Following Massive’s year end push to get the deals inked, in-game advertising competitor Double Fusion is turning up the heat with promotion of Media and Advertising veteran Jana Friedman to Senior VP of Worldwide Advertising Sales.

Prior to her new position, Friedman served as Double Fusion’s VP or Sales for the Casual Games Group, and replaces Julie Shumaker.  Shumaker was responsible for building the company’s sales force, and aiding in making Double Fusion into what it is today: a leading provider of in-game advertising to the marketing and advertising community.  Double Vision CEO and President, Jonathan Epstein made the announcement yesterday, also citing Double Vision’s double digit growth over the past year have put the company in a prime position to continue accelerated growth in the multimillion dollar in-game industry.

Friedman comes to Double Fusion via Conde Nast and Electronic Arts, where she served key sales and development roles.  She served as the Associate Publisher of Brides.com, Conde Nast’s premier bridal site, where her team created unique programs that allowed advertisers to reach this highly targeted audience.  Friedman successfully executed campaigns for a wide variety of clients including Discover Card, JC Penney, and Macy’s.

Prior to the Conde Nast gig, Friedman served as Senior Director of Online Ad Sales at EA where she oversaw a team that was responsible for generating advertising revenue on EA’s online platforms, including EA.com, Pogo.com, and The Sims Online Communities.  Jana Friedman is responsible for pioneering some of the ad industry’s first video game deals, and has been a driving force behind the recent uprising of advertising in the casual games environment.

As Senior VP of Worldwide Advertising Sales, Friedman is now in charge of leading the company’s representation of in-game advertising opportunities with over 30 of the world’s best known publishers and platforms, including but not limited to, PS3, THQ, SEGA, Eidos, and Midway Games.

“I am thrilled that we have a talent like Jana Friedman to build upon the successful foundation Julie Shumaker created here at Double Fusion,” said CEO Jonathan Epstein. “Jana has been instrumental in developing our successful North American media business, and we’re excited at the prospects 2009 will bring as we further our commitment to provide free and ad-supported games for everyone.”