Execs & Accounts for September 1, 2004

Online publishers BusinessWeek Online, FOX News, Investopedia and Reuters.com have started selling Unicast’s Video Commercial ad format. Unicast has pitched the premium unit as a way to deploy television assets online with minimum effort.

Lowe & Partners Worldwide named Tony Wright to lead the international agency as worldwide CEO and president. Wright joins from Ogilvy & Mather, where he was worldwide chief strategy officer, leading business development as well as strategy for key clients. Earlier he was a partner in New York creative agency Berlin Wright Cameron. He is taking on responsibilities held by current CEO Jerry Judge, who will continue as CEO of The Partnership division of Interpublic.

Advertising.com hired Charles Whittingham as VP of sales for the Western region. Whittingham held the same post for The Excite Network, and has worked for About.com, Wired Magazine, J. Walter Thompson and People Magazine. He will be based in San Francisco.

Zentropy Partners hired Aimee Reker to its Minneapolis office as VP and director of interactive marketing. Reker was most recently with Euro RSCG Circle, developing that agency’s media practice and doing work for a list of clients that included Verizon, BMW, IKEA and Ocean Spray. Her new role will put her in charge of accounts such as Microsoft, H&R Block and General Mills.

Juxt Interactive picked up two clients. The company recently launched its first projects as agency of record for Boost Mobile and Coca-Cola’s Nestea COOL brand. To service the new accounts, Juxt hired Michael Polivka as senior project manager. Polivka joins from TBWA/Chiat/Day’s Tequila marketing services network, where he worked on the Nissan and Infiniti accounts.

EPrize added 21 clients during the second quarter. The accounts include Visa, American Airlines, Comcast, Pier 1 Imports and LG Electronics. In total, ePrize launched 106 promotions from April through June.

Starpulse.com tapped IGN Entertainment to represent and sell ad inventory on its celebrity-focused search engine and directory. Other IGN-represented properties include IGN FilmForce, Rotten Tomatoes and GameSpy.com. The exclusive deal expands IGN’s overall reach by four million users, the companies said.