Peter Sedlarcik has rejoined Havas' MPG unit as senior vice president-director of insights and analytics, reporting to Joe Abruzzo, executive vice president and head of research at the agency.  Sedlarcik most recently was senior vice president-director of insights and analytics at Targetcast.  He first joined MPG in 2002 as senior vice president-Research Consultancy, and has also held key research positions with Carat and Millward Brown.

Yahoo said today it had extended its Connected TV offering was now available on Toshiba's latest 46”-55” HDTVs including the Cinema Series line. That service, which provides widgets allowing people to access Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Blockbuster and other popular online brands while watching TV, is already distributed via TVs from manufacturers including Samsung, Sony, LG and Vizio. Yahoo TV Widgets are found on more than 3.5 million TVs worldwide, with active users in 135 countries, according to Yahoo. Earlier this month, the company also reached an agreement with European TV maker Vestel Group to ship models equipped with Yahoo …

By now, people are used to hearing Kevin Plank, Under Armour's CEO, boast about how the brand is going to continue to take market share away from behemoths like Nike and Adidas. But with the launch of its new basketball shoes--scheduled to debut in select stores in late October and early November--he's more believable than ever. Plank told investors at the Goldman Sachs Seventeenth Annual Retail Conference that the basketball shoes have been in development for more than two-and-a-half years, and getting solid feedback from the athletes and teams that have been testing them. "When we do enter basketball, …

Mobile ad network Greystripe has built its business on rich media ad formats that runs in games and other applications. Now the company is extending its interactive units to the mobile Web as more developers create Web apps and sites instead of only native apps for smartphones like the iPhone or Android devices. Greystripe will bring its animated banner and expandable ads to the mobile Web as well as its technology for converting Flash-based ads into the Apple-friendly HTML5 format. To date, the company has tested the new Web version of its ad units in more than 15 campaigns …

General Motors' telematics program OnStar is outgrowing its identity as a "just in case" subscriptioin-base application for drivers in need of help. Instead, OnStar will be a lifestyle program that goes beyond safety and emergencies – as well as a pure subscription model -- to social media, entertainment, apps, Bluetooth, phone interfacing and remote diagnostics, among other things. To get the word out the company is relaunching with a new campaign, "Live On" with the theme line, "Safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible." The new campaign, via Campbell-Ewald, which has had the account since OnStar's …

Twitter developed a new Web site it will begin rolling out Tuesday. The front end has been re-engineered, built off the company's API, making it easier to use and more stable. The company focused on building up the infrastructure. The site allows the user to scroll endlessly. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams says Twitter.com has always been the most popular Twitter client. About 78% of the 160 million people who tweet have used the Web site to tweet it in the last 30 days. The news was announced at a press conference at Twitter headquarters.

Faced with a reluctant recovery, Lowe's says it's rethinking the way it forecasts consumer spending, coming to terms with smaller scale, DIY projects for people who are staying in their homes longer and longer. "We're bouncing along the bottom, and while we first thought we'd see an improvement in consumer spending in the first half of the year, we're now pushing that expectation of the housing recovery back a quarter or two, into the second half," Robert Niblock, CEO of Lowe's, told investors attending the Goldman Sachs Seventeenth Annual Global Retailing Conference, which was also webcast. But he …

Confirming that impulse purchases are on life support, The NPD Group reports that 94% of U.S. households prepare written grocery shopping lists, and that 72% report that they never, or only occasionally, veer from these lists. "For food and beverage manufacturers and retailers, it's all about getting on the list," says Ann Hanson, executive director of product development and author of the "Before the Store" report. "With so many purchasing decisions being made at home where meals are being planned and shopping lists assembled, it's important to focus on [reaching] consumers at home, before they leave for the store." …

WPP's G2 unit has named Eric Pakurar executive director-head of planning & strategy. He was head of strategy in the New York office of Naked Communications.

While researchers have been insisting that lists are in and impulse buys are out ever since the recession started, a new study from the NPD Groups sheds new light on just how committed consumers are to those behaviors. An amazing 94% prepare a written list before leaving the house, and 72% say they never or rarely deviate from it. "No matter what stores and marketers tend to believe, consumers aren't walking into stores with a blank slate," Ann Hanson, executive director of product development and author of the report, tells Marketing Daily. "They have an agenda. And for marketers, …