Chief Marketer Staff

• Digital

  Onvia Finds Better Leads for Less

  Onvia Software was facing a challenge in its search marketing: It was working too well. Faced with a requirement to cut acuisition costs, onvia also faced the problem of deciding which campaigns produced the hottest leads, then losing the underperformers.

• Digital

  VideoEgg Hatches Permissioned Video Ad Network

  Video is big on the Internet, and particularly consumer-generated video. But so far, agreement over how to profit from it through advertising is not. Video hosting platform VideoEgg may have come up with one part of the answer: permission-based ads that advertisers don’t pay for until a user sees them.

• Listline e-Newsletter 10/04/06

  Cygnus Business Media’s e-mail master file has made its market debut.
  The file contains the names of more than 250,000 executives in
  agriculture, food, aviation transportation, construction equipment and
  other industries that subscribe to the company’s controlled circulation
  magazines.

• Agencies

  FTC Rejects Pre-Recorded EBR Calls, Seeks Comment on Call Abandonment Rate Changes

  The Federal Trade Commission rejected a proposal which would have allowed telemarketers that have established business relationships (EBRs) with consumers to use prerecorded messages. Separately, the FTC requested feedback regarding an amendment to the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The change would reconfigure how call abandonment rates are calculated.

• Agencies

  Cenveo Ups Takeover Bid After Banta Rejects Offer

  Cenveo Inc. made a late-Tuesday offer of $50 per share for all of the stock of printer Banta Corp. The offer came after Banta rejected an unsolicited bid from Cenveo, under which Cenveo would acquire Banta for $47 per share, early Tuesday morning.

• Xerox to Acquire XMPie For $54 Million

  Xerox Corp. will acquire XMPie for $54 million. The all-cash purchase is expected to close in the next 30 days. XMPie will maintain its brand name and function as a standalone software unit. Xerox had been XMPie’s largest reseller.

• Deluxe Names Mike Degeneffe CIO

  Deluxe Corp., St. Paul, MN, has hired Mike Degeneffe, to serve as chief information officer. Degeneffe will start his new position on Oct. 9. Degeneffe comes to Deluxe from Residential Funding Corporation, a business unit of GMAC, where he served as its chief information officer and the enterprise chief technology officer.

• Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog Offers Space Travel, Backyard Water Parks

  Neiman Marcus has issued its 80th annual Christmas Book. This year’s edition offers its usual selection of offbeat gifts, including a charter flight into space via Virgin Galactic ($1,764,000.00 for six-person space trip charter); a backyard water park (an assortment of sprays and water cannons starts at $100,000); and a one-of-a-kind 26-volume set of couture designs from women’s fashion designer Jacques Fath ($3.5 million).

• Agencies

  Moet Hennessy Custom Designs Free Music Cards

  Free tunes are the incentive Moet Hennessy is adding to a new digital music promotion that targets both English- and Spanish-speaking consumers.

• Agencies

  Nestlé Waters Rolls Out School Loyalty Program

  Nestlé Waters North America is rolling out a new loyalty program that rewards schools nationwide with sports equipment and field trips in exchange for labels from its Pure Life brand.