BtoB articles from October 2003

BtoB archives from October 2003

Runner-Up: Kern Direct's strategy built on data collection.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROL KROL Bucking the trend among agencies, Los Angeles-based b-to-b shop Kern Direct expects a small increase (5%) in direct marketing revenues this year over the $15 million it tallied in 2002. Showing such improvement amid the...

Beyond the Biz; Washington Mutual gives customers a lift.(Briefs)
October 13, 2003... Washington Mutual Bank is giving its banking customers and prospects free cab rides around Chicago as part of a special promotion fashioned by Seattle-based SuperGraphics, a company that creates outdoor advertising. For the promotion,...

AGENDA.(Calendar/Datebook)
October 13, 2003... Oct. 15-16 B-to-B Marketing: Making the Business Case for Web-Marketing American Marketing Association and Institute for the Study of Business Markets Chicago Hyatt Regency Chicago (800) AMA-1150 ...

Appeals court gives go-ahead to national do-not-call registry.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol In the latest chapter of a monthlong saga, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver last week blocked the order of a lower federal court ruling that had stopped enforcement of the popular do-not-call registry....

Travel ads take off after delay; Airlines, hospitality firms woo business travelers.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX The beleaguered travel industry is finally starting to pump some money back into advertising, reaching out to business travelers with new ad campaigns as the economy slowly recovers. Most travel companies, including...

Exclusive: Agencies hope Chicago is their kind of town; HSR, NKH&W consider ways to establish foothold in city.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Sean Callahan In what may be a sign of Chicago's resurgence as a b-to-b marketing stronghold, two prominent advertising agencies told BtoB they want to open offices in the city, perhaps by the beginning of next year. Both...

Cut to the Chase: Television.(Chasers)(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Company: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. Agency: McCann-Erickson, San Francisco Market: Managers, meeting planners Quick chase: It's often hard to capture the essence of a technical product in 30 seconds. But Microsoft manages to convey the...

Cut to the Chase: Print.(Chasers)(1 & 1 Internet)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Company: 1&1 Internet, Berwyn, Pa. Agency: In-house Market: Small-business executives and Web masters Quick chase: The Chasers usually tell advertisers with overly busy ads to think about a spread. The problem here is that 1&1, a Web hosting...

Quick Hits; W.W. Grainger plans multiyear expansion.(Briefs)
October 13, 2003... Industrial supply company W.W. Grainger announced a multiyear expansion program designed to increase its market presence in the U.S. The program will begin in Atlanta, Denver and Seattle with larger branches and additional employees. The...

Quote Unquote.(Opinion)(General Electric Co.'s Tim McCleary)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... "We heard very quickly that people were not going to tolerate [pop-up ads]. That lasted two days, and that part of the campaign was stopped and we moved on.'' Tim McCleary, manager, corporate identity and online marketing at General...

Past disciplines more relevant now than ever.(Opinion)(direct marketing)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Mac McIntosh The struggling economy, the state of world affairs and the caution with which businesses are operating today have conspired to cause many marketing strategies to sputter or fail. Like putting your foot on the gas pedal...

Survey: DM companies plan to boost staff in Q4.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROL KROL Fifty-one percent of the direct marketing companies that responded to a recent employment survey said they plan to add staff in the current quarter. Most of the hiring will be for new positions rather than...

DMA taken to task over AIM e-mail document.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(Direct Marketing Association, Association for Interactive Marketing's Council for Responsible E-mail )
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROL KROL After eight months of work, the Association for Interactive Marketing's Council for Responsible E-mail last Thursday released "E-mail Delivery Best Practices.'' But a number of e-mail industry executives contend AIM's...

PBI acquires 'CableWorld' from Primedia Business.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN It's a case of two troubled companies exchanging a troubled magazine in a troubled market sector. Last week, Potomac, Md.-based PBI Media announced its acquisition of CableWorld from Primedia Business Magazines &...

Communications strategy firm debuts.(News)(Beacon Advisors)(Company Profile)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN During the dot-com craze, with its don't-trust-any-executive-over-30 worldview, it would have been risky to launch a company like Beacon Advisors, a b-to-b communications strategy firm that announced its debut in...

Financial ads seek a bigger audience; Firms look beyond shareholders in touting positive results in the business press.(Business Media)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN Last month, computer disk drive manufacturer Seagate Technologies ran a four-page spread in The Wall Street Journal that featured the highlights of the company's recent 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange...

Surveys point to a slow recovery for ad industry.(News)(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX An advertising recovery is slowly but surely under way, according to several reports released in the last month. At the very broadest level, 54% of the top advertising leaders in the country said the industry is...

