Chief Marketer Staff

• Online Merchants See Holiday Sales Growth

  A full 98% of online merchants anticipate sales growth this holiday season.

• AvenueA/Razorfish Forms Search Marketing Unit

  AvenueA/Razorfish will form a new search marketing unit, AvenueA/Razorfish Search.

• New Products and Services

  AdCenter: provides advertisers the tools needed to handle the creation and placement of online ads– Belo Interactive, Dallas. Online Catalog and Marketing Tool Kit: a tool for retailers, manufacturers, and designers to promote and advertise platinum …

• Short Cuts

  Rainmaker Systems Inc., a provider of online sales and marketing programs, has named Bradford Peppard to its board of directors.

• List and Database News

  A listing of mailing list availabilities.

• Live from the Holiday Toy Preview: “Hot Dozen” Toys this Holiday Season

  As the lucrative and hectic toy-buying season gets underway, the brightest, most innovative toys were on display yesterday during a preview of the hottest toys for this holiday season. Twelve toys had been singled out by Toy Wishes magazine as the “Hot …

• Wal-Mart to Add 500 Stores

  Wal-Mart Stores plans to add 500 stores by February 2006, about half of them supercenters selling groceries. Wal-Mart will open 240 to 250 supercenters; about 160 of the supercenters will involve expansion or relocation of existing discount stores. The …

• PlayStation Pushes ‘Race to the Polls’

  In an ongoing effort to get young people to register and ultimately head to the voting booth, PlayStation has joined with Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) for “Race to the Polls.” According to the Center for Information and …

• Pixar Lends Incredibles Stars for Partners’ Ads

  Pixar Animation Studios’ holiday film The Incredibles will get a reported $150 million in marketing support from partners including Kellogg, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Safeway, Samsung, SBC Communications and Toys ‘R’ Us. In a twist on the usual …

• Cranium Samples Games via Partners

  The board game Cranium gets an unusual five-month sampling push via partnerships with seven diverse brands. Seattle-based Cranium, Inc. has signed deals with Columbia Crest winery, Delta Airline’s Song division, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Land O’Lakes, …