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.

Forrester Research says that the effectiveness of conventional stand-alone web analytics software is limited by the "action chasm." The action chasm is the delay in action between when an analytics report is generated vs. when it is read, reviewed and acted upon. The longer the delay between metric measurement and corrective action, the more money you leave on the table.

Montreal-based Groupe Aeroplan announced on November 3 that it will acquire Carlson Marketing, a Minneapolis-based company also operating in the loyalty space. The deal is expected to close next month. Executives for both companies said they expect the $175.3 million deal to help the combined organization expand outside of North America.

InfoGroup Chairman Roger Siboni said in a November 1 statement that the company's management has "made no decision to sell the company." The press release came one day after the Omaha World-Herald reported that at least 33 potential bidders have expressed interest in the firm to its financial advisor, Evercore Partners.

Hospitality franchiser Choice Hotels has tasked text analytics software provider Clarabridge with collecting and processing nearly 1 million customer comments in order to improve service and customer lifetime value. The hotel chain, which includes brands such as Comfort Inn, MainStay Suites and Econo Lodge, has renewed its emphasis on the quality of rooms across brands.

Everybody talks about using multiple channels to reach consumers. Unfortunately, discussing it and doing it - successfully, anyway - are two very different things. Let's look at the fiction, the reality and the undeniable future of multichannel marketing.

Food- and animal-safety product maker Neogen will launch a business-to-business loyalty program for veterinarians next month. Specifically focused on its equine prescriptions, the program will give a rebate of up to 6% to vets who purchase those items. The program will run from November 1 through next February.

Cloud computing firm Salesforce.com and Adobe have partnered to offer a joint data platform incorporating the Force.com platform and Adobe's Flash technology. This is the first time Salesforce.com has partnered with another company on a product. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The amended Telemarketer Sales Rule (TSR) from the Federal Trade Commission says that automated sales communications can be delivered only to recipients who have provided their "express written consent" to receive them. Having an existing business relationship will no longer be sufficient approval for organizations to attempt to sell goods or services via an automated phone call.