Chief Marketer Staff

• Agencies

  Advantex, Canadian Imperial Bank Extent Loyalty Marketing Agreement

  Advantex Marketing International Inc., a merchant funding and loyalty marketing program provider, has extended an agreement with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

• Email

  What’s your E-mail Marketing Story?

  Want to get better results from your email campaigns? Why not try telling a compelling story?
  Yes, the list and offers you make are important to your success, but so are copy platforms and how you present the information you want to convey. But why test a story?

• DataCo Hires Bernie Silverman As Market Research VP

  Bernie Silverman has joined DataCo LLC as VP of market research. His responsibilities will focus on new business development and qualitative analysis.

• PC Mall Debuts Small Business Social Network

  PC Mall Sales, Inc., has launched a Web-based social network targeting small business owners, senior management and information technology executives.

• Employment Survey Shows Small Gains In Hiring

  Nearly one in three direct marketing companies will add staff during fourth quarter 2009, up from 20% in the third quarter, according to a new employment survey.

• DMA Chair Endorses Nominees, Pike Letter Asks “Am I In A Minority?”

  In the latest salvo of the Direct Marketing Association proxy battle, DMA chair Kelly B. Browning sent out a letter endorsing the DMA’s slate of board members and seeking proxy votes. Board member Gerry Pike, who is mounting a counter-effort, e-mailed a message seeking feedback in the form of a survey, along with proxy votes.

• Board Never Saw Greco’s Salary, Says Pike

  Though the Direct Marketing Association contends its Compensation Committee raised President John Greco’s controversial salary appropriately during periods of growth and froze it when the U.S. economy began to decline, dissident board member Gerry Pike claims it did so in violation of DMA bylaws.

• Email

  Pivotal Veracity Expands Rendering Tool

  E-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity today announced it has added to its to its eDesign Optimizer rendering tool the ability for marketers to see how their messages will look to people who read their messages using the Palm Pre and Android mobile e-mail operating systems, and MySpace.

• Email

  ExactTarget Unveils Twitter Tool

  E-mail marketing software-on-demand provider ExactTarget today announced it has developed a tool that allows its clients to integrate their e-mail marketing content with Twitter.

• Email

  Web 2.0: The Jackass’s Bullhorn

  I come from the school of publishing that says: “Never take on a reader. You have all the ammo. So if you do, you’ll look like a petty bully and you’ll lose subscribers.”

  But that rule was crafted in the days of print publications where the only voice readers had was in the letters-to-the-editor section for which editors played gatekeeper and always had the last word if they chose to voice it.

  Moreover, the letters published were those that the editors believed added to the discussion or advanced the debate.

  Enter the reader comments section on publisher Web sites. Out go the gatekeepers. In come the reasons we thought we needed gatekeepers in the first place.