Chief Marketer Staff

• Social

  Beverage Brands Make Friends by Learning to LIAISE

  While many brands are keen to make “friends” via social networks, few are willing to take the time to learn this new channel and treat it with the requisite finesse. Here’s what brands need to do to make to most of their social experience.

• NextMark Sees List Updating Practicing Improving

  NextMark Inc. found some improvements in data card updating practices in its fourth quarter monitoring report.

• M&A Activity Slows for Advertising and Marketing

  Merger and acquisition declined sharply in the fourth quarter in the advertising, marketing and digital media sectors, according to a report released by the investment banking firm Petsky Prunier.

• Agencies

  Mortgage Lenders Settle FTC Deception Charges

  Three firms that deceptively advertised mortgages have settled civil charges filed by the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC said last week.

• MeritDirect Names Fernandez as CFO

  MeritDirect, a firm offering list brokerage, management and other services, has named Lanette Fernandez as its chief financial officer. She joined the company as controller in 2007.

• Listline e-Newsletter 1/09

  Bromeland Publishing Inc. has released a list of 361,373 names from Scuttlebutt Magazine.

• Agencies

  Yahoo, TV Makers Unveil Deals to Webify the Tube

  TV and the Web are converging, but until recently most of the movement has come at the Internet end. Broadcast channels are increasingly putting current episodes online, and U.S. audiences

• Agencies

  Final Round of $1 Million Doritos Super Bowl Ad Contest Starts

  Doritos is staging the final phase of its $1 million Super Bowl ad challenge, with consumers voting for one of five finalists eligible to win tickets to the Big Game.

• Agencies

  Heinz Reprises its Ketchup Packet Design Contest

  The H. J. Heinz Co. is at it again, calling on grade-school students to create designs for its Heinz Ketchup packets.

• New Car Shoppers to Buy American: Survey

  It should provide some encouragement to the troubled Detroit automakers that results of one recent survey indicate a predisposition among U.S. car shoppers to buy American-made vehicles