Execs & Accounts for August 22, 2003
24/7 Real Media hires a president of media solutions and reports high client retention; Inktomi adds four paid inclusion clients; Imagemark names an exec to head its new brand resources division.
24/7 Real Media has hired David Hills as president of media solutions and announced 51 client renewals.
In the new position, Hills will be responsible for all the company’s domestic media operations, including 24/7 Web Alliance, 24/7 Search and 24/7 Messenger.
He joined 24/7 Real Media from About Inc., where he was COO and president of sales, supervising total company revenue and operations for About’s three divisions, including About.com and Sprinks. Prior to joining About, Hills held various positions at Cox Enterprises, including VP of sales for Cox Interactive Media.
“Dave brings a wealth of interactive media experience to our company, in both advertising, pay per click and subscriptions,” said David Moore, president and CEO.
In the second quarter, ended June 30, 24/7 Real Media also signed renewal agreements with 51 Open AdStream and Open Insight customers.
The company said its retention rate with ad serving and analytics clients during the first two quarters of 2003 was 97 percent. Among the renewing clients were Playboy, Forbes.com and French newspaper LeMonde.
Inktomi has been tapped by Switchboard, Travelocity, Buy.com and Ziff Davis Media for paid inclusion services.
The new customers will pay to have their sites crawled by Inktomi, a Yahoo-owned company, which will expand its search index to include their content.
“Inktomi’s paid inclusion programs continue to show strong momentum as advertisers see demonstrable success,” said Vishal Makhijani, VP and general manager of Web search at Inktomi. “We are committed to helping our partners reach a large targeted audience while providing users with current, relevant, high-quality search results.”
The paid inclusion space remains contentious. While most top search engines offer inclusion services, Google has refrained from doing so. The company has said the lack of disclosure implicit in the inclusion model undermines user trust.
Integrated marketer Imagemark, formerly JH Concepts, has hired Thom Dean as president of its new brand resources division.
Dean has held posts with several top ad agencies, including DMB&B, DDB Needham; TBWA/Chiat Day and most recently Frankfurt Balkind (IPG), where he served as executive director for the past seven years. He has developed and managed marketing platforms for Crystal Light, Ultra Pampers, Absolut Vodka, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Chivas Regal, Knight Ridder and AOL Time Warner.
Dean and the brand resources division will operate out of the company’s new office on Park Avenue in New York City.
“It was essential to our fast-track growth to develop a strategic branding division in New York, and Thom Dean is the one to lead it,” said Bruce Ross, President and CEO of Imagemark. “His innovative approach to integrating marketing, sales promotion, and branding has quickly expanded our client roster by offering leading edge brand experience and fully integrated solutions.”
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