Chief Marketer Staff

• DMers Plan to Invest in 2006, Direct Survey Shows

  A fearless prediction: 2007 is going to be a banner year for direct marketers.

• News Briefs

  GENERAL MILLS: has inked a licensing deal with Senario, a Woodstock, IL-based designer and manufacturer of home and entertainment products. The deal includes a line of microbead and plush pillows featuring Trix, Coca Puffs, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, …

• TiVo to Offer Searchable Interactive TV Advertising Services

  TiVo Inc. plans to introduce a television advertising search engine for targeting its service subscribers starting in spring 2006.

• Spammers Still Harvest, But ISPs Better at Blocking: FTC

  Spammers are as busy as ever harvesting e-mail addresses, but Internet service providers block the vast majority of their attempts to flood consumers’ inboxes, according to a report released yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission.

• Web Sites to Generate Inbound Telemarketing Calls

  The e-commerce services firm Ingenio Inc. has reached an agreement to integrate pay per call direct response advertising on Web sites owned by Marchex Inc., a search marketing services firm.

• Local Online Media Buying Service Launched

  The Chicago-based media services firm Integrent has launched Centro, a new local online media buying service.

• DMers Plan to Invest in 2006, Direct Survey Shows

  A fearless prediction: 2007 is going to be a banner year for direct marketers.

  And 2006 will be a good one for vendors. That’s because DMers intend to invest heavily in both technology and media next year, according to Direct’s annual forecast survey.

• Agencies

  Third Quarter Rough for Sharper Image

  Sharper Image Corp.’s third quarter sales amounted to $123.1 million, down from $153. million, while its net loss widened from $3.7 million a year ago to $10.5 million

• Agencies

  Direct Sales Increasingly Important for Restoration Hardware

  Restoration Hardware Inc., Corte Madera, CA, generated $128.4 million during the third quarter of 2005, up from $118.2 million a year earlier. The home furnishings marketer reported a net loss of $4.2 million, an increase from the net loss of $3.1 million it had a year earlier.

• Agencies

  NetworkOmni Mailing Gets Big Response

  NetworkOmni got nearly a 9% response to a regional postcard campaign promoting language-translation services to emergency response agencies.