Execs and Accounts for August 21, 2002

Carat Interactive has been tapped by Hyatt Hotels and Resorts to create and launch a broad interactive campaign for the hospitality chain. Under the deal, Carat will provide search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, creative services and eCRM consultation.

A Carat spokesperson said the account will be run from its Boston office and creative services will be provided by Lot21 Studios, Carat Interactive’s creative arm based in San Francisco.

ABC has enlisted EyeWonder to promote the network’s on-demand streaming video. In addition to allowing site visitors to stream programming like “ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” at any time, the service will permit ABC to repurpose its advertisers’ television commercials online.

For now, ABC plans use EyeWonder’s technology to provide news and special interviews on its home page, and also to invite Internet users to sign up for a trial of its paid subscription service. Eventually, however, the network said the deal will allow its traditional broadcast advertising clients to convert their TV ads for use on the Web.

Interactive incentive marketer ePrize recently launched numerous digital promotions. They include an instant win promotion for Kimberly Clark’s Kotex, a kid’s e-decoder game for Nautica, a slot-machine instant-win game for Pete’s Wicked Ale, a competitive trivia promotion for the General Cigar Company, and an instant-win game jointly created for Hershey’s and ESPN.

According to ePrize CEO Josh Linkner, Fujitsu recently saw a 20 percent boost in online sales from an ePrize promo, higher than promotions it had produced in-house.

Coupons Inc, developer of consumer-printed Web coupons, has appointed Jim Widmann as regional vice president of sales. Widmann joins from Valassis Communications, one of the largest free-standing-insert publishers. As VP of sales, he helped restructure and expand that firm’s internal departments and sales organization.

Public relations firm Porter Novelli has signed traq-wireless, an Austin-based provider of enterprise wireless management solutions. Under the arrangement, the agency will handle communications planning and media and analyst relations for the company.

“At traq-wireless, we rely on creating market-leader recognition via the reputation and expertise of our internal staff, as well as our external vendors,” said Gregory Fitzgerald, vice president of marketing for traq-wireless. “Porter Novelli is an instrumental component of our broad marketing strategy.”

For more breaking news on account action and executive moves, visit ChannelSeven.com.