Pamela Parker

Even in a down market, direct marketing play HotSocket is hot stuff, if a $20 million investment led by Highland Capital Partners is any indication. The company is putting the money — contributed by Highland, Bessemer Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Zero Stage Capital — to work on expanding internationally, and expanding to different marketing […]

Telecom company WorldCom and America Online Inc. struck a deal Wednesday which has WorldCom marketing the giant ISP to its millions of residential and long-distance customers. The deal calls for WorldCom to offer its customers free calls when they join AOL , and WorldCom has even agreed to encourage its residential ISP customers to join […]

Direct marketing powerhouse Experian on Tuesday tapped e-mail marketing infrastructure firm FloNetwork Inc. to help it take its offline services onto the Internet. The deal marries Experian’s direct marketing expertise with the back-end e-mail systems that brings to the table, and it shows that Experian intends to be a player in the online business. Experian […]

Internet industry groups have long been pushing for self-regulation of Web commerce and privacy, but the Federal Trade Commission, after determining that self-regulation has been inadequate, has recommended that Congress pass legislation to protect consumer privacy. The Commission based its recommendations on a survey of the most-visited sites on the Internet, which found that only […]

ClassicYears.com, a site aimed at the over 50 crowd that’s set to launch this fall, this week signed Brady mom and NBC Later Today host Florence Henderson to be its spokesperson. Henderson joins the ranks of celebrity spokespeople talking up Internet companies, a trend sparked by Priceline.com‘s hiring of Star Trek actor William Shatner. The […]

Nike Inc., one of the traditional companies that’s been the most innovative in marketing online, on Tuesday tapped Critical Mass to help it personalize and customize the Nike iD section of its Web site. Nike iD, like Procter & Gamble‘s Reflect.com (which Critical Mass also helped develop), is an experiment in the hottest new marketing […]

Mediaconnex, a firm that’s developing an Internet market for the buying and selling of television advertising inventory, on Tuesday tapped KPMG Consulting to help it create its media marketplace. KPMG will help Mediaconnex integrate Internet-based systems with media companies’ existing software. The idea — as with other media marketplaces like OneMediaPlace.com, BuyMedia.com and AdOutlet.com — […]

DoubleClick Inc. on Monday captured Lowestfare.com as a “Select” partner, meaning that the Internet advertising giant will be the sole ad sales representative for the travel site, which also joins the company’s travel network. The deal gives DoubleClick substantial banner inventory for its travel network, and the prestige of snaring a brand name site. “The […]

The death of UK-based clothing e-tailer boo.com, ascribed at least partially to over-the-top marketing spending, could be causing a lot of boo-hoos in the advertising industry. An executive for KPMG‘s Corporate Recovery — which has been appointed provisional liquidator of the firm’s assets — said the UK-based e-commerce company owes $30 million, and counts a […]

Interactive media planning and buying firm Beyond Interactive on Monday planted its flag on European soil with the acquisition of media21, a London-based online media buying outfit. Financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The newly-acquired firm — whose name will be changed to Beyond Interactive — marks the company’s first foray into the European […]

Two marketing technology firms — Veridiem Inc. and Adinfonitum — on Monday separately introduced products that would let marketers see the results of online and offline efforts, all in one place. Both companies want to solve the same problem, allowing marketers running integrated campaigns to compare and contrast how the online and offline components of […]

Web hosting firm Digex Inc. on Monday said it had drafted basketball star Shaquille O’Neal to help it spread the word about its services to potential business customers. The ads, designed by the Benchmark Group, juxtapose a picture of “Shaq” wearing a Digex jersey against an image of youngsters in a pickup basketball team, encouraging […]