Chief Marketer Staff

• Advo Allies Insert Programs with Newspapers

  (Direct Newsline)—Advo, Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Paddock Publications to jointly distribute advertising inserts by mail and the Daily Herald newspaper in the Chicago area. The combined insert program will reach more than 725,000 …

• Championship Group Hires Exec VP-Promotions/Sponsorships

  Championship Group has hired Tony Hobson, a thirty-five year sports marketing and sales promotion industry veteran, as executive VP with responsibility for corporate promotions and sponsorship. Most recently, Hobson was a VP with Hope-Beckham Public …

• Agencies

  P&I Postscripts

  SEARS: is out with its newest gift card design: a gift card that doubles as a picture frame. Consumers can customize the card by inserting a family portrait or a picture of the gift intended for the recipient. NAPSTER AND BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE: have …

• News Briefs

  THE BLUE-GRAY ALL-STAR CLASSIC: has been cancelled for the second time in three years because it could not find a corporate sponsor. The Blue-Gray game was a Christmas tradition since 1978, featuring college seniors from teams that didn’t qualify for …

• AOL Slashes 750 Jobs

  America Online Inc. Tuesday began cutting 750 jobs, more than half at the firm’s Northern Virginia headquarters, according to wire service reports.

• Live From NCDM: For KinderCare, Segmentation is Child’s Play

  Anyone who has ever given a toddler a baseball glove or a 12-year-old the latest incarnation of an Elmo doll quickly realizes that children are not a homogenous demographic group. This realization is often accompanied by tears (of the gift recipient, not the giver).

• Live From NCDM: How AT&T Refined Its Targeting

  This is a story about the age-old conflict between marketing and sales. It’s also about how the two sides came together to achieve some extraordinary things.

• Live From NCDM: Dutch Firm Gives Control To Sales Reps

  Conventional wisdom states that millions can be made and businesses built through cross-selling. But it didn’t quite work that way for Spaarbeleg, a Dutch financial institution.

• Mail Strike May Be Looming

  About 75 Kansas City area union truckers said they voted to go on strike because they were concerned about the safety of the mail.

• Agencies Now Direct SEM Spending, Says Report

  Search engine marketing agencies now direct the majority of SEM spending in the U.S., according to a report from Jupitermedia Corp.