Execs and Accounts for June 18, 2003

Brann Worldwide has made two new hires in its San Francisco office in an effort to bolster its expertise in the interactive arena, having recently been named interactive marketing agency of record for Barclay Global Investors.

Marusa Debrini has been hired as VP, associate creative director, and Gorden Abel has been named account director. Previously, Debrini worked at Organic, where her clients included Nike, Starbucks Coffee, Washington Mutual, Sony PlayStation, Virgin Mobile, and The Home Depot. Prior to her job at Organic, she worked at Ikonic. Abel previously was a consultant to Brann’s new client, Barclay Global Investors.

Brann also serves as agency of record for Wells Fargo‘s Consumer Internet Services Group, and the new hires are meant to beef up Brann’s capabilities to serve that client. The agency is a member of the Arnold Worldwide Partners Network, owned by Havas.

Automotive service center operator Midas has signed on Rick Dow as its senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Most recently, Dow served as senior VP of marketing and sales at Burger King.

Midas will be responsible for all marketing programs at Midas, including one-to-one marketing, marketing strategy, advertising, consumer research, media, creative services, field marketing, and promotions.

“Rick’s strong background in retailing, marketing, consumer branding, customer loyalty programs and, very importantly, working effectively with franchisees, will enable him to make immediate contributions to Midas and our franchisees,” said Alan Feldman, Midas’ president and chief executive officer.

Dow worked at West Group and at Northwest Airlines before joining Burger King.

Anti-spam firm Habeas has signed several new partners in its effort to spread the use of its “Sender Warranted E-mail” solution.

The new email service provider partners include WhatCounts, Informz, Affinity Matrix, and InsWorld. These companies will offer Habeas services to their customers. Additionally, GroupMail and AutoResponse have built Habeas functionality into the newest releases of their email delivery software.

SMS marketing player Enpocket is expanding its U.S. presence from New York over to the West Coast. The company is opening a Los Angeles office to service entertainment companies, which have been some of the first to experiment with wireless marketing. Andre Sevigny has been chosen to head up the operation, as VP of business development.

The UK-based company has already handled campaigns for Fox, Warner Brothers, and Universal Studios, along with McDonald’s and Levi’s.