• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 29, 2009

The Online Publishers Association on Wednesday named Perianne Grignon as its new SVP of marketing. A former VP of media strategy and digital innovation for Sears Holdings Co., Grignon will now be expected to help OPA president Pam Horan develop and execute all future marketing initiatives.

"Perianne's work with brands like Sears, AT&T and Nabisco will prove invaluable," said Horan.

At Sears, Grignon is credited with developing a successful partnership with ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and leading the company into the use of digital and social media with an annual media budget of $1 billion.

Of late, the OPA has been encouraging more inspired ad creative, while highlighting the Web's latent potential as a brand advertising medium. As such, 37 of its members -- whose sites reach 68% of the total U.S. Internet audience -- recently began offering several larger ad units, which the group unveiled in March. Some -- including The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC.com -- are already running, or will soon launch, campaigns for brands such as Bank of America and Mercedes-Benz. For publishers, the efforts are designed to produce bigger payoffs in keeping and/or generating more lucrative sponsorship ad deals.

The OPA has also actively sought to engage in public policy related to digital media. Late last year, it appointed Michael Drobac to the newly created position of VP of government affairs. Drobac spent years working on Capitol Hill, and most recently was director of government affairs for IAC/Interactive Corp.

Grignon previously served as director of media strategy at AT&T, and EVP and director of media and new technologies at Bates Worldwide.