Execs & Accounts for August 23, 2004

Friendster hired Charles Barrett to oversee its advertising operation as VP of sales. Barrett was most recently VP of sales for AOL Media Networks. Before joining AOL in 2002, he led sales for Yahoo’s Northwest region following Yahoo’s acquisition of GeoCities, where he was VP of the West Coast region.

Barrett will start out by building a Friendster ad sales team. His hiring, following that of former NBC exec Scott Sassa as CEO, suggests the online social networking service may be pursuing advertising as its primary revenue stream as it seeks to develop a business model.

“[Barrett] has a truly visceral understanding of community based Web sites, start-up organizations, and in addition he is a very well-liked and well-respected individual in our business,” said Sassa.

Microsoft promoted Peter Cohen to director of advertising. Formerly group product manager of brand advertising, Cohen is replaced by the also-promoted Mike Lucero. Lucero will oversee Microsoft’s international “Realizing Potential” campaign. He was most recently group product manager for Xbox Live.

“I couldn’t think of a more exciting and strategically important marketing role within Microsoft than to continue to showcase the brand in ways that are relevant to our many audiences,” said Lucero.

IndustryBrains is providing advertiser listings on USAToday.com’s travel section. IndustryBrains manages the sale and placement of the listings, which can be targeted according to travel segment, destination and other criteria.

“We are impressed by IndustryBrains and its site-specific product strategy,” said Chat Joglekar, manager of business development for USAToday.com.

Squeaky Wheel Media has built a site for client Mesotherapie & Estetik, presenting information about the medical and cosmetic procedure known as Mesotherapy. Mesotherapie & Estetik runs offices and physician training programs in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills and New York City.