Four Largest U.S. Wireless Service Providers Consolidate Their Playbooks Around MMA Best Practices, Enabling $200 Million in Annual Efficiencies and Ensuring a Consistent User Experience

NEW YORK & LONDON & SINGAPORE & SAO PAULO – The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com) announced that the four largest U.S. wireless service providers – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA – have agreed to incorporate their mobile marketing guidelines within the MMA’s best practices. This industry-first agreement is a milestone toward the continued growth of mobile marketing, a dramatic reduction in the costs of launching mobile marketing campaigns, faster time to market for campaigns and improved consumer satisfaction by improving the consistency and efficiency of mobile marketing campaigns across the four major U.S. wireless service providers. The agreement underscores the industry’s commitment to work towards standardized marketing practices which will improve consumer satisfaction and understanding of mobile marketing campaigns.
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SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced that Elisa Steele has joined the company as chief marketing officer, effective today. Steele is responsible for Yahoo!’s brand, its global marketing strategy and its marketing functions including brand marketing, audience marketing, corporate communications, insights, policy and privacy, community affairs, and related central teams. She reports to Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.

“The Yahoo! brand is one of our most valuable and strategic assets, and Elisa is charged with unlocking its potential globally. Elisa has an outstanding track record in leading global marketing, branding, and communications teams, and we’re excited to welcome her to Yahoo!’s executive staff,” said Bartz. “Yahoo!’s marketing strategy and teams have become decentralized over time – hiring Elisa in the CMO role will quickly mobilize our plan to integrate the function globally and more effectively represent the Yahoo! brand.”
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Former Vice President and General Manager at Acxiom Brings Over 16 Years of Experience Leading High-Performance Organizations in Marketing, Software & Technology

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier personalization service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands, including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, announced the appointment of industry veteran Darin Hicks to the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Hicks joins ChoiceStream from Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company, where he served as Vice President and General Manager. Hicks will play an integral role in leading ChoiceStream into performance-based, online advertising, helping the company bring the power of its personalization technology to the advertising market.
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Former Yahoo! Chief Data Officer, Yahoo! VP of Advertiser Products, and WPP Executive to Help Guide ChoiceStream’s Expansion into Online Performance Advertising

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier personalization service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, today announced the addition of former Yahoo! Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President, Usama Fayyad,to its Board of Directors, former Yahoo! VP Ads, Cheryl Kellond, to its management team, and former WPP executive, Lauren Reiss Frank, to its Advisory Board. The executives – leading media industry experts in online advertising, data analysis, and digital marketing – will help support the company’s growth and expansion into online advertising, where ChoiceStream will apply its proven personalization technology to delivering a new line of high-performance advertising products.
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Use of Mobile Marketing Subject of Keynote

HOUSTON – Houston’s Marketer of the Year (MOTY) will be announced March 2, 2009 by the American Marketing Association Houston Chapter at an evening reception being held at the Alley Theatre.

The MOTY is chosen from 33 Houston companies, organizations and institutions that were voted “Best of Category” by the chapter’s more than 1000 members for outstanding marketing efforts in their respective industries.
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Johnsonville Sausage Selects A2W as Mobile Provider

ATLANTA – Air2Web, Inc., a market leader in commercialized text messaging, has been selected to power a text-to-win mobile marketing campaign during the 2009 Super Bowl for Johnsonville Sausage, the number one national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked links and breakfast sausage links.

The campaign will run through February 28, 2009 and fans can enter by mailing in an entry form, entering online at www.johnsonville.com/gameday or via SMS on their mobile phone. Fans that enter have the opportunity to win one of three packages sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage and Coleman Outdoor Products.

The Super Bowl is the most watched television event of the year, and Johnsonville Sausage is capitalizing on the event’s high level of visibility for their first foray into mobile. To enter, all fans need to do is text “football” or “gameday” to 48775 on their mobile phone and let the games begin.
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Biggest Spenders and Most Frequent Shoppers Are More Willing To Click on Ads if Personalized Based on their Tastes and Interests

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier recommendations service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, today announced the findings of its 2008 Personalization Survey. According to the survey, retailers’ most attractive prospects–those who spend the most money and shop most frequently–are more likely to click on personalized ads than non-personalized ads. Overall, 39 percent of consumers are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized; of those who shop online at least several times a month that number climbs to 58 percent. The survey also finds that the bigger the spender, the greater the interest in personalized ads with 50 percent of those spending more than $250 online over the past six months indicating that they are more willing to click on ads that are personalized.
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- Lithium Technologies’ Social Media Solutions Fuel 100% Growth
2008 was a year of accelerated momentum for Lithium Technologies, the leader in on-demand enterprise customer communities. Today the company announced a 100% percent growth in new monthly recurring revenue in less than one year, resulting in-part from Lithium’s continued penetration into the Fortune 1000 market, adding companies including Caterpillar, Pitney Bowes, and AT&T among many others. To help keep pace with this growth – and to advance the company’s strategy and solution offerings – the company is also announcing key additions to its management team.