Masius New York, a branch of Masius/Publicis Consultants has rebranded under the Publicis Groupe-owned Leo Burnett to form Leo Burnett Business, a specialty group that will focus on business-to-business advertising and marketing.

Footwear manufacturer Crocs has selected interactive agency Cramer-Krasselt as its global agency of record. The brand will launch a campaign, aided by the agency, early next year. C-K's Chicago office will handle brand strategy, creative, interactive, online, media planning and buying, as well as PR.

American Express has launched an analytics and consulting organization, called American Express Business Insights, to help its business customers develop better-informed strategies. The new unit, announced November 19, will study the aggregate trend analysis and spending patterns of approximately 90 million cards across 127 markets to provide business planning and marketing expertise.

Markco Media, a UK-based media and advertising company, will launch a paid search marketing campaign on November 19 to promote CouponCodes4U.com, the US counterpart to MyVoucherCodes.co.uk. Previously the site was only promoted through organic search engine marketing.

Less than a week after the US Postal Service disclosed that it incurred a $3.8 billion net loss for fiscal year 2009, it narrowed the list of branches it is considering closing by 130. The agency is still reviewing the possible closure of 241 post offices as of November 20.

Marketers often cite cutting through the clutter as the goal of a new campaign — but how many of those messages are perceived as clutter themselves by consumers? According to a poll from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company, 41% of consumers say they would consider ending a brand relationship due to irrelevant promotions, and another 22% say they would definitely defect from the brand for that reason.

E-mail marketing firm Responsys is aiding weight-loss program Nutrisystem with various e-mail programs, as well as developing cross-channel customer-experience initiatives. The company is using Responsys' Interact Campaign, the company's software as a service (SaaS) campaign-management platform.

Intel is conducting a digital e-card campaign that lets users make personalized 3-D cards to send to their friends and family. The campaign, launched November 16, runs through the end of the year. It features a Web site where consumers can create e-cards and view information on Intel products.

CytoSport, the maker of sports drink Muscle Milk, is conducting a viral video campaign for Thanksgiving. The effort, which launched November 19, features a comical viral video in which a partying pilgrim sings about flirting his way to the New World. The spot is running on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and at www.sexypilgrim.com.

Adknowledge, an independently owned ad network, has acquired the advertising business of SocialMedia.com. Financial terms of the deal, announced this week, were not disclosed. The acquisition strengthens Adknowledge's position in targeting publishers and advertisers in the social apps and social games space. Adknowledge partners with more than 2,000 publishers and developers and has made four acquisitions in the social media space in the past two years.

INO.com awarded MetaResponse Group management of its Investor Masterfile, effective November 24. The file had been managed internally.

Focus USA released the ActionBase EMAIL Entering To Win — Sweeps list to the market on November 17. This file contains users of sweepstakes Web sites on which they can enter and keep track of multiple contests.

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.

INO.com awarded MetaResponse Group management of its Investor Masterfile, effective November 24. The file had been managed internally.

New list — Donors To Homes of Charity - Catholic Appeal — Mary Elizabeth Granger & Associates — These former donors to Our Lady of Victory Homes of Charity have contributed to Catholic appeals supporting assistance with the care of troubled teenage boys and girls, children and adults with physical and mental disabilities and unwed mothers and their babies. They have also supported the National Shrine of Our Lady of Victory.

For fashionistas who love trying on clothes but don't want to leave home, online retailer Tobi.com has opened a virtual fitting room. The online dressing room is based on augmented reality technology and lets a user take a photo with a webcam and then try on and rate different outfits.

IBM has released WebSphere Commerce 7, the latest version of its e-commerce platform, which includes integration with social media and mobile. The overarching goal of the platform is to create a more personal experience at the consumer level.

HP, which includes consumer and business-to-business printing units, reported preliminary fiscal fourth-quarter revenues of $30.8 billion, a decrease of 8% from the year prior. The company disclosed that the revenue figure, up 12% sequentially, is a drop of only 5% when adjusted for the effects of currency. The company's fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31.

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.

More than half (53%) of retailers' 2009 holiday advertising budgets are staying at the same level as last year, while 41% of retailers are seeing their ad spending allowances increase, according to analysis by Google and OTX, a consumer research and consulting firm.

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.