Briefs; USPS gives BPA, ABC initial audit authority.(Business Media)(U.S. Postal Service, BPA International and the Audit Bureau of Circulations )(Highline Media acquires National Underwriter Co.)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The U.S. Postal Service signed an agreement with BPA International and the Audit Bureau of Circulations to allow auditing companies to conduct initial as well as periodic audits in order to qualify publications for USPS periodical rates. Prior...

Personal pronouns talk directly to your audience.(Chasers)
October 13, 2003... One of the most powerful words in b-to-b advertising is "you''-as in "hey, you.'' The Chasers have long maintained that copy is more persuasive when it speaks to the reader as an individual, like one friend telling another friend about a good...

Targeted online advertising helps AMD launch new processor; Case Study: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.(NetMarketing)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX CHALLENGE: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Sunnyvale, Calif., took aim at the enterprise information technology market when it launched its AMD Opteron processor in April. "It was our first aggressive attempt to get...

Sponsorships now part of media mix; Marketers, media planners see increased exposure by buying into events, publications.(Advertising)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX Marketers and media planners increasingly are seeking innovative sponsorship opportunities in an effort to reach their target audiences. In response to this demand, media agency Carat North America in August created a...

By Design: Good Technology redesigns site, provides online resources for users.(NetMarketing)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Kate Maddox Company: Good Technology, Sunnyvale, Calif. Web site: www.good.com Relaunch date: July 14, 2003 Agency: Clear Ink, Berkeley, Calif. Design: Good Technology, which makes wireless corporate messaging...

Optimistic signs heading into Q4.(Opinion)(Editorial)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Ellis Booker Not only is it Indian summer as I write this, but the Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs, where they won a post-season series for the first time since 1908. (In other local news: BtoB has learned that two prominent...

California shuts golden gates to spam; Advertisers, e-mailers face fines if no prior relationship.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROL KROL Critics of California's new spam law, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2004, say the legislation has serious implications for online publishers, marketers and advertisers, and could have a dramatic impact on the e-mail...

Tiger tees off in new Accenture campaign; Firm looks to Woods to deliver `high performance' after he signs his first b-to-b endorsement deal.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN The first three days of Tiger Woods' tenure as Accenture spokesman went splendidly. The Bermuda-based consulting firm launched its $75 million campaign featuring Woods on Oct. 3, including TV spots aired during ESPN's...

Guest Column: Achieve online advertising nirvana.(NetMarketing)(Column)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Jeff Lanctot There are those who still believe that the Internet has been unable to deliver on its initial goal of delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. This is simply not the case. Online...

Agency of the Year: OgilvyOne's integrated approach gets results.(Direct Marketing Special Report)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX OgilvyOne North America, which has created outstanding work for b-to-b clients such as IBM Corp., American Express Co., SAP and Cisco Systems, has been named Agency of the Year in this year's BtoB Top Direct Agencies...

Q&A: Beystehner drives UPS' brand vision.(News)(United Parcel Service of America Inc.'s John Beystehner)(Interview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN John Beystehner, senior VP- sales and marketing at United Parcel Service of America, has held numerous jobs in his 30 years at the shipping company. In the late 1970s, he worked in the marketing department....

FALLBACK POSITION; Anxious direct marketers embrace customer retention while cautiously looking for opportunities to start prospecting again.(Direct Marketing Special Report)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol Many b-to-b direct marketers, under continued pressure from legislative and economic constraints, plan to focus on retention strategies in the coming year. Their reasons are simple: Retaining customers is less expensive...

Is it time to blow away IMC?(Opinion)(integrated marketing communications and integrated customer behavior management)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Robert F. Lauterborn Imc was a label Don Schultz, Stan Tannenbaum and I stuck on a process nearly a dozen years ago in a book titled "Integrated Marketing Communications: Pulling It Together and Making It Work.'' What we thought we...

Discussing the state of direct.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(Panel Discussion)
October 13, 2003... For the second year in a row, BtoB convened a roundtable of leading b-to-b direct marketers at the DMA's annual B-to-B Conference, held in September in Tucson, Ariz. These experts delved into topics including the decline in direct mail volume,...

Outsourcing of marketing programs is on the rise.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX Almost half of b-to-b marketers who participated in a recent survey said they plan to increase their outsourcing of marketing programs next year. The survey, conducted last month by strategic marketing firm Bright...

Case Study: Avnet uses CRM to help VAR partners capture more business.(CRM Strategies)(Avnet Hall-Mark, customer relationship management, value added resellers)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Karen J. Bannan Challenge: Avnet Hall-Mark is a distributor of services, software and hardware manufactured by big companies such as IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Veritas Software Corp. and EMC Corp. But the distributor's customers...

