plus 3, Praise leaves owner uneasy at Daytona Beach - Denver Post

Praise leaves owner uneasy at Daytona Beach - Denver Post
RGM Group Introduces RGM Alliance, Internet's Largest Premium ... - Stockhouse
Warranties may grow, Toyota says - Courier-Post
Toyota weighs incentives, longer warranties to keep customers - Denver Post

Praise leaves owner uneasy at Daytona Beach - Denver Post

Posted: 15 Feb 2010 11:59 PM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chip Ganassi squirmed a bit, shifted the microphone he was holding in his hands, then gazed blankly at the floor.

Jamie McMurray had just been asked to describe his NASCAR team owner — the man who has taken two separate chances on McMurray — and Ganassi was clearly uncomfortable with the praise he was about to receive.

"He's not wanting me to compliment him right now," McMurray said.

But any kind words from McMurray had been earned. Ganassi gave McMurray his first break when the little-known driver was looking for a shot at NASCAR's top level.

Then he had his ego bruised three years later when McMurray fled for a perceived better opportunity at Roush-Fenway Racing. Ganassi didn't let the hurt feelings fester, though, and agreed to give McMurray another shot last fall when the driver was out of work.

It all paid off Sunday night with a thrilling Daytona 500 victory, the biggest NASCAR win for the driver and owner.

It was evident how grateful McMurray was from his tearful Victory Lane celebration, when he effusively thanked Ganassi.

"It's not about me," Ganassi said. "It's just not about me."

How wrong he is. Never mind that McMurray's win in the Super Bowl of NASCAR moved Ganassi into elite company, joining Roger Penske as the only owners to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and the prestigious 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.

More important, the win proved what Ganassi has insisted all along: He can be pushed to the ropes in the brutal business of auto racing, but he will never be knocked down.

"I don't have a lot. I don't have the biggest jet over at the airport there and the flashiest trucks. We're in the business of racing," Ganassi said.

He couldn't help, though, to recall a characterization made two years earlier by a reporter.

"Disarray. It was in disarray. I got that from a writer," he said. "So many times in this sport, if you are not Hendrick, or Roush or Gibbs, you guys think those (other) teams aren't capable. And that's not true. There are lots of teams that are capable."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

RGM Group Introduces RGM Alliance, Internet's Largest Premium ... - Stockhouse

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 12:06 AM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

VENICE, Calif., Feb 16, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

RGM Group (www.rgmgroup.com), a rapidly growing premium online media firm, today introduced the RGM Alliance (www.rgmalliance.com), a premium advertising network comprised of more than 150 vertically focused online publications. An expanded successor to InterLuxe Media, the RGM Alliance (RGMA) has grown to become the Internet's largest premium advertising network, with more than 46 million unique monthly users in the US, representing a 235% increase since September 2009 (comScore, January 2010). Globally, RGMA reaches more than 67 million unique users per month, according to the most recent available comScore worldwide data (December 2009).

RGMA applies a differentiated approach to the traditional online ad network model by stringently prescreening all Alliance publisher members and working only with those which meet its standards of premium in all four areas of brand integrity, site content, ad placements and audience. This provides a premium-only environment in which an expanding base of advertisers such as Acura, Cadillac, Jaguar, HSBC, Bose, Qantas, Horchow, Waldorf Astoria, Bombardier SkyJet, DeBeers, Arizona Tourism, Bosch, and hundreds of others can reach highly specific audiences across targeted RGMA channels. The Alliance is comprised of established publications such as Elle, Frommers, the Los Angeles Times (http://latimes.com), NY Observer, and Car & Driver, as well as growing niche sites Zimbio, Fashionista, and NileGuide, and more than 150 additional publishers. Under this channel-focused approach, RGMA is completely transparent both to its advertisers and member publishers, with no hidden sites or traffic sources.

After being selected for inclusion in the alliance, RGMA publishers are organized and offered to advertisers through nine specific channels: Travel, Lifestyle, Food/Wine, Fashion, Home Design & Decor, Business, Automotive, Real Estate, and Art & Music. As an example of its category leadership, RGMA is already the Internet's largest media entity in comScore's Beauty/Fashion/Style channel with more than 15 million unique monthly visitors as of January 2010.

Advertisers select any of the Alliance's nine channels and can further target campaigns based on geographic areas or behavioral categories. In addition to standard IAB placements, the Alliance offers innovative products such as network roadblock and pushdown ad units to cater to the needs of brand advertisers. A more complete list of the RGM Group's clients can be accessed at: http://www.rgmgroup.com/advertiser-list.html.

"The RGM Alliance serves as a best-of-both-worlds solution by providing the quality content and targeting of a site-specific buy with the reach and efficiency of a network," said Kamran Razavi, RGM Group CEO and Founder. "This empowers advertisers with direct access to highly qualified audiences within a premium environment while offering our publisher partners a premium base of truly relevant world-class advertisers."

"In addition to providing the Hachette Filipacchi Media US sites with top-tier advertising partners at competitive CPMs, the RGM Alliance sales team works to avoid any confusion or conflict in the marketplace," said Oleg Korenfeld, VP of Revenue Operations at HFM, whose holdings include Elle, Car & Driver and several other premium publications. "The result is that RGM Alliance provides HFM with a revenue producing partnership complementary to our current sales and operations."

RGM GROUP CONTINUES STRONG GROWTH

The RGM Alliance is one of RGM Group's five profitable and growing divisions. The privately owned RGM Group is entirely self-funded, and its five divisions have collectively executed more than 2,500 media campaigns on behalf of hundreds of the world's most respected brands and agencies. Having recently opened an office in China, the RGM Group is expanding its business both in the US and internationally.

The RGM Group's other divisions include:

-- RGM, Razavi Global Media: Providing site-specific media representation for many of the Internet's premier online publications, ranging from Gayot.com to LuxuryRealEstate.com, RGM develops and markets a suite of custom advertising offerings on behalf of the affluent-focused sites it represents. These options include standard IAB ad options, integrated sponsorships, podcasts, microsites, widgets, sweepstakes, co-branded sites and many other vehicles to help premium advertisers and publishers benefit from highly relevant and results-focused campaigns.

-- JustLuxe: Delivering an all-encompassing guide to affluent lifestyles at www.justluxe.com, this site has grown to become one of the Internet's largest affluent-focused publications, attracting more than two million unique users per month. JustLuxe offers thousands of articles and features covering more than 40 luxury categories, ranging from automotive, aircraft and travel to architecture, real estate, and home electronics. For advertisers, the RGM Group now provides custom campaign builds and packages that precisely target creative placements into the most relevant areas of JustLuxe.com.

-- LuxeCreative (www.rgmgroup.com/portfolio.html): The creative arm of the RGM Group, this division partners with ad agencies and corporate clients specifically to develop and deploy creative builds that leverage the RGM Group's assets to the greatest effect possible. Agencies such as Razorfish, MEC Global, Beyond Interaction, Moses Anshell, and Morpheus Media have already partnered with LuxeCreative to execute creative builds for several of their premium clients.

-- LuxeResearch is an industry-leading Research Panel focused on the affluent sector (www.LuxeResearch.com). The RGM Group utilizes its Alliance division of premium publisher partners as a distribution channel that drives recruitment for this database of affluent consumers. Through surveys and research touchpoints managed by Survey Sampling International (SSI), LuxeResearch panelists shape the products, services and marketing strategies of leading global brands. The data and results positions the RGM Group as the leading voice in understanding the affluent consumer and their lifestyle.

About RGM Group

The RGM Group (www.rgmgroup.com) is a rapidly growing premium online media firm featuring five divisions: Razavi Global Media, providing site-specific media representation for many of the Internet's premier online publications; The RGM Alliance, a premium network, or alliance, of vertically focused online publications organized into specific content channels; JustLuxe, an all-encompassing guide to affluent lifestyles site which has grown to become one of the Internet's largest affluence-focused publications, attracting more than two million unique users per month; LuxeCreative, the creative arm of the RGM Group which partners with ad agencies and corporate clients specifically to develop and deploy custom campaigns that leverage the RGM Group's affluence-focused assets to the greatest effect possible; and, LuxeResearch, an industry-leading research panel focused on the affluent sector. Offering a highly targeted total reach of more than 75 million unique users per month, the RGM Group provides both advertisers and publishers a comprehensive and flexible platform with which to access, engage and drive results from within the highly fragmented demographic of affluent Internet users. Based in Venice, CA, the company also has offices in New York City, San Diego, and Denver as well as Shanghai, China.

SOURCE: RGM Group

Pointer PR LLC Mark S. Peterson, 206-390-0204 mark@pointerpr.com or http://www.rgmgroup.com/contact.html

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Warranties may grow, Toyota says - Courier-Post

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 12:06 AM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

ORLANDO, FLA. — Toyota Motor Corp. may offer incentives or increase the length of its warranties as it tries to recover from an embarrassing string of safety-related recalls.

The company has not decided exactly what it will do after it gets past the recalls, which include more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, for sticky gas pedals, floor mats that can snag the accelerator and a software glitch in the brakes of its Prius gas-electric hybrid, said Group Vice President Bob Carter.

Carter told reporters at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention in Orlando, Fla., that it is focused on repairing customer cars and restoring their faith in the brand, which has had a reputation for bulletproof reliability for years.

Toyota already is offering zero percent financing for 60 months in some of its regions, as well as cash to dealers to help sweeten deals, and Carter said the company may do an incentive campaign once it gets through the recalls.

"We'll be very confident that we will give our dealers a very good competitive program," said Don Esmond, Toyota's senior vice president for automotive operations in the U.S.

Dealers, Carter said, have fixed more than 500,000 of the 2.3 million cars and trucks covered by the sticky gas pedal recall, and they are repairing about 50,000 cars every day.

He also said the company has only 13 reports of sticking pedals in the U.S. and Canada out of the 2.3 million cars and trucks involved in the pedal recall.

"This is a very, very, very rare occurrence," he said. "Please help us put some perspective on what's happening. Thirteen is too many, we've got to take care of this," he said.

About 300 dealers met with Carter and Esmond Tuesday to talk about their business. Several said afterward that customers have the mistaken impression they are not selling cars because of publicity about Toyota stopping sales of models in the pedal recall. Toyota suspended sales of some of the eight U.S.-made models covered by the recall until dealers could fix them.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Toyota weighs incentives, longer warranties to keep customers - Denver Post

Posted: 15 Feb 2010 11:59 PM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Toyota may offer incentives or increase the length of its warranties as it tries to recover from an embarrassing string of safety-related recalls.

The company has not decided exactly what it will do after it gets past the recalls, which include more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, for sticky gas pedals, floor mats that can snag the accelerator, and a software glitch in the brakes of its Prius gas-electric hybrid, said Toyota Group vice president Bob Carter.

Carter told reporters at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention in Orlando that it is focused on repairing customer cars and restoring their faith in the brand, which has had a reputation for bulletproof reliability for years.

"We'll be very confident that we will give our dealers a very good competitive program," said Don Esmond, Toyota's senior vice president for automotive operations in the U.S.

Dealers, Carter said, have fixed more than 500,000 of the 2.3 million cars and trucks covered by the sticky-gas-pedal recall and are repairing about 50,000 cars every day.

He also said the company has only 13 reports of sticking pedals in the U.S. and Canada out of the 2.3 million cars and trucks involved in the pedal recall.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.