New members of Omni Hotels' Select Guest loyalty program will receive double credits for stays booked on Omnihotels.com through the end of the year.

CRM agency Merkle, which created healthcare and mobile groups this year, launched its market research practice on November 12. The division is a part of the company's Quantitative Solutions Group. The Columbia, MD-based company has hired Christine Baskin to lead the division as VP of market research.

TBWA Worldwide appointed Gary Wenzel president of its TBWA\WorldHealth division November 12.

The New York Times reported this week on how high-fashion brand Burberry is looking to reach a younger audience with a proprietary social network.

Software providers NetSuite and InsideView are partnering to make InsideView's social media information available through NetSuite's cloud CRM platform. The companies announced the deal November 10. Discussion leading to the partnership began in May, with both companies saying that their clients wanted more social media-related insight.

Analytics firm Alterian reported revenue of $24.1 million for the first half of fiscal 2009, a 40% increase from the first half of last year. This included a 44% growth rate in North America, up from a 19% growth rate this time last year.

Business-to-business technology marketers have found that their audience of business decision makers responds well to entertaining messaging as a way to cut through the current economic malaise.

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.

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.