Financial firms' CRM evolves; Marketers taking CRM companywide have improved view of customer relationships.(CRM Strategies)(customer relationship management )
October 13, 2003... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Consumer financial companies have enjoyed the benefits of customer relationship management technology for several years. They've been able to gather detailed customer data and use the information to make decisions....

New Campaigns.(Advertising)(FedEx Corp. and Intel Corp. )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... FedEx ads tell execs to relax FedEx Corp. launched a new series of TV spots during the opening telecast of ABC's "Monday Night Football'' on Sept. 4. The campaign, which has a tagline of "Relax, it's FedEx,'' was developed by BBDO New...

Online Advertising Myths Debunked!(NetMarketing)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Karen J. Bannan You've heard the corporate legends of marketers achieving superhuman feats with their online advertising campaigns, getting faster, smarter and more powerful results than ever before. But if you've failed to...

Integration key to success for leading direct agencies.(Direct Marketing Special Report)(integrating direct marketing)
October 13, 2003... Byline: KATE MADDOX Ad agencies have developed many different organizational structures to handle direct marketing, from stand-alone units to fully integrated operations within their agencies. Some have acquired direct shops to gain...

Agencies weigh pay-for-performance risks.(Direct Marketing Special Report)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Kate Maddox With the pressure to prove the performance of ad campaigns, some direct agencies are being asked by clients to implement some form of pay-for-performance compensation. With a performance-based model, agencies are...

Correction.(Corrections)(Correction Notice)
October 13, 2003... The Chasers mistakenly identified an ad reviewed last month as being for Micron Technology (Cut to the Chase-Print, Page 34). The ad was for MPC Computers.

October 1973: Correcting a bad impression; Hindsight A b-to-b time capsule.(Opinion)
October 13, 2003... Howard G. "Scotty" Sawyer, VP-marketing services at Marsteller Inc. and longtime Copy Chasers columnist, argued 30 years ago that companies that pull their advertising after taking offense at editorial coverage are making a big mistake. ...

'BtoB'Best awards; call for nominations.(Chasers)
October 13, 2003... BtoB magazine's December issue will feature the BtoB Best Awards (formerly known as the Sawyer Awards). These awards recognize the year's best b-to-b advertising in four categories: best integrated campaign, best single TV spot, best single...

Determined to survive; Penton Media executives have come a long way toward getting the company's finances back on track, but are they running out of time?
October 13, 2003... Byline: Sean Callahan At times, Tom Kemp, chairman-CEO, and Dan Ramella, president-COO, might have thought they weren't running a company named Penton Media but instead a company called Murphy's Law Enterprises, where everything that could...

From the Publisher: Time to focus on e-mail newsletters.(News)(Editorial)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Bob Felsenthal Abig trend impacting our business is the explosion of e-mail newsletters. At Crain Communications, a very traditional publishing company with 30 print titles, we publish more than 45 e-mail newsletters. At tech...

Circulating: Gardner's Jacobs targets privacy issue.(Circulation)(Brief Article)(Interview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol These days, circulation executives at b-to-b publishing companies are keeping close tabs on hot-button privacy issues while continuing to move business to the more cost-effective online platform. Ross Jacobs, assistant...

Motivating the sales force; Trade publishers look for creative incentives to encourage sales teams during ad recession.(Ad Sales)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Lee Hall Trade publishers have come up with some effective ways to motivate their front-line sales teams during the dark days of the advertising recession. The creative use of incentives and bonuses has helped keep turnover among...

Oliver returns to run retail group as Reed makes cuts.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN First, Larry Oliver was at Reed Business Information. Then in August, he jumped to VNU Business Media. And then a few weeks later, he returned to Reed Business, but in a different job. Call it Oliver's twist. ...

Correction.(News)(Correction Notice)
October 13, 2003... Joseph Angel's name was misspelled in the September issue of BtoB's Media Business (Page 26). Angel is publisher of privately held Summit Publishing.

CNET connects surveys, behavioral data; New site offers cross-network research for buyers, advertisers.(Online)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Kate Maddox Concurrent with the launch of a new, consumer-focused Web site earlier this month, CNET Networks unveiled Personal Tech Radar, a research tool that combines monthly survey data from CNET's audience of technology buyers...

On the move.(appointments and promotions)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Chait promoted at WWD Media Worldwide Lara Chait was promoted to senior director of the marketing and promotion group at WWD Media Worldwide, a division of Advance Publications Inc.'s Fairchild Publications. She will oversee marketing for...

Profile: Watt Publishing diversifies; Family business expands into furniture trades.(People)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN A conservative family business founded in 1917, Watt Publishing Co. made its first non-agricultural acquisition this summer, buying Chartwell Communications, a publisher of cabinet and furniture industry trade...

