SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - February 3, 2011) - Covario, Inc., one of the nation's largest independent providers of search marketing software solutions and agency services, today announced that it is beefing up its international capabilities and resources with the hiring of industry veteran Larry K. H. Jenkins as vice president of global client strategies and services, in addition to a significant investment in an expanded team of digital marketing experts in China.

Jenkins brings years of experience to Covario after building an international portfolio at iCrossing, Inc., a large interactive agency, where he served as executive vice president of client services and strategic accounts, and managing director of Europe. In this role, he led the firm's European integration, which encompassed acquisitions in Germany and the U.K., along with the opening of its first London office.

Previously, Jenkins held a series of increasingly responsible management, sales, marketing and communications positions with both business-to-business and consumer-facing companies, including global marketers like Tyson Foods where he was vice president of international/military sales and marketing. He also served as vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Encompass Services. His early training in brand and sales management came at Nestle.

At Covario, Jenkins will head-up the firm's fast-growing international unit, which encompasses staff and operations in Japan, Singapore, the U.K. and Canada, as well as China. Currently, more than 60 percent of the firm's client base rely on it for paid search, SEO (search engine optimization), and display advertising services for their brands and products marketed both inside and outside the U.S.

Also of international consequence, the company announced it will be stepping up its investment and increasing its presence in China with a dedicated Covario team in its Beijing office, from which it will serve the paid and organic search needs of clients throughout China and in other parts of the fast-growing Asia/Pacific region.

"Clearly, international growth is a big part of our business plan for 2011 and beyond," said Russ Mann, Covario's chief executive and co-founder. "Most of the growth we're seeing in digital ad spending and budgeting among large enterprise clients is now coming from outside the U.S. Bringing a recognized global leader like Larry Jenkins on board, in addition to our expanded commitment in China, will help us realize the goals both our clients and we have in this area."

Mann noted how consistent this is with Covario's recent Global Search Spend Analysis for 2010, where it found that its global technology clients invested significantly more for paid search campaigns in the Asia/Pacific and European/Middle Eastern regions (30-35% and 20-25%, respectively) than in the U.S. (15-20%).

In addition, the research firm iSuppli recently estimated that the market for search marketing in China alone reached about $1.6 billion in 2010, up about 60 percent from the previous year.

Since its inception less than five years ago, Covario has been growing at a rapid clip. The company was named to the Inc. 500 list of the nation's fastest-growing, privately-held firms for the last two years in a row. Most of the firm's clients are large, enterprise marketers who take advantage of Covario's software and services to achieve lift from SEM (search engine marketing) or paid search, and SEO (search engine optimization) or natural search campaigns conducted on a localized basis in countries throughout the world.

"Covario represents the next generation of a leading edge search and digital marketing solutions firm," Jenkins said.

He noted the firm's "best-of-breed" SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)-based SEO and SEM technologies used by more than 1,000 websites and brands worldwide; its paid search team, which has repeatedly won top awards from the likes of Search Engine Watch, IAB MIXX and AdTech; and the kudos the firm's SEO unit has received of late from clients and analysts alike, while offering "highly differentiated social media pushes."

"Covario is investing internationally in dedicated staff in London, Tokyo, Singapore and now Beijing -- not just using a network of people who move on and off projects with no continuity for the client," Jenkins said. "I see this as a unique opportunity to build an even stronger international operation than I did in my previous role. I am particularly impressed by the work Covario is doing with CMO dashboards, media mix modeling and attribution analysis, and look forward to bringing this to clients and prospects around the world."

According to Mann, "Larry was a marketing leader at several Fortune 500 consumer and B2B services brands before moving to the agency side, where he helped grow one of the first international search marketing firms. Our global clients will be sure get more lift in their search engine rankings and business results from Larry and the team, as we continue to invest globally."

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marc Ostrofsky, Internet entrepreneur, founder of the recently-formed Razor Media Group, and author of Get Rich Click! is excited to launch a video contest encouraging frustrated students with the desire to be their own boss to embrace their "Gen Z" passion for entrepreneurship.

“This contest will demonstrate the power of the internet and opportunities for students like myself.”

The contest, titled R U Gen Z (Generation Zuckerberg), seeks to give students an outlet to express their fears with today's unpredictable economy and limited corporate job opportunities, to discuss alternatives and benefits of being their own boss, and to show initiative in becoming an internet entrepreneur.

Launching February 2, 2011 at 5 p.m., applicants can upload their R U Gen Z video at http://www.getrichclick.com/rugenz until April 1, 2011 at 11:59 a.m. for the chance to win up to $5,000 in cash prizes.

Prizes for the Gen Z winners, include:

* 1st Place: $5,000

* 2nd Place: $2,500

* People's Choice Award: $1,000

* Funniest Video Award: $1,000

* Most creative way to incorporate Get Rich Click and/or Marc Ostrofsky: $1,000

Judging and selection will be based on messaging quality, level of entertainment, originality, number of views and comments on YouTube, and sharing.

