MySpace Ups Berman To President, Sales And Marketing; Begins Testing Community Ad Program For Brands

(PaidContent.org)  This story was written by David Kaplan.

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MySpace is promoting Jeff Berman from EVP-marketing and content to the new post of president of sales and marketing. Only the title is a surprise; Berman's role as the Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) social net's ad sales lead came is part of a reorganizatiothat decentralizes advertising, as we reported earlier this month. He moved to the EVP earlier this year from GM-MySpaceTV. Since then, his job has involved managing the development of marketing initiatives and overseeing the growth of the social network's various franchises. Specifically, today's announcement points out that Berman is charged with coming up with ad solutions for MySpace's brand partners, including strategies for driving online traffic optimization and integrating the company's hyper-targeting technology and ad-serving into campaigns. He continues to report directly to Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace. Berman joined the company in 2006 as SVP-public affairs. He previously ran his own public relations firm and mainly concentrated on politics and non-profits, capitalizing on his former role as chief counsel to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York). Release

-- Community ad program opens in beta: Separately, MySpace is testing a program designed to help advertisers create communities around their brands. Dubbed the Community Builder platform, the program has two tiers: "Self-Service" and "Full-Service." Both versions give advertisers instant community updates via blogs and bulletins, as well as Hitbox analytics designed to tell them how effective the campaign is. Self-Service is basically aimed at advertisers who are familiar with MySpace and who have advanced design coding skills and can maintain their own site. Community Builder is powered by Brooklyn, NY-based web shop Deep Focus. Release


By David Kaplan