brand-e

Close to 180 million European online users – a reach of 45.8% – visited a sports site in February, an increase of 15% in the past year, says comScore.

Increasingly, consumers are turning to social networks to get their daily fix of news and information about the wider world, as well as sharing their news and posting their commentaries, says Gartner in its list of 10 consumer macro trends shaping the technology and media.

Fashion-conscious social media sites – which include Pinterest – have seen traffic increases of more than 2300% year-on-year, according to Experian’s 2012 Digital Marketer Report, writes Maria Stadtmueller. The popularity of Pinterest is a result of the next phase of the behaviour the research company has seen online over the last few years.

Pandora has partnered with Intel to launch Inside The Music. What is it? The new programme explore six musical genres – rock, R&B, electronica, rap, country and classical – and the unique characteristics of each genre as they are categorised within the Music Genome Project, Pandora’s ‘taxonomy of musical DNA’ – the online radio outfit’s music analysts have spent the past dozen years analysing tracks one-by-one, identifying up to 450 musical attributes per recording.

Consumers have not yet understood the value to them of the personal data held about them by different online companies, Tim Berners-Lee tells the Guardian.

A spike in demand for Facebook advertising has enabled the Social Network to up prices by more than 40% over a one-year period for promotions sold based on the number of views, according to a report by TBG Digital. The research also found that average CPM grew 15% in the last quarter – 13% in the UK, and 11% in the US.

Online video ad consumption is beginning to mirror that of traditional TV commercials, opening the door to greater revenue potential for media companies, according to an Adobe Systems report. The research found high audience engagement with ads during live online events and mid-roll commercial breaks and that users become most actively engaged when it comes to consuming video ads on tablets and smartphones.

Beauty brand Sephora has gone big on Pinterest with its new social and mobile makeover, which includes a revamped Sephora.com, a new mobile website, iPhone app and tablet devices in over 100 stores. Thanls to the social media upgrade, there’s full integration with Pinterest, as ‘Pin It’ buttons make it to every product and brand page. The brand has upped the content quota online, slotting in 80,000 additional images, product quick-views and colour views.