Direct Agents, a leading interactive advertising agency, and AccuQuote, a leader in providing term life insurance quotes to people across the United States, are pleased to announce today their selection as finalists for the prestigious ad:tech Limelight Awards. The ad:tech Limelight Awards celebrate extraordinary industry achievements in online advertising and recognize talented online designers and strategic thinkers who demonstrate excellence in interactive marketing. The award winners will be announced at the ad:tech San Francisco 'Awards Mixer' on April 21st. 

BantamLive.com, a new online workspace for business teams, has been chosen by a panel of Web 2.0 Expo judges as one of five finalist winners to present and launch its software-as-a-service application on April 2nd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco as part of the Web 2.0 Expo. The event will mark the private-beta debut of Bantam, a web-based application that fuses social media with CRM for business teams. It has been developed by Bantam Networks, based in New York City.

Revenue Sharing for Filmmakers Complements Cash Reward Program

Openfilm.com, the video sharing network for independent filmmakers and fans of quality web video, today announced the launch of its ad revenue sharing program available to all Openfilm content providers. The program offers one of the highest revenue shares in the online video industry, with 50 percent of the ad revenue going directly to the filmmaker.

Transaction Positions Adknowledge for Continued, Strong Growth

Adknowledge announced today that it has acquired the Media division of MIVA, Inc. MIVA Media, one of the largest independent online performance advertising networks, was founded in 1999 and includes the Espotting and Findwhat.com brands. Another of MIVA, Inc.’s divisions, MIVA Direct, was not affected by the transaction and continues to be owned and operated by MIVA, Inc. Going forward, Adknowledge will retain the MIVA, Findwhat.com, and Espotting brands.

Canwest Global Communications Corp. (“Canwest”) announced today that it has received $34 million in full settlement of amounts owing to its subsidiary, Canwest Media Inc. (“CMI”) and Canwest Publications Inc., pursuant to an arbitration award in connection with its dispute with Hollinger International Inc. – now Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. – and related parties (“Hollinger”).

Study Conducted by Return Path’s New Professional Services Group

Online retailers have spent years optimizing their digital marketing and customer retention strategy. However, many online retailers still struggle to maximize the numerous sales opportunities available through more effective email marketing, a new study from Return Path reveals. The Increasing Revenues By Optimizing Emailing Practices with Online Buyers report conducted by Return Path’s newly revamped Professional Services Group discovered that while basic transactional email practices are excellent, many well-known brands missed opportunities to maximize sales and up-sell potential by better targeting messages to buyers and including promotions in transactional messaging.