BtoB articles from January 2004

BtoB archives from January 2004

Rules to remember for TV advertising.(Chasers)
January 19, 2004... Unlike moments on the playing fields of the National Football League, moments of triumph in America's office spaces are rarely recognized. But, in a lighthearted TV send-up of the exhilarating moment when a winning coach is doused by his...

Microsoft raises profile in direct; Software giant provides direct, e-mail campaigns to resellers, small businesses.(Direct & Database)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL Microsoft Business Solutions is gaining a significant presence as a direct marketing services provider to its small-business partners and resellers. The turnkey program encompasses the entire direct marketing...

New Raptor site offers detailed product info.(NetMarketing)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Jeremy Esposito Company: Raptor Networks Technology Web site: www.raptor-networks.com Agency: Crisp Digital Branding, Newport Beach, Calif. Launch date: Dec. 12, 2003 Design: Until recently, Raptor Networks...

Goat or Gloat.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Company: Lexmark, Lexington, Ky. Agency: LB Works, Chicago Market: IT managers Quick chase: We're all for having a good time in b-to-b advertising, but let's not forget that the target audience still needs to be able to read the message. The...

BtoB Q&A: DMA chief Wientzen to retire this summer; Exec points to postal reform, spam as ongoing challenges.(News)(Interview)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL H. Robert Wientzen, president-CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, last month announced he would retire July 1. The seasoned marketing veteran came to the DMA in 1996 from Advanced Promotion Technologies, where...

January 1948: Unwritten journalistic law; Hindsight A b-to-b time capsule.(Opinion)
January 19, 2004... Fifty-six years ago in Industrial Marketing, adman Luis Gibson of the New York-based George H. Gibson Co. offered some presumably unsolicited advice to business editors: If all that is significant can be told in a sentence or two, that's...

Siemens makes portal problems easy to track.(CRM Strategies)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Karen J. Bannan CHALLENGE: Siemens Buyside Marketplace USA (www.siemens.com/click2procure) is a procurement Web portal designed for Siemens employees. The site, which is accessed by 35,000 people worldwide, lets employees buy...

In Direct.(Direct & Database)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Accenture, Acxiom join on databases Accenture and database giant Acxiom Corp. have joined forces to develop database solutions for joint clients in vertical industries including retail, financial services, telecommunications, consumer...

Hanley Wood puts show on the road; Traveling construction exhibition will visit top 20 U.S. housing markets.(Business Media)
January 19, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN Construction industry media company Hanley Wood has taken the traditional trade show and told it to hit the road. The publisher of Builder and the developer of ebuild.com, Hanley Wood in March will launch a mobile...

Wientzen's track record at DMA.(News)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... The Direct Marketing Association has made progress on several fronts since H. Robert Wientzen was named president-CEO in 1996. Among these achievements were increasing the trade group's membership to 4,700 from 3,200, and boosting its...

Industry scrambles to comply with e-mail legislation.(NetMarketing)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL In an attempt to ensure compliance with the new federal anti-spam legislation and to guarantee ongoing commitment to commercial e-mail marketing, several e-mail marketing providers are working to educate clients on the...

Media News.(Business Media)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... CMP Media debuts 'Digital Connect' CMP Media this month introduced Digital Connect Magazine, a publication aimed at integrators providing services that unite IT and consumer electronics products to create applications for the home and...

How to get rich media's punch without the pain.(NetMarketing)
January 19, 2004... Byline: RUSSELL SHAW If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is an e-mail with video and Flash animation worth? It's a question that many in the e-mail marketing industry have debated. On the plus side, rich-media e-mail...

Quick Hits; TNS projects robust 2004 ad spending.(Briefs)
January 19, 2004... Ad spending is expected to reach $138.4 billion this year, up 7.8% from last year, according to a new forecast from TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. The forecast is based on the economy's continuing to rebound this year. Last year's ad spending was...

Marketers opt for short-term results.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN This year, driving sales is in and brand building is still out. Those are among the findings of an exclusive BtoB survey of 422 marketing executives, which revealed that while b-to-b companies appear ready to...

The BIG deal with small business; Marketing giants looking for growth opportunities launch a flurry of ads aimed at small companies.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX The small and midsize business (SMB) market represents a huge growth opportunity for b-to-b marketers this year, experts say, and many companies are launching new campaigns and strategies to target this audience....

Paid search opponents' keyword: lawsuit; Trademark holders challenge Google, others on core issue.(News)(American Blind & Wallpaper Factory)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL Search engine leader Google, enjoying the meteoric rise of the billion-dollar search marketing industry and on the cusp of its initial public offering, doesn't need a court case challenging the legality of its core...

Consider these coming shifts in information consumption.(Opinion)(Column)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Ellis Booker My column last month ended with this: "[Marketers] continually need to revisit how their customers prefer to be reached, how they consume information and marketing messages, and how their habits for both are...

New Campaigns.(Advertising)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Butterfly talks in new Microsoft campaign Microsoft Corp.'s butterfly character finally gets a speaking part in a new ad campaign promoting the latest version of MSN Internet service. The effort, an extension of MSN's "It's better with the...

BtoB Q&A: As IT spending rallies, marketers revisit CRM; META Group's Roche outlines strategies for success.(CRM Strategies)(Interview)
January 19, 2004... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN IT budgets are rebounding in 2004, and there's a lot of pent-up demand for customer-related applications, according to industry experts. As a result, they say, companies are likely to take another look at customer...

