IAR Bits and Bytes

Naviant Lands $15 Million

Newtown Square, Penn.-based Naviant said it closed a $15 million round of funding, led by previous investor Softbank Capital Partners.

Softbank invested $14 million of that total for a majority stake in the company, which is the parent of online marketer Naviant Marketing Solutions. Naviant Marketing handles list services, CRM, Web ad targeting and analytics.

Naviant’s original investor, TL Ventures, also invested $1 million during the latest round.

Last spring, Softbank invested $25 million in Naviant. Through the latest round of funding, Softbank gains a second seat on the company’s board of directors. Partner Steve Murray will fill that spot, joining partner Mike Perlis, who will serve as acting chairman.

NetCreations’ Resnick Cedes President Title

New York-based email marketer NetCreations appointed Tom Cloninger to the post of president and chief operating officer.

Cloninger takes over the post from chief executive and co-founder Rosalind Resnick, who fill focus on overall planning for the company. The firm recently became a subsidiary of European yellow pages publisher SEAT Pagine Gialle.

Cloninger joins the firm has more than 20 years of sales, marketing and accounting experience. He held a number of sales position at Infobase, a division of Acxiom Corporation, and later at Acxiom itself. Most recently, he served as group executive at the company, where he was responsible for the strategic direction and financial performance of the InfoBase Data Group Product Line of consumer, business and telephony data products.

In his new role, Cloninger will manage the day-to-day operations of the company and utilize his experience in database marketing to help the firm launch an online/offline B2C compiled database business.

TribalDDB Australia Teams With Responsys

Sydney, Australia-based TribalDDB — the interactive unit of Omnicom Group’s DDB Worldwide — will distribute Palo Alto, Calif.-based email marketer Responsys’ services to clients.

Through terms of the agreement, TribalDDB will resell Responsys’ Interact email marketing and personalization services to clients.

TribalDDB said it already plans to use Interact for several accounts, including McDonald’s Australia, Australia’s Northern Territory Tourist Commission, and TAB Limited, an Australian entertainment services firm.

Unicast Lands New Advertisers

Rich media interstitial firm Unicast said it’s signed a host of new clients to its Superstitial offering.

Among the new clients are Clairol, diet Coke, HBO Films, Kraft and the U.S. Army.

The Superstitial, New York-based Unicast’s flagship product, differs from competitors in that it streams in while users are viewing another Web site, in the background — so that viewers won’t have to wait for the ad to load.

The company was founded as a joint venture between The MacManus Group (which is now part of Bcom3) and BBN Technologies, now part of Verizon.

Capitol Records Promotes Radiohead on Yahoo

Post-rock band Radiohead will appear as Yahoo’s Artist of the Month in June, through a marketing promotion by the band’s label, Columbia Records.

In addition to prime positioning on Yahoo Music, the band’s new album, Amnesiac, will be featured in an online listing party prior to its launch on June 5. The listening party will play every song on the album from June 1 through June 8.

Additionally, fans can download music from one of the album’s tracks, and watch videos and concert footage.

The site will also run an auction section, in which fans can bid on front-row seats at the band’s first tour in three years, and other contests for Radiohead t-shirts and CDs.

Cybuy Offers Guarantees

Silicon Alley-based online transaction firm Cybuy is promising increaed buy-through for marketers who use its email e-commerce product — or their money back.

The company offers technology that enables marketers to embed e-commerce areas within emails.

With this promotion, which lasts until the end of June, marketers are guaranteed an improved buy-through rate, or Cybuy will refund the Cybuy-related costs of the campaign.

In a recent campaign, Cybuy said its commerce-enabled email generated better than a 5-to-1 increase in conversion, and reduced the average time to purchase by 75 percent.