Speaking from the floor at MediaTel Group’s FMCG & Media event in association with O2 Media yesterday morning, Mindshare managing director, Ita Murphy, pushed the panel on ROI for mobile marketing in the FMCG area – one of the biggest stumbling blocks for agencies. She said clients are interested in mobile ideas around FMCG advertising but still need a clear sales measure.

An estimated 50% of all mobile phone users are now using smartphones to access the internet, which has enabled the growth of a new frontier in augmented reality, according to Golden Gekko’s Caroline Van Den Bergh.

ITV has released its preliminary results for 2011 with external revenues up 4% (driven by non-advertising revenues) and national advertising revenues (NAR) up 1% – outperforming the TV advertising market.

Rupert Murdoch has just tweeted: “Amazing! The Sun confirmed sales of 3.260,000 copies yesterday. Thanks all readers and advertisers. Sorry if sold out – more next time.”

Rupert Murdoch claims the first edition of the Sunday Sun sold three million copies. Last night he tweeted: “Reports early, but new Sun edition sold 3m!”. Media agencies – ZenithOptimedia, MEC, Carat UK and Mike Colling & Company – give their verdicts here…

Following 3.8% growth in 2011, global advertising spending is expected to grow by 4.9% in 2012 to $465.5 billion, according to the latest global advertising forecast from Strategy Analytics.

Pub landlady Karen Murphy has won her court battle with the English Premier League over using a Greek TV decoder to screen football games.

The quality market titles, both the dailies and Sundays, were among the biggest losers in readership terms in 2011. The FT saw its readership fall by -12.9% YoY in 2011, while the Times lost 180,000 readers during the one-year period (-11.5%). The Sunday Times also saw its readership drop -10.1% (-297,000 readers).

The UK’s national newspaper websites saw usage figures increase during January after December’s slump, with almost all audited sites recording a rise, with the exception of The Independent.

The results of the IAB’s Customer Conversion Journey research in the automotive sector illustrate the relationship between exposure to different online activities including display advertising, sponsored search, natural search and buzz – and site visitation and online conversions.