Execs & Accounts for March 4, 2005
E*Trade taps BBDO; Revenue Science boosts revenue management team; Lexus tries avatars.
E*Trade Financial made BBDO New York its agency of record for 2005. The move follows a formal review and extends a relationship that began in Q4 2004, when E*Trade tapped the agency for an integrated marketing project. 2005 spend is projected at $60 million.
Revenue Science hired Kevin McGurn and Melinda Klaber to its revenue management team. McGurn joins as director of revenue management. Most recently, he was a senior sales exec at DoubleClick. Earlier he was VP of agency management with Unicast and a sales and marketing manager at Fortune Magazine. Klaber joins in a senior marketing role. Previously, she led corporate marketing at Screenvision.
Lexus implemented Oddcast’s VHost avatar technology. The luxury auto brand deployed the rich media VHosts to tease site visitors with a number of questions designed to measure their “boldness.” Depending on their responses, users were encouraged to visit the Lexus Web site. HYPERLINK “http://quizmaker.oddcast.com/lexus.php?door=3&qid=3”
Quepasa, a paid search company targeting U.S. Latinos, promoted Fernando Ascencio to president and CEO. Ascencio began with the company in 1999, prior to which he was with TV broadcaster Univision.
Integrated branding agency Siegel & Gale hired Sven Seger as executive creative director in its L.A. office. Seger was a creative director at FutureBrand, New York, and earlier held the same post with Enterprise IG.
TMX Communications promoted Production Director Mitesh Patel to executive director of technology, leading digital and tech initiatives. The agency’s clients include Northwestern Mutual, GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough.
Delivery Agent, which enables commerce tie-ins for programming, will leverage Turner Media Group’s online ad inventory to drive traffic to its client sites. “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “Project Runway,” and “Will & Grace” will run ads on their sites along with links to the commerce sites. Online ads will also appear on Yahoo, Google and Shopping.com.
Weblogs Inc. has launched and staffed several new ad-supported blogs. They include AdJab, a marketing blog written by Tom Biro; poker blog pPlayer, by Harold Check and Jennifer Leo; SCMWire, focused on supply chain management and written by Richard Weissman; TheDiabetesBlog, with Paul Chaney; and BBHub, wherein Russell Shaw covers Blackberries. The additions bring WIN’s total network to 73 blogs and 73 writers.
