors to the Guess Access Blog. Wannabe brand bloggers need to visit the application on the Guess Facebook page and create personal profiles which include style boards so they can express their ‘personal fashion point-of-view’. They then need to share their profiles via social networks to rack up ‘Style Points’ from friends and followers.

Toy brand Hasbro has partnered with One Direction to produce a new line of toys and games based on the boy band. Featuring all five members of One Direction, the product will include fashion dolls and mini-figures.

Beattie Communications has launched the world’s first male marketing boutique, Only Men, proving a range of PR and marketing services to brands targeting a male audience.

TBWA\Chiat\Day has launched a new spin-off company, Pilot.is, a development lab aiming to come up with ideas to help big organisations become more efficient. Or, as the outfit says, ‘we create artful, handcrafted products that live at the intersection of marketing and engineering’.

Crowdsourcing outfit Talenthouse is rolling out its ‘sponsored engagement engine’ offering customised campaigns built on branded content for consumers to share across social networks. Via Talenthouse, brands and established artists host ‘creative invites’ encouraging emerging talent to contribute their best work and spread the word among their followers through a viral contest platform.

Jay-Z is rolling out a game on Facebook. The game play on Empire is a take on the artist’s life story, with characters able to follow a successful narrative from hustler through to hip-hop star and business mogul. Yes, Empire is all about moving up the ladder from the Marcy Housing project in Brooklyn – via rap battles – to the rich and cool spots of Manhattan and beyond.