Q&As

JetBlue Airways has signed on youth marketing firm Mr. Youth to handle a variety of promotional activities for the low-cost carrier to help build brand awareness among consumers.

Calling all gamers: Nintendo and AOL.com are on a mission to give one video-game playing consumer the ultimate opportunity to be the first in the world to play Nintendo’s next home console system, Revolution.

Recently, I compiled and led a live trivia contest for a group of folks I occasionally chat with in an online bulletin board. The effort was not exactly a raging success: As one contestant said afterward, “Well, nobody died.” What is especially galling is that, had I applied a few basic rules from direct response marketing, I could have avoided a lot of heartache. What follow are some of the lessons that were brought home, as well as a sampling of the questions. The answers are at the end of the column.

Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. is maximizing its partnership with the National Basketball Association through the launch of the league’s 2006 Finals Trophy Tour to five military bases in the U.S. heartland.

Visa is bringing its “Life Takes Recycling” TV spot to the streets of New York City next week to drive home a message that checkbooks are becoming obsolete.

Everyone has customers who are more valuable than others. But why do you have them? Put another way, why did they choose to become a high-value customer?

Loyalty marketers seek to reward and recognize best customers and keep them coming back for more. To segment best customers from infrequent shoppers, one-offs, or visiting relatives, you must track their transactional behavior. Customers will pay with cash, checks, and credit and debit cards, and you ideally need to track each of these tender types to develop a complete view of their behavior.

Marketers have lined up to back NBC’s newest reality quest series, Treasure Hunters. Attendees at the Association of National Advertisers Forum for Branded Entertainment on Wednesday got a preview of branded entertainment deals tied to the new show.

Wal-Mart will host “Fresh Start for Spring” events this weekend in 1,000 stores with six sponsoring brands: Weight Watchers, Suave, Nature Made, Mott’s, Sunkist and WD-40.

Mariah Carey has inked a unique deal with Pepsi to write and record original downloadable ringtones a part of a summer promotion.