Cara Wood

Audi of America named Washington, DC-based RTC Relationship Marketing its CRM agency of record on September 30. Under the agreement with Audi, the agency will develop enhanced owner communications as well as programs to increase loyalty and to attract new customers to the Audi brand.

For NBC Universal, the explosion of online video has opened up creative opportunities to promote its on-air lineup.

Insurance provider 21st Century Auto Insurance and Publisher's Clearing House — each with more than 50 years of direct mail marketing experience — are partnering on a multiyear affinity program that has both companies trying new tactics in social media.

There are a number of reasons social media appeals to today's marketers: it's affordable, it's engaging for consumers and it's immediate. However, the real appeal of digital social marketing has been driven by new applications of data for targeted messaging and features that resonate with users. One recent example of this is TVGuide.com's September 16 launch of a widget using Facebook Connect, an open API from the social networking site.

Media Horizons Management launched a database of 32 million names last week as part of its continuing expansion of data services. The company, which has its roots in list brokerage and inserts, branded its latest undertaking EnVision.

A McAfee study, Digital Window Shopping: The Long Journey to Buy, of 163 million online shopping transactions found that 65% of all shoppers will wait a day or more to complete a purchase.

Rosemarie Montroy, a 20-year veteran of the direct marketing industry, died September 10 at the age of 64 after a brief battle with lung cancer. She was most recently CMO at Direct Media Millard.

The Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) is the latest organization to oppose state tax collection policy based on affiliate marketer location. The trade group announced support on September 2 for a pending New York Supreme Court lawsuit filed by Amazon.com and Overstock.com in July.

Thirteen percent of consumers lived below the poverty line last year, according to recent data from the US Census Bureau. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is at nearly 10%.

Last week, Sultan Munadi, an Afghan interpreter, was killed during a conflict in northern Afghanistan that resulted in the release of New York Times reporter Stephan Farrell from Taliban captivity. Munadi had tried to express his and Farrell's neutrality when they were initially detained by the Taliban months ago. Following this tragedy, I paused this week to think about the role of an interpreter in a much less extreme example — namely, how it relates to e-commerce.