"While students today are uneasy over the job market, they do not understand that in this period of economic fluctuation, armed with the immeasurable online resources, students are actually presented with an opportunity unlike any generation before," said Ostrofsky. "The R U Gen Z contest seeks to unnerve, entertain and prove that those who work for themselves will create the next generation of great wealth."

Ostrofsky shares his entire treasure trove of information in a comprehensive how-to guide: GET RICH CLICK! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet (Razor Media Group: May 2, 2011, $19.95). In addition to his own experience, he draws on hundreds of real-life stories from other Internet entrepreneurs of all ages to show how easily and quickly one can make money on a full- or part-time basis.

Razor Media Group has partnered with the country's top undergraduate entrepreneur program, the University of Houston's Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, to create an advisory board of students that give a "Gen Z" mentality to the marketing, promotion and judging of the R U Gen Z video contest.

"The job market sucks, the jobs that you can get suck, moving back in with your parents in the suburbs sucks. What doesn't suck is being your own boss before you even graduate college," said Armen Suny, R U Gen Z advisory board member and University of Houston student. "This contest will demonstrate the power of the internet and opportunities for students like myself."

The R U Gen Z video contest is seeking Gen Z internet enthusiasts, interested in finding their entrepreneurial passion and fighting for it. To submit a contest entry, upload your video to http://www.getrichclick.com/rugenz.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110202006948/en/Marc-Ostrofsky-Launches-Video-Contest-Encouraging-Entrepreneurship

PURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) — PepsiCo Inc. said Thursday it completed its $3.8 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, a Russian company that produces dairy products, juices, mineral water and baby food.

The Purchase, N.Y., snacks and soft drink company said the acquisition of about 66 percent of outstanding shares increases its stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann to about 77 percent. It expects to make an offer on or before March 11 for all remaining shares.

PepsiCo said the deal makes it the largest food-and-beverage business in Russia and strengthens its position in the fast-growing Eastern European and Central Asian markets. It said last week it received approval from the Russian government to take a majority stake.

PepsiCo shares fell 52 cents to $64.13 in afternoon trading, while U.S.-traded shares of Wimm-Bill-Dann fell 24 cents to $32.85.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-03/pepsico-completes-3-8-b-wimm-bill-dann-deal.html

“We’re thinking of this as a startup or a speedup by focusing on companies with high-growth potential that have the ability to create lots of jobs,” says Steve Case, the chairman of Startup America and the founder of AOL. The Case Foundation, is among the private sector donors, but he declined to specify his contribution.

The Obama administration is moving away from the $787 billion fiscal stimulus of early 2009 that has so far failed to push unemployment below 9%. In the Startup America plan, President Obama explicitly emphasized that he’s not spending taxpayer money in the one source of capital he’s allocating to this program: $2 billion to match private-sector funding for early-stage companies. (It will be part of the Small Business Administration’s existing guaranteed loan program). “They’re recognizing we’re moving into a phase where the marketplace is the principal engine for growth and job creation,” says Case.

But what is Startup America? “The network of networks,” says Lesa Mitchell, a vice president at the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Missouri non-profit that studies entrepreneurship and is funneling $500,000 into the program. They’ve assembled an all-star lineup in the high-growth entrepreneurship world, including non-profits like the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship that helps high school students in underprivileged areas become entrepreneurs; Massachusett’s $1 million startup competition MassChallenge; the business incubator program TechStars and Astia, which helps fund female-led high-growth businesses. Large corporations businesses like HP and Intel have jointly committed $350 million for programs to invest in early-stage startups. Mitchell says she expects that Startup America will “potentially convene” groups to talk about how to best create ecosystems that facilitate partnerships between big and small businesses.

Another change in federal policy that predates the Obama administration. Startup America acknowledges at a federal level that there’s a distinction between small, local businesses and high-growth startups. Such a distinction has been lost in the lexicon of the main government agency dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs, the “Small Business Administration,” and through other federal initiatives that support small businesses. “Business is not a monolith and we’re acknowledging that,” says Case. By focusing primarily on early-stage businesses, the administration is latching onto research that shows that new businesses not small businesses add net new jobs to the economy. Here’s a link to a previous article on this research.

Techstars is one such establishment that’s focused solely on accelerating the growth of early-stage businesses, and in conjunction with the launch of Startup America, launched its own network so more locales can use the Techstars model to create new incubators. “We want to give our model to the country,” says founder and CEO David Cohen.

Startup America is seeking out a high-growth entrepreneur or someone who has taken a business from early-stage to the size of an Intel or Facebook to run the initiative, according to Case and Mitchell. Case says it will be someone with public sector experience too. They hope to have an announcement in the next few months.

http://blogs.forbes.com/maureenfarrell/2011/02/03/obamas-new-stimulus-highlight-high-growth-entrepreneurs/