Marketing Tactics

Wolverine Worldwide is looking to bolster its brand leadership and management team. To that end, the company has promoted Rick Blackshaw to president, Sperry Top-Sider, and Chris Lindner to president, Keds.

Blackshaw served most recently as president of Keds, where he is credited with leading the brand to a global resurgence with a focused consumer-centric business strategy, outstanding product and compelling marketing. Blackshaw came to Keds from Converse, where he was the VP and GM of the Chuck Taylor footwear business.    

San Francisco – EBay Inc. reportedly plans to begin running advertisements within its mobile app during fourth quarter 2014. According to Reuters, the Geico insurance company will be one of the first advertisers.

There’s a new, farmers market-styled specialty grocer taking root in the Midwest: Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. With former Sunflower Farmers Market CEO Chris Sherrell at the helm, Fresh Thyme emphasizes organic foods and produce at value prices in a convenient neighborhood-store format. The company made its debut in April, in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and went on to open six additional locations. A total of 60 stores are planned throughout the Midwest by 2019.

PunchTab, a leading omnichannel engagement and insights platform, has appointed Mike Mansbach as the company’s next CEO.

The platform considers Mansbach to be a results-driven go-to-market executive who successfully led the global sales and client services team for the SaaS Division at Citrix.
 

Charlotte-based Belk has teamed up with Project Runway season 12 winner Dom Streater. The exclusive collection designed by Streater, "Dom," offers classic, premium designs in modern prints and is now available in 30 Belk locations, including belk.com.

L'Oréal USA's seventh annual "Fore the Children" charity event to benefit Children's Specialized Hospital Foundation attracted more than 850 people and raised $625,000, bringing the total amount raised by L'Oreal USA since 2008 to $3.2 million.

Overall retail spending growth in August 2014 was the strongest in more than a year, according to the First Data SpendTrend report.

Retail dollar volume growth reached 2.8% in August — compared to 2.6% in July — as back-to-school shopping propelled spending growth in several retail categories.

The Hain Celestial Group, a leading organic and natural products company, and NBA center for the Dallas Mavericks Tyson Chandler have teamed up to digitally publish Tyson's Pro Tips, an insider's guide to improve athletic performance.

Written for young athletes, their coaches, parents and caregivers, the 21 pro tips in Tyson's Pro Tips offer nutrition, fitness and personal care advice designed to help established players and emerging stars achieve their goals in a healthy and positive way, the brand said.

Anheuser-Busch has teamed up with Gratafy to launch a mobile gifting pilot on Facebook designed to enable real-time connections between the beer brand and its customers.

A series of Anheuser-Busch campaigns will target consumers nationwide in their Facebook News Feeds, giving them the ability to send friends a Budweiser (budweiser.com/budsforbuds) or Bud Light (budlight.com/birthday) in select cities, beginning with Chicago and Denver.

Westwood Village, Calif. — Urban Outfitters has opened side-by-side men’s and women’s stores in Westwood Village, Calif. With a 16,556 sq. ft. storefront, the stores are located in two adjacent historic buildings on Westwood Blvd.