Execs & Accounts for April 25, 2007

Double Fusion appointed two to its European management team. The in-game advertising firm hired Daniel Best as sales director Europe, and David Miller as director of business development and marketing Europe. Double Fusion has also announced that Itzik Ben Bassat has joined its board. Bassat was recently VP of global business development and international business operations at Blizzard Entertainment of Vivendi where he worked with the online game “World of Warcraft,” and is now a general partner at JVP.

Online relationship service eHarmony selected StrongMail Systems as its new e-mail delivery platform for marketing and transactional email.

ABC signed Go Daddy as the sponsor for its Indianapolis 500 broadcast. The domain name registrar had signed driver Danica Patrick to become a company spokesperson last year.

Discovery Communications selected entertainment agency Crew Creative for interactive marketing, creative and communications efforts. The agency will work on Discovery’s family of networks including Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.

IVillage hired Jennie Baird as SVP, editor-in-chief. The online community for women hired Baird away from AOL, where she was executive director for women’s and lifestyle programming.

DDB Worldwide’s Healthcare Network named Mark Goldstone president. Goldstone joins DDB, a division of Omnicom Group Inc., from his position as EVP of Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, New York.

AMPP Media Corp is acquiring DemandX. The rich media advertising network is purchasing the developer of a broadband video player for an undisclosed sum. The merged company will be called AMPP Media Networks, Inc.

Federated Media Publishing hired Mark Weiss as director of business development. The online publisher founded by John Battelle hired Weiss from his position as head of business development for Eurekster.

Marchex signed contextual advertising agreements with four vertical publishers. The local search and media company signed Computer Shopper, Engineering.com, Wall Street Reporter and SitePoint.

Carlson Marketing hired Laurie Blum as interactive media and marketing director. Blum will be responsible for leading the development of the online advertising, search, e-mail and mobile marketing activities for Door C, the global creative and interactive arm of Carlson Marketing.

Optiem appointed Megan Hauer as director of digital media and content. The interactive marketing agency hired Hauer away from CareerBoard, where she served as director of marketing.

Gorilla Nation hired three execs for its sales and legal departments. The online ad rep firm hired Aimee Geary as senior account manager covering the Pacific Northwest region and Neda LaMarr as account executive, inside sales. Sharyn Alcaraz was also hired as senior corporate counsel.