Increasingly, mobile handset manufacturers are focusing their efforts on gaining a competitive edge with consumers by winning over their hearts with splashy television ads as much as they are on bringing out faster, better hardware. However, not all ad campaigns are created equal.

Registration is open for the 3rd annual Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2014 conference Jan. 15-16 featuring speakers from Macy's, eBay, Coca-Cola, Office Depot, Lowe's, Amazon's Zappos, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Rue La La, Citi, REI, Campbell Soup, Omni Hotels, Forrester, Yahoo, NYT, USA Today and Cumberland Farms. Must-attend event for brands, retailers, agencies and publishers.

NEW YORK - A Vaynermedia executive at the ad:tech New York 2013 conference last week said that the kinds of campaigns that Instagram is beginning to run have the possibility of moving the needle for mobile and digital advertising.

Consumers are still hungry for applications and mobile content as evidenced by the quick growth in the developer community in the past 18 months, according to new research from Flurry.

Ford Fiesta ran a digital and mobile campaign leveraging a CAPTCHA alternative to target consumers ages 18-34, and since it started running in August, the campaign has seen 133 hours of brand interaction and a 84 percent completion rate.

Mobile Commerce Daily today - Early-bird shopper not the biggest mobile opportunity on Black Friday; Capital One introduces pattern tracing to simplify mobile banking log-ins.

Today in Luxury Marketing - Saks Fifth Avenue lets consumers add mobile snowflakes to window display; 34pc of consumers conduct in-store research via mobile device: Forrester.

Mobile Marketer is inviting opinion pieces on mobile advertising, marketing and media issues that affect marketers as they include mobile in the marketing mix.