We’re back with our weekly recap of the interesting and inspiring, with a particular eye for what shifts and ideas brands should be tracking, evaluating and acting on. This is a collection of  some standout business strategy, brand-building and digital media stories catching our attention.

Discussions Shaping Strategy, Creativity & Innovation 

• ‘Marketing Is Dead’ Says Saatchi & Saatchi CEO
• The Invisible Borders That Define American Culture
• Memory As A Consumer Durable (because we’re much better at enjoying the past and future than the present)
• The State of the Web (According to The Oatmeal)
• The Power of Story Marketing: 4 Case Studies
• Innovation Is Ugly
• The Golden Ratio Otherwise Known As Feng Shui
• How A Culture Of Fear Thrives In Attention Economies, and What That Means for Radical Transparency and the Zuckerberg Doctrine
• Google: The Mobile Playbook
• Brainstorm Session Ice Breakers

Notable Ideas: New Products, Platforms and Projects 

• The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That’s Changing the Rules of Business
• The New Science of Online Persuasion (the role of Google AdWords in testing messages)
• People-Search Engine Ark Raises the Biggest Y Combinator Seed Round in Memory
• Pinterest Designer Sahil Lavingia and His New e-Commerce Site Gumroad
• Doomed to Fail: Nick Denton’s New Commenting System
• LAB! 3D It (turn any site into a 3D layout)
• Klouchebag (douchier than Klout!)
• Google’s ‘Zerg Rush’ Easter Egg Game Eats Up Search Results
• This Camera Only Prints Text Descriptions Of the Pictures It Takes

Brands, Companies and Entities of Note (some more obvious than others)

• Gumroad: Sell Anything You Can Share
• How Two Software Engineers Buit Grubhub
• 4 Key Insights From the 57-Day, Blitzkrieg Redesign of Google+
• YouTube Takes On TV
• Nintendo Posts Huge Loss
• Agent Provocateur: The Chase

Digital & Social Media News and Resources

• The Facebook Ad Scam
• How Long Does A Facebook Post Live?
• Twitter 2012: Fresh Stats (Infographic)
• How Social Profiling Will Work In the Real World
• What Your Klout Score Really Means