Yahoo! has appointed Euro RSCG Worldwide as its advertising agency of record for global projects. Black Rocket Euro RSCG in San Francisco, which has been Yahoo!’s U.S. agency of record since 1996, will be the lead agency.
The first campaign will promote Yahoo!’s official partnership with Fhdhration International de Football Association (FIFA) for the production of FIFAworldcup.com, the official Web site of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan. To launch the campaign, Euro RSCG Black Rocket has developed Yahoo!’s first global TV spot, which will run in ten markets worldwide.
John Yost, Euro RSCG Black Rocket co-founder and partner, commented, “We are very excited about bringing our extensive global resources to bear on Yahoo!’s business around the world — and what better project to begin with than Yahoo!’s involvement with the world’s biggest sporting event.”
Amazing Media has hired Melissa Boasberg, formerly of Disney Online, and Jennifer Johnson, formerly of ReturnBuy, as chief operating officer and vice president of sales, respectively.
Boasberg brings a decade’s worth of experience in online marketing, media and technology to Amazing Media. She was most recently vice president of development at Opion, where she developed online products, led marketing initiatives and built partnerships. She has also held senior-level positions at Women’s Consumer Network, Disney Online, Viacom Interactive Media, and Walt Disney Studios.
Prior to Amazing Media, Johnson was regional vice president of sales at ReturnBuy, where she negotiated contracts with targeted national accounts in the retail, leasing, consumer electronics and computer vertical markets. Before that, Johnson was director of online sales and marketing at ValueAmerica, where she managed channel and business development, as well as e-commerce partnerships and affiliate marketing services.
SF Interactive has won the assignment to provide online marketing services for Weider Interactive Networks. The integrated assignment will include strategic consulting, creative development, media planning, buying and analysis for Weider’s Optimize Fitness Systems and iShape online exercise and nutrition planning products.
“We selected SF Interactive because of the thoroughly integrated approach that they offered to our marketing needs,” said Susannah Payne Scott, director of marketing at Weider Interactive.
The Yankee Group has launched a new site. The new Web presence, aimed at enhancing the user experience for clients and site visitors, consists of two sections: the client access portal, referred to as “MyYankee,” and the yankeegroup.com general information site.
MyYankee was developed in response to an expressed client need for improvements in search capabilities, greater personalization, and content flexibility. Improvements made to the public site include enhanced navigation, content reorganization and faster access to information.
Freestyle Interactive has been tapped by auto insurance group Progressive Insurance to create a campaign that will drive business to its Web site. The campaign, which will launch immediately, attempts to leverage Progressive’s established offline brand through a number of contextual ads, catered to specific online audiences. Freestyle also said it will develop a series of short animated ads on a variety of personal interest and news sites. Freestyle is handling the media buy in addition to the creative elements of the campaign.
Silverpop Systems, an e-mail marketing and CRM provider, has established a strategic advisory board. The board, which will offer ongoing guidance from product-related strategic planning to corporate and business development, consists of members from both business and academic fields. Members include Jeff Sonnenfeld, founder & CEO of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute; Chris Evans, founder of Accipiter; John Willcutts, Benchmark Capital entrepreneur in residence; and Mike Tolbert, vice president of sales at ProSight.
“The insight of our advisory board will be invaluable in developing our ongoing growth plan, sales strategy and corporate positioning,” said Bill Nussey, Silverpop’s president and CEO.
Interactive design firm Sposto Productions (SP), has launched a multimedia ad campaign to kick off the European launch of Nintendo’s newest game console, the Nintendo Gamecube. Through a joint partnership with the FIFA, Nintendo and Yahoo!, the Flash ad units are featured on FIFAworldcup.com and Yahoo!’s European-based sites, including Yahoo! UK, Yahoo! Germany, Yahoo! France and Yahoo! Spain, to promote branding visibility for the Nintendo Gamecube throughout the FIFA World Cup event.
Ad sales repping firm Interep Interactive has joined with online ad serving companies ZEDO and 24/7 Real Media to help Tri-Athletes for Education raise money to school underprivileged students. The firms are donating a total of 50 million advertising impressions to spread the word across hundreds of Web sites about the efforts of organization to help fund the education of inner city youth at competitive private schools.
Tri-Athletes for Education is a year-old, grass roots non-profit organization of Los Angeles area amateur tri-athletes. Participating tri-athletes seek individual and corporate sponsorships for their racing participation.
“All of our racers are working executives who understand the importance of a good education in getting a fair start in adult life,” says Scott McCafferty, co-founder of the organization and regional manager for Penton Media. “This is our way of extending a hand to those who need it most. We race for not just for ourselves but for all those who might benefit from the financial support of our sponsors.”
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