NEW YORK When it completes its acquisition of Taylor Nelson Sofres later this month or in early November, WPP Group, based on last week's currency exchange rates, will still be the No. 2 ad agency holding company, based on revenue. Omnicom Group remains No. 1, but by buying TNS, WPP [...]

NEW YORK If there's been a "killer app" of Web advertising to date, it's search. Targeting is near perfect, thanks to consumers directly expressing their intent. The auction system has proven an incredibly efficient way to match supply and demand.[...]

NEW YORK A new TNT crime thriller starring Jonathon Schaech (a star of the just-released feature film Quarantine) set to debut Oct. 21 is not exactly your run-of-the-mill detective series.[...]

NEW YORK Former Leo Burnett creative partners Jim Ferguson (shown) and Bob Shallcross have reunited to relaunch Dallas agency Krause Advertising as jimbobkrause. They talked to senior reporter Andrew McMains about starting up in an economic downturn, the best and worst parts of running a small independent shop, and why [...]

LOS ANGELES BMW has hired AuditStar, a London-based consultancy, to guide its $155 million media review, a representative for the automaker has confirmed. Omnicom's GSD&M Idea City in Austin, Texas, BMW 's media incumbent since November 2005, is defending.[...]

NEW YORK Five agencies are competing for creative duties on Outback Steakhouse, which last year spent nearly $90 million in major measured media, sources said. Sources identified the contenders as independent McKinney in Durham, N.C., the Chicago offices of WPP Group units Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam, Interpublic [...]

LOS ANGELES Barack Obama has purchased a half-hour of prime-time television on CBS and NBC, sources confirm. The Obama campaign is producing a nationwide pitch to voters that will air on at least two broadcast networks. The ad will run Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. -- less than a [...]

NEW YORK WPP's Mindshare has acquired pioneering communications planning agency Michaelides & Bednash and is integrating it into its worldwide Invention Group, the MindShare unit responsible for digital content programming sponsorship and planning.[...]

NEW YORK As Apple continues to flood the market with more iPhones, Google is readying new options for advertisers to target iPhone owners directly.[...]

LOS ANGELES For the first time since the Oscars moved to TV in the early 1950s, studios will be able to advertise movies during the telecast of the 81st Annual Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had long banned movie advertising out of concern that it [...]

NEW YORK WPP Group said today that it would proceed with its $1.9 billion acquisition of market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres now that shareholders representing 82 percent of outstanding shares have agreed to the buyout. The offer, WPP declared, was now "unconditional."[...]

NEW YORK YouTube has begun testing new ads that direct users to purchase items featured within individual videos played on the popular Google-owned site. These text link ad units -- called "Click-to-Buy Ads" -- appear just below YouTube's video player.[...]

BOSTON Old Navy has confirmed hiring Crispin Porter + Bogusky as its lead creative shop. The Miami-based agency, a unit of MDC Partners and best known of late for its high-profile though apparently short-lived Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates.[...]

NEW YORK For the second time this year, Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group is reorganizing operations surrounding its $2 billion General Motors account and will cut about 5-10 percent of its staff working on the GM business -- as many as 150 employees -- by year's end. As part of the [...]

NEW YORK IAC's InstantAction.com, a Web-based gaming platform aimed at the hardcore gamer audience, which typically gravitates to Xboxes and PC games, has garnered 800,000 registered users since its March launch -- and is set to widen its potential audience by launching a version developed specifically for a less saturated [...]

NEW YORK Bloomberg TV has struck its first major online video deal, making content available on AOL Money & Finance. The deal between the Time Warner unit and the financial net comes amid increased interest in business news.[...]

NEW YORK WPP Group today extended for a fourth time the deadline for acceptance of its nearly $2.2 billion offer to acquire research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres. (Shown: WPP CEO Martin Sorrell.)[...]

NEW YORK The showdown between WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell and Marco Benatti, the WPP country manager in Italy Sorrell dismissed in January 2006, will take place in London's High Court on Monday, according to representatives from both the WPP and Benatti camps. MindShare Worldwide CEO Dominic Proctor and United [...]

NEW YORK Google and Yahoo! said they would delay implementation of their search advertising deal to give federal regulators more time to examine the agreement.[...]

NEW YORK Fears about personal finances are bubbling over to America's richest, says a new survey by American Express Publishing and researcher Harrison Group, whose findings bode ill for the already-softening luxury advertising category. The survey, conducted Sept. 19-23 among 614 consumers with an annual household income of $100,000-plus -- [...]

NEW YORK Fears about personal finances are bubbling over to America's richest, says a new survey by American Express Publishing and researcher Harrison Group, whose findings bode ill for the already-softening luxury advertising category. The survey, conducted Sept. 19-23 among 614 consumers with an annual household income of $100,000-plus -- [...]

NEW YORK Google-owned YouTube has pulled a Barack Obama ad from its site at the insistence of NBC, which charged that the spot infringed on its copyrighted content and that it did not give Obama's campaign permission to use the material. The ad, titled "Bad News," is designed to get [...]

NEW YORK Sonic is taking its long-running Pete and T.J. commercial duo in a new direction, running a series of spots that mimic MTV drama The Hills. Sonic's effort, titled The Stalls, represents an effort to reach young consumers.[...]

LOS ANGELES Bill Oberlander is joining Cossette in New York as chief creative officer, according to sources. Oberlander since 2004 has served at Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson. He replaces Robert Reiser, who parted with Cossette several months ago.[...]

NEW YORK Students from William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City, N.Y., won the Advertising Futures competition at Advertising Week. The contest paired teams from 28 New York City public high schools with advertising agencies to create PSAs for the Ad Council urging kids to stay in school.[...]