A new value proposition for readers and advertisers.(Endnote)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Michael Friedenberg When the economy turns around, will every media property rise with the tide? Unless you have taken the time over the past few years to reinvent the core value proposition that your media company offers the...

Quote.(News)
October 13, 2003... "Our salespeople have to sell day in and day out...it gives them that armadillo-like skin." Tony Ramos, Medical World Communications Page 20

Benchmarks.
October 13, 2003... See printed publication for the following: Notable numbers: Banking titles post gains Bin categories: Trade publication ad pages; Trade publication spending Tech publications: Ad pages; Ad revenue Business publications: Ad...

Best Practices: `Food Engineering' credits experience.(Ad Sales)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Sean Callahan In the past decade, Food Engineering has changed hands a couple of times, moving from Chilton to Cahners (now Reed Business Information) to Business News Publishing Co. Despite its revolving-door ownership, the...

Show spotlight: DCI's Customer Relationship Management Conference and Exposition.(Events)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol Producer: DCI What: In its eighth year, DCI is an event for executives who oversee CRM initiatives. The conference program consists of various tracks, such as skill development; implementation and integration;...

Pressing issues: What works? PDFs, face time with publishers.(Printing)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Based in Hinsdale, Ill., Banta Publications Group generated $185 million in revenue last year. The organization, a division of Banta Corp., produced half its revenue by printing b-to-b magazines. BtoB's Media Business asked Group President...

Digital Distribution; Publishers explore electronic versions of their core titles.(Feature)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Richard Karpinski For years, business publishers tried-often unsuccessfully-to craft online strategies that were notably distinct from their traditional print properties, with separate staffs, editorial agendas, budgets and brands....

Circulation sees biggest gains in ABM compensation survey.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Lee Hall The latest compensation survey from American Business Media shows that circulation is the hot department in b-to-b publishing right now. People in charge of circulation at b-to-b publications enjoyed some of the greatest...

Penton Timeline.
October 13, 2003... 1892: John Augustus Penton publishes Foundry magazine. 1901: Penton relocates to Cleveland. 1925: Penton prints the initial issue of Time magazine. 1929: Machine Design debuts. 1936: Penton launches New Equipment Digest. ...

Ziff launches events unit; Company returns to larger-scale events, hires founders of TM Media to oversee business.(Events)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol New York-based Ziff Davis Media announced last month it has hired the founders of event-marketing company TM Media to launch a business unit specializing in events. The new unit, Ziff Davis Event Marketing Group,...

The Big Questions; Jim Casella, CEO, Reed Business Information U.S.(News)(Brief Article)(Interview)
October 13, 2003... Q. How important is subscription-based revenue ? A. It's fair to say we place a very high value on subscription-based revenue. Having said that, it's not at the expense of valuing our adver- tising revenue. For us, it's getting a balance,...

Agenda.(Calendar/Datebook)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
October 13, 2003... Oct. 19-22 2003 American Magazine Conference Magazine Publishers of America Rancho Mirage, Calif. Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa (212) 872-3755 www.magazine.org Oct. 27-29 The 29th Annual Folio:Show ...

Advanstar restructures debt.(News)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN Advanstar Communications, which agreed in August to acquire Thomson Media's health care publications, in September made the latest of several financial moves designed to increase the company's equity-to-debt ratio and...

Finding new subscribers; Circulation executives search for solutions to falling response rates, shrinking list supply.(Circulation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Carol Krol After mining their own customer lists for too long, b-to-b circulation executives are now dealing with the results-including an ever-shrinking supply of quality names and lists. Contributing to the problem are list...

Pros, cons of digital editions.(Feature)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Richard Karpinski Advantages: Cost savings: Production and distribution costs less than half of traditional print costs. Reaching new markets: New readers, particularly international subscribers. New ad vehicles: Ad bundles...

Time to start making deals? Uptick in ad pages causes excitement, but few expect a sudden surge in b-to-b transactions.(M&A)
October 13, 2003... Byline: MARY ELLEN PODMOLIK B-to-b media executives and analysts would really like to think that a recently reported rise in ad pages is a precursor to increased merger and acquisition activity. But try as they might, they just can't be...

Paper industry raises prices; Manufacturers, faced with low demand, overcapacity, wait to see if new rates hold.(Printing)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN For b-to-b publishers, extremely low paper prices have been the one bright spot in the recession dogging the industry. "It's definitely a buyer's market and has been for two years,'' said Tom Purple, VP of paper...

Analyst Insight: Integration offers competitive edge.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Sean Callahan The most obvious reason for b-to-b media companies to offer an integrated business model is the simple fact that marketers want to reach their customers and prospects in a range of ways: in print, in person and...