Hasta La Creative!

Local business discovery and recommendation service Yelp will start hosting display ads in its mobile app. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Taco Bell will be the inaugural advertisers in the new ad format, with IHG’s ads likely starting to appear on Monday and Taco Bell’s on Thursday.

IHG and Taco Bell will be exclusive advertisers within their given Yelp category, meaning all ads served while Yelpers make travel-related searches will be from IHG while Taco Bell will serve all ads in the restaurant category.

A third advertiser, Miller Lite, will start a campaign in mid-March, executives close to the two companies said.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev has taken to Twitter to vigorously defend itself against lawsuits claiming that Budweiser, Michelob and other brands overstate their alcohol contents.

The brewer had a PR battle on its hands earlier this week when the Associated Press ran a story on the class-action lawsuits, which were filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states. Within a few hours, stories about “watered down” beers and “buzz-killing” Bud spread across the internet.

Justified or not, the coverage served to neuter the so-called King of Beers, at least temporarily.

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When James Nord was account director at Product of the Year, “I kept getting emails from people who worked at brands, asking which bloggers they should work with. Like, ‘I need five menswear bloggers in Chicago,’ or, ‘I need five personal-style bloggers in San Francisco,'” he recalled. “It felt like it was a really inefficient way to run a marketplace.”

Mr. Nord, a photographer and blogger, thought he had a better means to help brands sift through bloggers to target with advertising, sponsored content and gifting. Along with Holly Stair, a social-media manager, and Rich Tong, Tumblr’s former fashion director, he developed Fohr Card, which aims to bring brands a comprehensive survey of the fashion blogosphere.

Starting at $5,000 for an annual membershiplarger companies and agencies pay morebrands can access Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Google Analytics stats for more than 1,800 fashion and beauty bloggers. The tool allows users to sort by region, traffic on a particular platform, or category. (Categories include DIY, nail art and menswear.) But most importantly, it eliminates numbers-fudging by exposing typically private Tumblr and Google Analytics figures.

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The explosion of social media in China is putting pressure on marketers to increase their spending, learn to navigate key platforms like Tencent and Sina, and forge alliances online with local key opinion leaders, known in China as KOLs.

“One fascinating aspect of China’s digital landscape is how openly netizens take to the cyber-streets to offer thoughts, opinions and guidance. Of China’s 500 million online users, half claim to be active bloggers,” said Chris Maier, Millward Brown’s director, media & digital solutions, Greater China this week on “Thoughtful China,” an online marketing-affairs talk show produced in Shanghai. (View the full episode ).

China now has 580 million people active on that country’s top social network, Tencent’s QZone, out of 712 million registered users. QZone is followed in popularity by Twitter-like Tencent Weibo, with 507 million registered users, and Sina Weibo, with 400 million. Next are PengYou, also owned by Tencent, with 259 million users, and Facebook-like RenRen at 172 million, according to We Are Social.

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WPP Group reported organic revenue growth of 2.9% in 2012, and Group CEO Martin Sorrell said 2013 will be another “challenging year.”

Factoring in 2.9% growth from acquisitions and a drop of 2.3% from currency fluctuations, revenue was up by 3.5%, to $15.6 billion. Billings fell slightly to about $66 billion, due to the weakness of the pound.

Pre-tax profits for the world’s biggest communications group were up 8.3% to $1.6 billion, although – because taxation on profits was higher and sterling weaker than in 2011 – profits after tax fell by 2.4% to $1.34 billion.

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Conan O'Brien's fake iPad commercial, meant as a parody of the latest Apple spots, including the one on the Oscars, isn't exactly groundbreaking (porn? on computers? why, I never!). But the delivery is as funny and observant as one would expect from Coco. If only real Internet porn were this tasteful most of the time. Pay attention to the fast-moving category screens, too—there are some hidden gems in there. "Doin' It" and "Doin' It Big Time" were my favorites, but I think there's something in there for everyone. OK, in context, that sounds weird.