Chief Marketer Staff

• Email

  AOL.com Blocking Graphics; E-mail Open Rates to Drop Further

  AOL yesterday unveiled new versions of its AOL.com and AIM.com free e-mail services in which the images are turned off by default.

  As a result, e-mailers can expect to see their open rates for messages delivered to AOL.com and AIM.com plummet.

• Agencies

  Live from ACCM: The Importance of Being Bean

  After his keynote in Boston at ACCM on Tuesday, an audience member asked Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s chairman and former president, what his late grandfather would have thought of the mega business his namesake company had become.

• Agencies

  ACMA Sends Greco “Dear John” Letter

  In a letter to DMA president/CEO John A Greco Jr., ACMA president Hamilton Davison took Greco to task for his comments last week suggesting that the Coalition of Catalog Mailers (CCM), which the AMCA supports, undermined the DMA’s legislative efforts.

• Digital

  Short Cuts

  Spiegel Brands Inc.’s two leading brands, Spiegel and Newport News, have joined online multi-merchant marketplace Shop.com. The addition of the two brands boosts Shop.com’s women’s apparel and accessories offerings.

• Agencies

  Brands Push ‘Shrek the Third’ to Opening Weekend Success

  Marketers are helping boost the box office with ties to DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third,” which smashed the opening weekend records with $122 million in ticket sales.

• Agencies

  Unilever Brands Get Hispanic Push

  Unilever this week launched ViveMejor, an umbrella Hispanic campaign that serves a slate of nine food and personal-care brands ranging from Dove and Suave to Hellmann’s and Ragu.

• Rodriguez Hired for New Unit at Marketing Arm

  The Marketing Arm has formed a multi-cultural marketing division and hired Michael Rodriguez to run it.

• Agencies

  Marketers Urged to Keep Hot Topics on Social Media Sites

  Harnessing what people in cyberspace are saying about your company or product to achieve your objectives was a recurring theme Monday at the one-day seminar Advertising in Social Media in New York.

• Agencies

  Nike, Foot Locker Team for Retail Promo

  Nike Inc. and Foot Locker have teamed up to open 50 basketball and apparel shops in the U.S. over the next three years.

• Agencies

  Coldwell Banker and Drexel Partner to Sell Homes and Furniture

  Coldwell Banker is using a TV spot to promote a sweepstakes tied to its open house month.