Execs and Accounts for March 3, 2004

Carat Interactive launched projects for clients RadioShack, IGN Entertainment, and the Mills Corporation.

To promote RadioShack’s line of XMods radio-controlled (RC) cars, Carat Interactive developed a site targeting RC car enthusiasts. The site was promoted through online ads and viral marketing applications. For IGN, Carat created GamerMetrics, a real-time analytics tool it will use to deliver user trend and activity reports to partners and advertisers. Thirdly, the agency launched a new media-rich corporate site for client Mills.

All three projects were conceived and built by Carat’s Internet development practice, which unites creative and technology expertise in a single group.

Five prominent Web publishers signed on to use Unicast’s new video commercial format. CondéNet, Discovery iMedia, Forbes.com, MaxOnline, and weather.com will now sell the unit, designed to let advertisers put their TV advertising to work in the online medium. Introduced to the market last month, the video commercial lasts 30-seconds, which some have said is too long for the Web.

“We have just launched our first Unicast program on Style.com with advertiser David Yurman,” said Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet. “The technology delivers on the promise of the Internet, allowing advertisers to leverage their creative assets in an interactive format.”

Search engine marketing firm icrossing hired interactive veteran Stan Francois as director of business development and agency relations. Francois has served stints as general manager for Nurun interactive (planning campaigns for IBM, Oracle and others), VP of marketing at CMGI, and director of advertising and promotion for IBM’s db2 server division. He also spent four years at Oracle.

Francois is the 15th employee to join icrossing’s New York office, which launched in August 2003.

ValueClick’s AdWare Systems subsidiary has added three agency clients: Starcom MediaVest Group, MeadsDurket and Jay Advertising. The creative firms will use AdWare’s browser-based tools to manage various aspects of their operations, including financial analysis and media production.