Bob Evans Restaurants and Food Products has named Brunner its advertising agency of record. The multimillion dollar account was won following a competitive review. The incumbent agency was Chicago Creative Partnership.

Learning Curve Brands has named Euro RSCG Chicago agency of record for its First Years line. The account is the agency's first work with Learning Curve and parent company RC2. First Years is a toy and supply line for infants and toddlers. Euro RSCG will create an integrated effort focusing on new moms, particularly first-time parents.

Global payment company MoneyGram International has launched its MoneyGram Rewards program in Canada. The program currently runs in the US, Germany, Spain and France. Users can sign up for the program by phone, Web or at an agent location. Users receive a loyalty card that tracks the number of money transfers the user completes. Users receive a 5% discount on the money transfer fee for the third through fifth transfers and a 10% discount on the sixth transfer and any thereafter.

With Thanksgiving falling late in November, consumers will start shopping prior to so-called Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to Experian's data analysis. Those days mark the start of the Holiday shopping season.

Arandell, a printer with catalog clients including Target, Macy's and Neiman Marcus, has added BCC Software's Mail Manager Full Service platform to increase its compatibility with the Intelligent Mail Barcode.

FedEx is conducting an international advertising effort promoting the shipper as a reliable partner during an uncertain economic period. The effort, which uses the tagline "FedEx delivers to a changing world," contains digital elements and a microsite. The initiative, which launched last month, is targeting small-to-medium businesses and influencers in the UK, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, China and Mexico.

Lovemoney.com, a personal finance Web site based in the UK, has selected StrongMail to power its e-mail marketing.

RaceTrac Petroleum, which operates more than 525 retail gasoline convenience stores in 12 southeastern states, has teamed up with BrightWave Marketing to power its e-mail and social marketing efforts.

Email Data Source last week debuted a Twitter monitoring tool at the Ad:tech trade show in New York. The platform will be available to clients, with plans to market it to prospects as well.

Hewlett-Packard, a marketer that has moved 40% of its ad budget to the digital space, is beta-testing i-catcher, a behavioral tool that it plans to launch in March 2010. I-catcher charts consumers' attention to each piece of content on a Web page. Some HP customers are using the product in beta, but the company would not reveal the identity of those clients.

Focus USA released the ActionBase Auto Insurance Renewal Dates list to the market November 4. This file includes postal and phone records of auto owners by the month their auto insurance is due to expire.

Dunhill International List Co. has released three new files: Children's Product Buyers, Consultants and Consulting Organizations and Research Libraries.

A customized publishing model using digital printing has the potential to help media companies recover from bleeding revenue

Avvaa, a Canada-based seller of skin care products, launched a two-week DRTV test in the US on October 5. The test features two-minute, 60-second and 30-second spots on 100 stations. The spots aim to drive Internet and phone sales of Avvaa's Neuroskin Psoriasis Relief product among new customers.

Email Data Source last week debuted a Twitter monitoring tool at the Ad:tech trade show in New York. The platform will be available to clients, with plans to market it to prospects as well.

Hewlett-Packard, a marketer that has moved 40% of its ad budget to the digital space, is beta-testing i-catcher, a behavioral tool that it plans to launch in March 2010. I-catcher charts consumers' attention to each piece of content on a Web page. Some HP customers are using the product in beta, but the company would not reveal the identity of those clients.

Manufacturers and brand marketers overhaul Web presence to reinforce digital presence, provide superior customer experiences, and drive additional sales.

A troubled 2009 has seen cutbacks and ad budget freezes across all industries. Both consumers and executives have dithered in purchase decisions, absorbing information, coupons, custom content, product reviews, free trials and freebies before signing the check or invoice.

Following a test earlier this year, Ford is launching a variable data print strategy for its direct mail program that will result in consumers receiving more than 1 million pieces of relevant mail annually. The automaker is rolling out the program across its entire portfolio of extended service products, a process it expects to complete in the next six months. Ford hopes the more than 1 million pieces of annual direct mail will result in "an increase of tens of millions of dollars" in sales, said Mark Bardusch, national sales and marketing manager of extended service business at Ford.

Digital print production can be a turning point for marketers to increase their competitiveness and grow even while gaining cost savings and a faster ROI on campaigns.

While the vision of search activity reaching past the desktop has been around for a while, the proliferation of mobile devices and new technologies makes "anytime, anywhere" search easier. Marketers may not need all of them, but it's increasingly crucial to be aware of the disparate ways to reach consumers when, where, and how they search.

Now that Microsoft's and Google's partnerships with Facebook and Twitter are official, search is on its way to becoming the new kind of search engine that Bing promised at its launch.