Execs & Accounts for November 29, 2004

Mitsubishi Motors marketing head Ian Beavis stepped down last week, according to media reports. His brief tenure was marked by a heightened dedication to online advertising. A call to Mitsubishi seeking confirmation went unreturned.

The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) promoted twenty-year team member Michael Nichols to senior VP of creative and content development for WDIG International. Nichols led Disney’s earliest foray into mobile content, building a formidable library of approximately 6,000 wireless product offerings. He also developed “Disney BB”, a Japan-launched broadband entertainment package for kids and families. Earlier he was VP of creative development and design at Disney TeleVentures, and VP of creative development and synergy programming at Disney Channel.

BellSouth Corporation hired Ike Harris to lead its advertising and publishing group as president. In the role, he’ll have oversight of IntelliVentures, the company that produces RealPages.com. Harris joined BellSouth in 1997, and became president of BellSouth Enterprises earlier this year. He replaces Elmer Smith, who will retire in March 2005. BellSouth recently formed a joint venture with SBC to buy YellowPages.com.

Weather Underground signed up to use Tacoda’s audience segmentation and behavioral targeting platform. Weather Underground’s site, at wunderground.com, reports approximately 120 million monthly page views to over six million unique visitors.

Musicland Group will use MessageCast’s LiveMessage platform to support opt-in alerts for its Sam Goody, Suncoast and Media Play sites. When a new promotion launches, LiveMessage can find where subscribers are and route messages via cell phone, desktop, email or other preferred method.

Interactive agency Optiem launched a site for client Soundwaves Recording. The new Web destination features a catalog of recordings, sound samples and e-commerce capability.

Genex Communications tapped 24/7 Canada to exclusively manage ad sales for its Summum Media online network. The client win ads French Canadian entertainment sites Showbizz.net, Choi RadioX, and Matinternet to 24/7 Canada’s media offerings.