ADVANTEX, TICKETMASTER LIFT CURTAIN ON AGREEMENT
Advantex Marketing, the company that owns and operates the CIBC Aerogold reward program, recently announced a pact with TicketMaster Canada that will provide CIBC Aerogold cardholders with bonus miles on ticket purchases.
Under terms of the agreement, cardholders will get bonus Aeroplan miles on the purchase of tickets to concerts, as well as sports, family entertainment and performing arts events, provided the tickets are purchased through TicketMaster and paid for with the CIBC Aerogold card.
Advantex chairman and CEO C. Randall Munger says CIBC Aerogold members are an important target market for many entertainment events, and entertainment represents a significant new merchant category with solid revenue potential.
CARLSON ACQUIRES RESEARCH FIRM
Toronto-based Carlson Marketing Group (CMG) has bought research and survey specialist Organizational Studies (OSI) in a bid to increase its emphasis on measurable marketing.
Jim Ryan, Carlson’s president, said in a statement that OSI ‘provides not only the expertise and tools to conduct employee, customer and best-practice assessments, but also the consulting services which enable us to now offer end-to-end design, delivery and measurement for our clients around the world.’
OSI specializes in providing research-validated measurement tools such as employee opinion and customer loyalty surveys. In the Carlson fold, it will become a division of CMG’s employee marketing practice. OSI is based in Toronto and also has offices in Chicago, Wyckoff, N.J., and Bogota, Colombia. Jim Graham, president of OSI, will continue to head its operations under the Carlson banner.
ACNIELSEN GETS PARTNER TO DELIVER PROGRAM
Markham, Ont.-based ACNielsen has teamed up with NCH SmartFocus to deliver the ACNielsen Customer Reach Program, billed as ‘a powerful new approach to loyalty marketing.’
The Customer Reach Program allows information from a retailer’s frequent shopper database to be linked with information from ACNielsen’s Homescan Consumer Panel, which contains purchasing information and attitudinal data. The combination is designed to enable retailers and manufacturers to tailor promotions with more precision. SmartFocus software allows clients to perform customer segmentations and direct-to-consumer promotion analyses from their desktops.
MDC UNIT SCOOPS UP BASSETT DIRECT
MDC’s business and technology unit, Optus, has acquired Markham, Ont.-based Bassett Direct and renamed it Optus Direct Response.
In a statement, Lyle Kerr, president and CEO of MDC’s secure transactions division, said the acquisition is one of several initiatives designed to expand the scale and scope of Optus’ services. Optus will apply Bassett’s expertise in online communications, customer relationship management and statement marketing to the direct marketing world, he added.
MDC is based in Toronto and has operating units throughout Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The newly created Optus Direct Response organization will continue under the leadership of Rich Bassett, who was president and CEO of Bassett Direct.