ORLANDO. Fla. — Direct Hit Media, llc, headquartered in Florida, has created a unique form of targeted advertising; it delivers one of the best one-to-one marketing venues available - the Cart-Vertising(TM) program. How is it done? Advertisements are placed on golf carts within an established network of premium golf courses throughout the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Imagine: You’re walking down Market St. approaching Stockton. Your cell phone beeps and you open it to see the cover of the new CD from your favorite Reggaeton artist, Don Omar. A colorful message from Virgin Records across the street scrolls across the screen: “Serena - Welcome to the neighborhood! Come in and pick up this CD and we’ll give you 20% off.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Yesterday, a U.S. District Court judge unsealed a class action lawsuit (case #07cv00188) against Internet domain registrar RegisterFly along with the corporation charged with accreditation and oversight of registrars, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (”ICANN”), among others.

LOVELAND, Colo. — According to the 2007 Call Center Best Practices Benchmarking Reports from leading contact center research firm Centerserve(R), key findings show that customers are the number-one driver of contact center changes. Featuring 250 companies from 51 countries, the reports show that “improving the customer experience” was listed by call center managers as the top priority for their organizations in the coming 12 to 24 months.

COLUMN: Curiouser and curiouser, weaker and weaker, stupider and stupider. That describes much recent advertising from major brands. Clogging the airwaves with badvertising is nothing new, but it does seem as if idiocy is lately on the rise. Scott G lists a few of his least favorites from the past couple of weeks.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Elephant Ventures, a New York City based Digital Marketing and Strategic Services Company added a new member to its executive team in January - Senior Vice President of Business Development, Jannine Salo. Elephant Ventures is proud to welcome Ms. Salo, a dynamic professional who will help guide the Company’s continued growth.

COLUMN: Sponsored messages worm their way into entertainment and news. Tracking of consumer purchases allows for precise targeting of those messages. Computerized production technology enables marketers or government agencies to control what you see and when you see it. Scott G plays George Orwell by putting these 3 ideas together.

BOONTON, N.J. — Spending on digital rights management (DRM) software and hardware to protect entertainment, commercial software, and other information will exceed $9 billion dollars over the next five years, says a new market research report from Insight Research Corp. By the close of 2007, total worldwide spending on DRM will reach just over $1 billion, and by 2012 business spending is forecasted to grow to nearly $1.9 billion, according to the new research study.

COLUMN: With the announcement that the Geico Insurance Cavemen are being written into a script for a television series pilot, the issue of branded content again rears its ugly head. Scott G speculates on some of the oddities surrounding this silly side of advertising.

WAYNE, N.J. — The Ballantine Corporation today announced the release of a free, email marketing course that provides people with direct mail marketing tips that can be applied to their direct mail campaigns. The company, which has been in business for over 40 years, wanted to give something back to the business community; they decided to gather together their resources and knowledge to create this free email course.

BOSTON, Mass. — The Yankee Chapter of International Association of Business Communicators (Yankee IABC) today announced its spring line-up. These business events run the spectrum from overall communications strategy and planning to the more specific technical strategies around business communications.

GLENDALE, Calif. — Intellikey Labs, a recognized leader in optical disc quality assurance content testing, announced today the launch of Intellikey DVD Testing Matrix 6.0. This latest matrix enables Intellikey to provide the most definitive AMP(SM) rating system available for DVD testing on domestic players. Matrix 6.0 is the most representative DVD testing matrix ever released.

COLUMN: The news is no longer the news. Scott G points out that we are in the midst of some bodacious blending: information & invention, data & political agenda, fact & fiction, actuality & publicity, and truth with whatever else comes to mind.

COLUMN: While the subject of contextual branding against other company’s trademarks will not be a new issue to some people, and I had been aware of the problem from the past couple of years of litigation between major companies and search portals like Google and Yahoo!, nevertheless I was a bit surprised when my brand was targeted by an upstart competitor.

COLUMN: Way too many companies still maintain an antiquated mentality still driven by sales, instead of changing their focus to one that is driven by marketing. Sales driven companies should drop their short-term ways of thinking like a bad habit, and start transitioning their organizations into ones that are “market driven.”