Chief Marketer Staff

• VeriSign, eBay Strike Deal for Online Payments

  Online auction seller eBay will purchase VeriSign’s payment processing gateway business for $370 million and combine it with the PayPal merchant services to secure transactions by eBay users.

• Omnicom Unit Buys Mobile Marketer

  Diversified Agency Services, a unit of Omnicom Group, has acquired ipsh!, a mobile marketing services and technology company based in San Francisco.

• People in the News

  Scott Sanborn has been named senior vice president of marketing for television and online marketing site HSN, an operating company owned by InterActive Corp.

• Online Buyers Start from Search: Report

  The majority of online adult shoppers conduct research before they buy, and two-fifths of those do so starting from a search engine, according to a new survey from search marketing firm iCrossing.

• Agencies

  Loose Cannon: Advertising Week – The Missing Sessions

  During the last week of September, New York City was the host for Advertising Week 2005, a multi-venue conference. Featured sessions were largely filled with pomp and platitudes. A more realistic view of the industry might have included a few of the following

• Wal-Mart Adds Checkout TV

  Wal-Mart TV Network is adding a new channel: Checkout TV. The expansion of Wal-Mart’s in-store TV network puts flat-panel monitors in checkout lanes, running local entertainment, news and weather updates, and promos for new products and items shelved …

• Interactive Toys Top “Hot Dozen” Holiday Season Toys

  Interactive toys seem to be the pick of the year when it comes to playthings, according to Toy Wishes magazine. The magazine last week flagged 12 toys as the “Hot Dozen” for 2005those predicted to be most in demand and likely the hardest to findat …

• Oh, the Horror: Missing Out on a Passion Set

  On Oct. 1, the cable-TV network Encore aired the world television premiere of “Toolbox Murders,” a grisly slasher film that seemingly only the director’s mother could love. Well, the director’s mother and a relatively small but rabid group of aficionados.

• Listline e-Newsletter 10/07/05

  Multi Ag Media LLC has chosen Chilcutt Direct Marketing to manage three
  dairy industry files. The largest Farm Market ID is a database that
  identifies more than 1.3 million dairy farm owners and operators.

• Q&A with Mark Hughes: Word of Mouth Key to Every Brand Campaign

  Mark Hughes, whose book “Buzzmarketing” was released in July by Penguin/Portfolio, shared his insights and knowledge of word-of-mouth marketing with the CHIEF MARKETER editors: