Chief Marketer Staff

• Budweiser Makes its Own Line of BBQ Sauces

  Anheuser-Busch is set to bow a new line of Budweiser barbeque sauces that it hopes will pair well with sipping a few cold beers this summer.

• Universal Hires Velocity for Park and Resort Sponsorships

  Universal Parks & Resorts (UPR) has named marketing agency Velocity Sports & Entertainment as its exclusive corporate partnerships sales agency for the company’s theme parks and resort destinations. Work starts immediately.

• Agencies

  Staples Names Davie-Brown AOR for Entertainment

  Staples has hired Davie-Brown Entertainment as agency of record for entertainment marketing.

• Marketers Off the Mark When Targeting Moms: Study

  Marketers that are targeting mothers are missing the mark, according to a survey conducted by Draft Chicago. Moms who were polled said they are much more than “just moms” and they want to be recognized as such by advertisers.

• News Briefs

  CRACKER BARREL: is selling a new CD by artist…PANASONIC: has been named the official battery supplier of the…

• Agencies

  Silverpop Survey Shows Best-Practices Gap

  It sounds dumb, but some marketers are failing to give people a reason for signing up for their e-mail newsletters. And too few are offering opt-ins on every page of their Web sites. Those are two findings of a new list-growth survey by Silverpop.

• Email

  IMN Takes a Dose Of Its Own Medicine

  IMN has been advising people for years on how to create and upgrade their e-mail newsletters. Now the company is going to heed its own counsel. It is about to relaunch its monthly e-zine, now called Informed Marketer News, as Pro & Content.

• Agencies

  Going Mobile? Text Messaging Is Still the Way

  Mobile marketing is on the way, and it will usher in a Golden Age. Soon we’ll all be receiving rich-media ads over our Internet phones, being enticed by retailers with GPS capabilities to replace those worn jeans at 20% off, and watching TV—complete with ads—on our handsets. Get real.

• Digital

  Big Changes at Yahoo!, Big Commitments from Microsoft

  It’s been a big week for two of the Big Three search engines. On May 4, Microsoft held its annual MSN Strategic Account Summit in Redmond WA, where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reaffirmed plans to spend $1.1 billion in research and development on MSN in the fiscal year that starts this July—twice the amount the company spent last year.

• Digital

  Shopping with a Wiki Touch

  How do you follow an act like building an online advertising network, running it for 10 years and selling it to investors for $1.1 billion? If you