MARKETING & SERVICES

MCI hopes to make large ad agencies, public relations firms and direct mail companies look as technically savvy as smaller boutique companies that are luring away their clients.

The carrier has created a mock campaign showing how its networkMCI Solutions for Marketing Media Alternatives can help the fictitious Adgame Agency speed its client's brand to market. The brand, Fusion Farms' "Hot-Chup," gets off to a terrific start because of MCI services.

"This takes what many think is the communications layer and puts it into the hands of marketing," said Ron McMurtrie, director of strategic marketing for MCI business markets. "The future of strategic marketing is in non-invasive messages received on a self-serve, optional basis."

Among MCI's offerings are: • Toll-free numbers, fax-on-demand numbers and Web site addresses in both print and broadcast ads.

• Prepaid cards for sales promotions that provide information about products and services and offer a way to gauge customer reaction through voice responses.

• E-mail and Web sites to survey customers.

• Voice mail bulletin boards, tele-seminars, fax-on-demand and Web sites to distribute product updates and answer questions.

In the mock campaign, the fictitious new marketing manager, Lisa Dobbs, tells the public relations director, Burt Brown, to get the word out about Hot-Chup. He uses MCI fax broadcasts to reach hundreds of publications, customers, retailers and employees.

Meanwhile, John Polley, the Hot-Chup product manager, uses MCI Mail to tell Tamara LaTorre, Adgame Agency's art director, to start work on an advertisement. The campaign continues as each participant uses a networkMCI solution, including prepaid calling cards, call center technology and advice on designing a World Wide Web page. The result: Fusion Farms hits its target audiences, shortens turnaround times and saves money.

To succeed in the real marketing world, MCI must make the right contacts and dispel its services' potential threats to advertising agents, said Tom Jenkins, broadband consultant with TeleChoice Inc., Verona, N.J. "They're going to have to find a way to get through the door with the marketing manager or the marketing company."

If MCI makes the inroads it expects, the effort will be worth it, Jenkins said. "This really does show, especially on the data side, a willingness to work with customers and supply solutions to customer-specific problems, which the industry is starting to move toward and needs to move toward more quickly."

FIORINA LEADS LUCENT'S CONSUMER PRODUCTS BUSINESS Carly Fiorina has been appointed president of Lucent Technologies' consumer products business. The division, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., designs, produces, sells, services and leases communication products for consumers and small businesses. Fiorina, 42, previously served as executive vice president of corporate operations.

CANADIAN FIRM ACQUIRES CARRIER'S BUSINESS SEGMENT Ameritech Building Automation Services, a business of Ameritech Corp., has been acquired by Circon Technology Corp., Vancouver, Canada. Circon develops and makes integrated building control and telecommunications network support systems.

ONLY POLITICAL JUNKIES NEED APPLY With less than a month to go before the presidential election, cybervoters are being asked to cast their ballots in MCI's "Pick the Winner" on-line sweepstakes. Entrants pick a winner in each state. Winners get a trip to Washington, D.C., to take part in Inauguration Day activities. The sweepstakes is part of the interexchange carrier's NetVote '96 at http://netvote96.mci.com.