Lauren Johnson

Attention retailers: shoppers are not as interested with beacons and in-store tracking as you think they are, according to a new report from digital marketing platform Punchtab.

The "Mobile Tracking: Are Consumers Ready?" report surveyed 1,153 consumers on how they feel about handing over information about themselves in exchange for some form of personalized messages. While 50 percent of participants did not want to be tracked, 27 percent of the consumers surveyed said they were open to it -- but only under certain circumstances.

The remaining 23 percent of consumers in the study did not care if they were tracked or not. Of the 50 percent of participants who didn't want to be tracked online, privacy was the No. 1 reason offered, at 51 percent.

According to a new report from eMarketer, spending on digital advertising globally will swell 16.7 percent in 2014 to $140.15 billion, marking the first time digital will make up more than one-quarter of media spend.

Unsurprisingly, mobile is driving that growth. Marketing spend on smartphones and tablets will jump 84.7 percent in 2014 to $32.71 billion.

Due to the ramp-up of mobile-centric ad products from social media players like Facebook and Twitter, smartphones and tablets will account for one-quarter of all digital spending in 2014. Overall global ad expenditures will reach $545 billion in 2014, up 5.7 percent year over year. That percentage doubled from 2013’s 2.6 percent uptick.

Google, Apple, IBM and Microsoft are the companies that rank the highest in terms of brand value, according to a new study commissioned by WPP and conducted by Millward Brown.

McDonald’s is the only non-tech brand within the top five, highlighting the growth of the digital vertical in recent years and more trust among consumers. After three years of owning the top spot in the “The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” study, Apple has slipped to the No. 2 spot behind Google. The manufacturer's brand value fell 20 percent year-over-year to $148 billion, due in large part to the company’s well-publicized recent lack of innovation.

Google, on the other hand, has kept throwing money into a number of different initiatives including mapping, wearables, payments and social media to up its brand value 40 percent, representing $159 billion. "I think the world is looking at Apple as a brand that created an Earth-shattering revolution, and I think that has slowed down a bit,” said Oscar Yuan, vice president at Millward Brown Optimor. “The fact that [Google] doesn’t see themselves contained in one sector is really a testament to their boldness and willingness to try new things.”

The report looks at the top 100 brands across the food and beverage, technology, automotive, retail, beverage, financial services and luxury verticals.

Starbucks is teaming up with the New York Times on a promotion that doles out free access to the publisher’s newly launched mobile news product.

Starbucks’ My Starbucks Reward members can receive 12 weeks of access to the New York Times’ new NYT Now mobile application. What is interesting about this initiative is the fact that Starbucks is essentially leveraging its brand reputation to drive mobile app downloads and adoption for the New York Times’ initiatives.

Although mobile Web will continue to dominate search budgets in the next four years, there will also be a shift towards more in-application spend, according to a new study from Juniper Research.

Juniper’s new “Mobile Search & Discovery: Market Prospects 2014-2018” report looks at how mobile search will grow primarily through location-based apps and hyperlocal targeting in the next four years. With more time-sensitive searches taking place on smartphones and tablets, mobile is increasingly becoming the platform that marketers are investing more in versus desktop with specific, targeted keywords.

The expected $16.8 billion mobile search industry in 2018 represents a jump from $6.4 billion in 2013. When it comes to tactics that marketers use, mobile Web will continue to dominate the majority of mobile search spend, demonstrating the power that Google will continue to show in the years ahead. Juniper’s study also looks at which markets will spend the most in terms of mobile search.

The Far East and China will bring in the majority of mobile search spend by 2018. In 2013, North America represented the area with the largest amount of mobile spend in 2013, indicating that the growth in mobile search advertising will grow globally in the next few years. Juniper expects that North America will be the No. 2 area in terms of mobile search spend by 2018, followed by Western Europe. Other key areas include the rest of the Asia Pacific region and India.