Active International, a corporate trade organization, announced that it has augmented its media buying organization with key, big-agency hires in response to the growing need for strategic, ROI-driven direct response services from clients and the media community alike.
AudienceScience, a targeting technology company, announced that it has named Denise Colella as chief revenue officer. She will be responsible for all of AudienceScience's revenue producing, external facing groups in the U.S. and globally, and she will play a vital role in the international development of the company's industry-integrated audience platform, The Audience Gateway.
Brand Affinity Technologies Inc. (BAT), an endorsement marketing company, has acquired privately held La Jolla, Calif.-based Beelya, a creator of authentic, virtual sports collectables. The acquisition allows BAT to extend its portfolio of endorsement offerings, as advertisers look to tap into the power of athlete and celebrity brands.
Break Media, the internet's entertainment community for men, announced the acquisition of FileFront, a large and long-standing property dedicated to providing gaming news, downloads, and more to millions of users every month.
Buddy Media, the social marketing company for world-wide brands and agencies, has tapped industry pioneer Jeff Berman for its board of directors, building upon its category leadership and momentum.
Collective, a media and technology solutions company for online display advertising, announced that Jason Bigler, formerly of Conductor Inc., and Ray Colwell, formerly of Transpera, have joined the company's rapidly growing teams in product management and sales.
Peter Green has joined ContextWeb as executive VP of sales. At ContextWeb, Green will provide high-precision, real-time contextual advertising solutions guaranteed to maximize the results and impact of online advertising. In addition, Jed Alpert has joined ContextWeb as its new VP of marketing.
GlobalSpec, the leading specialized search engine, information resource, and e-publishing company for the engineering, industrial, and technical communities, announced that it achieved significant growth in a number of areas during 2009, reaching new milestones in registered users, subscribers, and subscriptions, as well as new product launches.
Hydra, operator of a performance-based multichannel online advertising platform, announced the introduction of its next generation, proprietary campaign tracking software HNv2. Currently in beta testing with select publishing partners, HNv2 protects advertisers by introducing new controls to proactively prevent fraud and the promotion of campaigns in unauthorized channels.
The Denver-based interactive marketing company Location 3 has significantly broadened its service portfolio, nearly doubled staff in the last year, and is now undergoing a dramatic shift and expansion within the executive team. Former President Andrew Beckman is now assuming a CEO role; former VP Alex Porter is taking over as president; Samantha Bedford has stepped up as senior vice president, account services; Chris Wiederspan is now vice president of technology; former strategic optimization specialist Jared Schroder has been promoted to director of paid search; and Brian Murphy has been hired as the new director of sales and marketing.
Loyalty 360 --The Loyalty Marketer's Association announced its partnership with Marketing Innovators International Inc., a performance improvement company based in Rosemont, Ill.
Michele Madansky, a digital marketing consultant to Fortune 500 firms and former vice president of customer insights at Yahoo, has been named senior digital advisor for Marketing Management Analytics.
Digital advertising media agency Mediasmith announced the promotion of Derek Leedy to SVP, client services.
Advertisers can now create and execute more efficient and effective online campaigns using Attitudinal Targeting, a new way to reach highly targeted audiences based on their attitudes, values, and beliefs. Resonate Networks, an online advertising technology company, announced its patent-pending, research-based methodology that provides rich audience insights and an unparalleled ability to target and reach highly specialized audiences with the right message wherever they spend their time online.
R/GA has appointed three new directors to its client services department, as part of its ongoing effort to deliver best-in-class marketing leadership. R/GA's three recent client service hires are: Sean McCarthy, VP, managing director; Kelly Kernaghan, group account director; and Michelle Tarr, group account director.
Leading in-stream online video advertising company ScanScout announced it has appointed digital advertising veteran Jason Krebs as its executive vice president, a new role within the company. ScanScout will leverage Krebs' video expertise to further solidify its position as in-stream video advertising's industry leader and streamline the connection between publishers, advertisers, and consumers.
TRAFFIQ, the digital media planning, buying, and management platform, introduced its next generation of media planning and buying tools, including an enhanced attribute-matching engine for granular ad searching and targeting, along with multi-tiered inventory packaging options.
The Visionaire Group, a Los Angeles-based digital agency, has expanded into the East Coast and has named Melissa Hudson as senior engagement director in this newly created position. Previously, Hudson was director of digital media marketing at A&E Television Network.
Mike Dillon, former vice president of brand activation marketing at Pepsi Cola North America, has been named vice president of sales, CPG Connect for [x+1]. In addition, Dave Pollet, who has held senior marketing and sales positions at Bank of America and Bankrate.com, has been promoted from national sales director to vice president of sales.
Editor's note: We list the companies and people alphabetically according to what company hires what person or another company. Our bimonthly column is always looking for announcements, so please email them to mediamotion@imediaconnection.com.
