agency news

NEW YORKNew York-based Katz Interactive Marketing has signed Revele Technologies as a client for its Katz Streaming Media Sales Network. Under the agreement, Katz, which sells streaming audio, will bring national ad- vertisers to Revele's network of Web sites. The client is an Internet video-broadcast company that delivers video content and rich-media content to a targeted Internet audience.MasterCard International has initiated a two-tiered program developed for the U.S. Hispanic audience: Spanish-language TV commercials and a community-based financial-management education initiative. The commercials, created by Hispanic-owned agency Vidal Partnership in New York, began airing last month on the Univision and Telemundo networks and are part of MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. The company has also joined up with the League of United Latin American Citizens to develop financial-education materials and conduct community workshops that concentrate on the basics of money management.New York-based JSM executive producer Joel Simon and composers/sound designers Gareth Williams, Krishna Ventakesh, Morgan Visconti and Andy Bloch have created original compositions for a new Dave & Buster's branding campaign from BrannForbes in Dallas. The two-spot TV effort rolled out in June on broadcast and cable in markets where the company's restaurants are based.The Tampa Bay Lightning, of the National Hockey League, has retained Emerald City, a New York digital-media production and strategic creative-services company, to create and produce a TV and radio campaign for the 2000-01 NHL season. The commercials will feature several of the team's players.New York agency Heitner Weiss has recently launched a campaign for Alizé Cognac, a new product distributed by the Kobrand Corp. The effort's "Stands alone" theme supports the client's goal of breaking through traditional, male-focused barriers associated with cognac marketing.Gist Communications in New York, an Internet producer of TV-listings guides and entertainment content, has hired Grey Global Group's G-Whiz! Entertainment for a fall trade campaign. The effort, the client's first since its launch in 1996, will include print ads in Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, Cable World and The Hollywood Reporter, among other publications. G-Whiz! Entertainment, a partner com- pany of the Grey Global Group, is an integrated-communications company specializing in youth marketing.BSMG Worldwide has set up a new financial and professional services marketing practice area and named Daniel Reid president of the unit. He will work from his Chicago base and report to Ted Pincus, FRB/BSMG Worldwide chairman and BSMG Worldwide vice chairman. The new practice was formerly part of FRB/BSMG Worldwide's marketing-services unit and becomes broader and more global in scope, focusing on strategic counseling, marketing, competitive repositioning and showcasing the expertise of top client officials. Principal services include research, counseling, materials creation, direct mail, and media training, contact and relations.Griesson-De Beukelaer, a baked-goods manufacturer, has hired international ad agency Select Communications to handle communications duties for all its cookie brands in Germany and Austria. Select won the multimillion-dollar account after a pitch that included several agencies. The pitch was a collaboration among Select's offices in New York, Hamburg, Germany, and Koblenz, Germany. The account had previously been handled by Euro RSCG and Publicis. The campaigns, which will begin running next year, will include TV, print, radio and outdoor for brands that include Prinzen, De Beukelaer (known internationally as Lu), Tuc and Leicht & Cross, as well as the launch of the Griesson brand.Neuberger Berman, an investment-ad- visory company, has chosen Hampel/Stefanides in New York as its new agency of record, following a competitive review. The client's $8-10 million annual account was formerly handled by Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners. Hampel/Stefanides assumed all strategic, creative and media responsibilities for Neuberger Berman's advertising on Sept. 1. The agency is part of the Envoy Communications Group, a Toronto-based integrated marketer.New York-based Dennis Interactive, an agency specializing in interactive applications, has expanded its strategy department to include the Digital Business Group and the User Experience Group. The Digital Business Group will work with clients during initial project stages, helping to create online business models, building partnerships and researching fulfillment planning. This group will explore clients' competitive landscapes and consumer segmentation, and assess how to make their sites relevant and offer users a high level of utility. It will also develop strategies that will differentiate each client from its competitors, define the brand, and help the client survive and succeed online. The User Experience Group will use the market information compiled during the first strategic phase and apply the technology needed to make the project work. Then it will show each client how to use the technology to make it more relevant for the end user.To build brand awareness for Evian bottled water, Great Brands of Europe tapped Display Technologies to custom design the "Evian Time Temperature Board" for placement on the lifeguard towers at Los Angeles County beaches. Display Technologies, located in College Point, is a full-service designer and manufacturer of point-of-sale displays and merchandisers. Besides advertising the Evian bottled-water brand, the billboard serves as both a clock and thermostat.Communications/Marketing Action, a New York-based integrated-marketing and public relations firm, has been retained by two new business-to-business clients: ORB, a New York digital-marketing and tracking company; and Ground Floor Ventures, an incubator for women-owned Internet and technology businesses. Bambi Holzer, a wealth-building/retirement-planning advisor and author, has also signed on. CMA will develop a strategic public relations program to bring market visibility and brand recognition to ORB. The Ground Floor Ventures account will be handled by B2Women, CMA's new division that provides strategic public relations and marketing-communications initiatives to women-owned businesses, women in corporate America, and the companies and associations that want to reach them. CMA will create initiatives to enhance Holzer's status as one of the top financial experts in the country.Lou Hammond & Associates, a lifestyle marketing-communications agency in New York, has added five new accounts: the Norfolk Convention and Visitors Bureau in Virginia; the Russian Tea Room; RiverBarge Excursion Lines; The Corning Museum of Glass; and Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colo. The firm has also been selected by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and Leading Hotels of Switzerland to execute special projects in New York. For Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, the shop is coordinating launch events for the new Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., which will feature the theme park Disney's California Adventure. For Leading Hotels of Switzerland, the agency will produce an event in New York that showcases the attractions of the client's membership to travel media. NEW JERSEYInnovation Luggage in Secaucus has hired DKB and Partners in Morristown to lead a re-branding campaign for its 17 stores in the Northeast. DKB will create and implement an integrated-marketing campaign with an estimated annual budget of $3 million, and create new logos, taglines and store signage for the client. The agency will also assist with the launch of Innovation's new flagship-store location at the World Trade Center in New York. The campaign will incorporate print, magazine and radio advertising, as well as public relations efforts. The agency will also create a branding campaign for Newark-based freight-transportation company G.O.D.Linett & Harrison, a full-service agency in Millburn, has established a recruitment advertising division, which will focus on human resources professionals' need to attract and retain qualified job candidates. Diane Ahle, director of recruitment advertising, and Sue Manganiello, manager of recruitment advertising, will head the new division. The agency will also work on an image and awareness campaign for Rowan University, formerly Glassboro State University. In addition, Linett & Harrison was recently hired by the College of Staten Island to create an aggressive recruitment and image campaign.Following a formal review, QLM Marketing in Princeton was hired by Atlanta-based The Home Service Store for responsibilities including branding, integrated marketing and promotion.Gráfica, a full-service eCRM integrated-marketing agency in Chester, has been named by Business News New Jersey as one of "New Jersey's Finest" in the magazine's annual report honoring the "Garden State's Best Privately Held Companies." The magazine selected 26 companies whose achievements include overcoming challenges, employment growth, attaining special goals, revenue increases and a relationship to New Jersey's overall economy. AccessColo, based in Morristown, has hired marketing-communications company Wordsmith Communications Group in Randolph to create and implement national marketing and public relations programs. The client provides carrier-neutral, telco-grade collocation facilities for voice, data and Internet-service providers. BergerBrown Communications in South Orange has been selected by Usable Products Co., based in New York, to create and implement the client's first national public relations campaign. Usable Products specializes in ease-of-use testing of Web sites and software products. PENNSYLVANIAInsights Unlimited, a direct marketing firm in Devon, has received a grant from the Ben Franklin Technology Center to develop an Internet service that will be used to collect change-of-address information for partner companies. The service is meant to help reduce call-center costs and allow partner companies to target messages to the moving audience better. Along with a matching contribution from IU, Ben Franklin's $7,500 grant is for the first stage of the project and will be used to pay for services provided by the Business Technology Center of West Chester University to evaluate IU's concept, identify the re-sources needed to implement it and de-velop a simple prototype to demonstrate its basic capabilities.

Brand Marketing

agency news

Adweek Staff

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Adweek Staff