Agencies find they must create demand for services.(Special Report: Selecting an Agency)
January 19, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX B-to-b ad agencies, which saw a steep dropoff in business over the last two years, are aggressively pursing new accounts with their own advertising, promotional efforts and outreach programs. Some agencies have...

Guest Column - Worst practices: 12 ways to lose a customer fast.(NetMarketing)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Andy Sernovitz E-mail marketing is great when it's done well, but it's an embarrassing disaster if you do it wrong. Stick to safe e-mail practices, or you're going to anger your customers and embarrass your company. Here are 12...

Selecting an Agency; B-to-b marketers want creative solution providers that understand their business.(Special Report: Selecting an Agency)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Kate Maddox Even as the economy bounces back and marketers have more to spend, they are being extra cautious about how they allocate resources to agency work and select agency partners. Agency business is picking up, as...

`BtoB' adds search marketing newsletter.(News)
January 19, 2004... Starting this month, one issue per month of "BtoB's Hands-On'' e-mail newsletter will be dedicated to search marketing. "Hands-On: Search'' will address an increasingly significant online channel for marketers. Like the standard...

Quote Unquote.(Opinion)
January 19, 2004... "The DMA will need to find a way to help companies do that, to do more than the minimum legal requirements.'' Robert Wientzen, retiring president-CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, on the challenges facing direct marketers and the DMA...

Direct Personality: Barlow hits ground running.(Direct & Database)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL List industry veteran Tim Barlow doesn't waste any time. Since VentureDirect Worldwide named him VP of its List Services Group in October, he has managed to acquire two new clients and has expanded the company's...

Protecting your online assets.(Opinion)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Yurong Lin Promoting your business online gets more difficult all the time. Establishing your presence is easy-the tough part is protecting it. Defending your domain name from cybersquatters can be costly and time-consuming....

Prospects good for postal reform; President urges congress to move quickly; labor issues could be stumbling block.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL With President Bush's support, direct marketers and publishers may finally see postal reform legislation pass this year, after years of political wrangling. Advocates say failure to bring about postal reform could...

Tech marketers focus on leads, align budgets.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX As the technology economy slowly recovers, tech marketers this year will be more focused on lead generation, measurement and finding new niches and services for customers, according to recent reports on IT marketing...

Exclusive: Microsoft, GE top brand equity study.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN When executives talk about return on marketing investment, they usually look at e-mail, direct mail and other easily measurable forms of communications. Most of the time, branding doesn't even enter the ROI...

Agriculture marketers not growing their budgets.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN In mid-December, the sun seemed to be shining on the agriculture industry. Indeed, a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 17 celebrated the strength of agribusiness, citing farm income increases, high...

FedEx thinks small with $2.4 billion purchase of Kinko's.(News)
January 19, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN At FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service of America, the battle for small-business customers seems to get bigger every day. FedEx announced on Dec. 30 that it was acquiring privately held Kinko's-which it called "a...

Cut to the Chase: Print.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Company: Vocus, Lanham, Md. Agency: In-house Market: Public relations managers Quick chase: You'd be smiling too, if you could demonstrate to your boss that your communications program actually works. Vocus, a provider of online software for...

Case Study: D&B uses Flash e-mail to promote data product; Rich-media demo helps salespeople get appointments, explain product benefits.(NetMarketing)
January 19, 2004... Byline: RUSSELL SHAW Starting in September 2003, D&B, the risk management product and services company formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet, began distributing a Flash e-mail to help demonstrate and promote its Enterprise Risk Assessment...

Beyond the Biz; Marketers, find your inner interrogator.(Briefs)
January 19, 2004... Marketers looking to connect with their audience could learn a thing or two from the U.S. Army, according to Bill Eaton, who recently joined Harrisburg, Pa.-based ad agency Pavone as an account coordinator. Eaton, who formerly worked as an...

Steps toward agreeing on ROI metrics.(Opinion)
January 19, 2004... Byline: Michael Reineck In this post-recession, Six Sigma-driven world, we all agree ROI principles should be applied to marketing. But how should advertisers and their agencies go about agreeing on marketing metrics? The following...

Client criteria in selecting an agency.(Special Report: Selecting an Agency)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Clients want agencies to demonstrate the following: 1. Outstanding creative ideas and execution. 2. An understanding of the client's business and industry. 3. Good chemistry with the client. 4. An excellent reputation and track...

Monster boosts ad budget to $125M; Online job site launches new campaign aimed at job seekers; employers to be targeted next.(Advertising)
January 19, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX Monster Worldwide last month kicked off a new ad campaign for its Monster.com online career site and announced it would boost its ad budget by about 20% in 2004. Monster, which turns 10 this year, said it will spend...

Cut to the Chase: Internet.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... Company: McData, Brookfield, Colo. Agency: Sicola Martin, Austin, Texas Market: Chief information officers, storage managers Quick chase: McData puts some bounce in its banner by dangling a man on a bungee cord. At first, we weren't quite sure...

Chasers' criteria for TV ads.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... In last month's Chasers column, we highlighted our criteria for print ads. Below are our 10 guidelines for effective b-to-b TV advertising. 1. Use a compelling visual in the spot's opening scene to arrest the viewer's attention. 2....