American Honda Motor Company, now promoting the new 2003 Element, has signed a deal with America Online to be the sponsor of AOL Music’s Artist Discovery Network. Among the sponsorship’s integrated features are a sweestakes, a branded Honda Winamp skin, and a broadband area featuring videos of artists, each preceded by a “Honda presents” lead-in.
“Music fans are regularly coming to the Artist Discovery Network to discover and experience the freshest new sounds. It’s an audience that is a natural fit for the lifestyle and consumer attitude of The Honda Element,” said Scott Schiller, SVP of interactive marketing for entertainment at America Online.
Online singles service eharmony has named NetPlus Marketing its first media agency of record for interactive advertising and marketing.
“We chose NetPlus because they have the scale and expertise to take eharmony’s existing success and spread it across a wider and greater scale of media,” said Tig Tillinghast, an eharmony marketing consultant who helps companies select creative and media resources.
NetPlus has launched an initial online campaign for its new client. The media buy includes both pay for performance and CPM pricing models, demographic targeting, contextual placements, and network buys. The effort was designed to test new audience response and determine the lowest cost per qualified lead against multiple variables.
Online publisher and research firm LiquidGeneration has hired Marc Kiven as vice president of sales and marketing. Kiven was most recently a head of sales for interactive agency Avenue A and its technology sales division, Atlas DMT.
“[Marc] understands the interactive media and marketing landscape and has a proven record of sales and marketing success,” said Bruce Freud, founder and CEO of LiquidGeneration. “He will help us leverage our connection to Generation Y in the advertising and research communities to build our business.”
In his new role, Marc will oversee ad sales for Liquidgeneration.com and research sales for the LiquidGeneration Information Exchange, a Generation Y research company that delivers studies and surveys.
United States Aluminum has tapped VirtuallyThere to develop an online catalog of the company’s building materials product line. VirtuallyThere, which developed the building materials company’s original site in 1997, will also develop a CD-ROM version of the catalog.
“We selected VirtuallyThere over others because our past experience with the team has been excellent, and because of their strong working knowledge of our company and its products,” said Clark Folsom, United States Aluminum’s marketing manager.
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