Consumer holiday shopping trends revealed this week point to an increase in purchases through mobile channels, specifically smartphones. Mobile devices -- smartphones and tablets -- surpassed desktop in terms of visits to Web sites, contributing up to 55%.

Sony wanted to find a way to optimize its PlayStation business through data, so it sponsored Adobe's twice-annual analytics competition to find answers.

Real-time location data and ad-targeting services brought together some unlikely suitors this week ranging from xAd's acquisition of WeatherBug, to WPP's data alliance with Spotify, and Snapchat's data deal with Foursquare.

After 40 years of relentless advertising and a variety of slogans and creative advertising campaigns, data tells marketers that the differences between Coke and Pepsi go much further than their distinct flavors.

Capturing consumer data without using it to personalize messages should become a "cardinal sin" because it alienates existing and potential customers and limits their desire to share more, according to a recent report.

A London-based company has developed technology that tells marketers the revenue they're missing by ignoring to target a specific market segment.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) this week at &THEN in Los Angeles began rallying the industry to develop new guidelines specifically for retail stores.

A Yahoo patent could bring targeting and tracking capabilities to out-of-home (OOH) advertising. The recently updated patent describes a method of real-time advertising in public spaces.

Apple this week opened Search Ads in its App Store for iPhone and iPad in the U.S to all publishers and developers after announcing the service last June. The ads go live Wednesday with a credit toward the first campaign. The ads aim to target consumers based on relevancy.

The future of brand advertising and targeting resides in data, but too many companies still struggle with learning how to use it. That topic hung like fog over Advertising Week in New York, according to some executives Data and Targeting Insider spoke with.