Entries for the annual MAA Best Awards are now open: 2011 will be the 21st birthday of the event that began as a way of encompassing below-the-line marketing and now celebrates creative excellence across the marketing industry. Top agencies are being called on by the MMA – the Marketing Agencies Association formerly Marketing Communications Consultants Association: MCCA – to showcase their expertise by entering the best work they’ve created in the last 12 months. For the first time, the Best Awards’ media partner is UK newspaper The Guardian – which has specific media and marketing sections. The newspaper has created ...

Location-based advertising is still in its infancy, but according to a study from an international researcher, businesses are primed to spend $1.8 billion on it in 2015 as part of their overall mobile marketing budgets. The ABI Research study, ‘Location-Based Marketing’ examines the current dynamics of the mobile location-based advertising market – drivers, inhibitors, key players and forecasts – and profiles consumer opinions. Practice director, Neil Strother, said: "It’s still early days and there’s no single ‘right’ approach to location-based advertising. This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation." Nonetheless, the options are becoming more clearly defined. ...

Britain is a nation of givers, reveals a TNT Post survey into consumer attitudes to charity mailings. Almost half 47% of Brits regularly contribute to a specific charitable cause and a quarter make a charitable donation on an adhoc basis each month. A third of people who make a donation are prompted to do so by mail received from a charity through the post, demonstrating that consumers actively react to physical mail appeals. Consumers also react to audiovisual prompts, such as by watching the news 44% and television advertising 23% . The survey found that direct mail is one of ...

Worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, Harte-Hanks – which is headquartered in North America – has just announced that it acquired Information Arts UK Limited yesterday, August 31. Information Arts, based in High Wycombe, is a provider of data-driven marketing insight to business-to-business marketers across Europe – and increasingly across the globe. It will operate as a business unit of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing under Information Arts’ current leadership of Simon Lawrence and Gary Selby, who jointly founded their company in 2000. Information Arts and Harte-Hanks’ other marketing offerings in Europe will be combined to deliver multichannel ‘Demand Center’ solutions – ...

USA-style DRTV is becoming a success story in other parts of the world now, says Digby Orsmond pictured , bringing an update on European Direct Response TV. The European Union has been with us for more than 50 years and what started out as a treaty between six founding countries now includes 27 member states with a total population of circa 493 million. Together, these countries account for less than 22 per cent of the world’s population, however their combined economies produce an impressive 37 per cent of the global GDP and they own more than 32 per cent of ...

I was reading about how moles survive underground, by being able to inhale the same air they exhale, and marvelling at how adaptable nature can be. You might find my analogy a bit of a stretch, but I found myself likening those moles to modern direct marketers . . . in terms of remarkable adaptability, rather than holes. Yet, we have just climbed out we are assured of a truly enormous hole. Not one we dug for ourselves as shelter, but one into which we were hurled by the economic hurricane which overcame us. As per moles, we have been ...

The digital remit of the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority ASA is to be extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive consumer protection online. The ASA’s present remit online includes ads in paid-for space and sales promotions wherever they appear. But from next year, the rules in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing the CAP Code will apply in full to marketing communications online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children. The remit will apply to all sectors and all businesses and organisations, regardless of size. The Committee of Advertising ...

Spend on digital advertising soared 47 per cent in the first half of this year, a report from the Rubicon Project shows. The Q2 2010 Online Advertising Market Report reveals that – despite growing concerns around privacy legislation and data risks – industry growth is being driven by audience buying, increase in spend from international markets and automation. The Rubicon Project, the international advertising technology company, also shares insight into what’s next for the digital ad landscape, in the tenth instalment of its Online Advertising Market Report series. The Rubicon 20 Index gives a measure of performance across a number ...

How can you effectively manage your company’s demand for quality leads, at low cost – and qualify, score, nurture and prepare them for conversion to sale? Find out at a seminar to be held in London on the afternoon of September 30. Hosted by B2B Marketing in association with Mardev-DM2, the event is an opportunity to pick the brains of speakers Adam Sharp MD and founder of CleverTouch Marketing Pete Jakob IBM, marketing transformation leader and Mardev-DM2’s director, Zina Manda. Hear their practical experiences of how best to deliver an effective strategy by making your website a successful lead generation ...

Recent Changes Study: Changes in consumer behaviour clearly point to a need to be direct by Paul Williamson and Sue Burden, Realia both pictured below We all know that consumer confidence is still fragile, but what changes have UK residents been making to their lives and what potential impact does that have on marketers? Understanding the extent and motivation for changes in consumers’ lives was the objective of the Recent Changes Study conducted by Realia. This study asked a representative sample of 1,006 UK consumers about any changes they had made recently and the motivations behind those changes. On average, ...

The percentage of women accessing the web on their mobile phones has risen 575 per cent in two years, according to web browser Opera’s latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report. South Africa leads the world’s push for gender equality on the mobile web, with women accounting for nearly 44 per cent of mobile web users up from 24.7 per cent in May 2008 . The report provides regular information on the top global trends affecting the mobile web and finds that, after South Africa, the highest percentage of female users are in the US – increased from 19.4 per ...

US-based T-shirt company Threadless has announced it increased revenue from its email marketing efforts by 120 per cent, year-on-year, with targeted content and promotions to segments of its international online community. Powered by global marketing solutions provider ExactTarget and promoted on the Threadless website, the retailer posted the gain following a 2009 revision of its email marketing effort that expanded the programme to include more targeted campaigns driven by user-defined content and preferences. Cam Balzer, vice-president of marketing, Threadless, said: "Threadless is about fostering our community of users, supporting their creativity and delivering the most unique, high-quality products selected by ...

International SEO agency, OBAN Multilingual, has launched GlobalMaxer, which it describes as ‘the first cultural multivariate testing tool available on the market’. The tool allows marketers to test combinations of web design elements, such as colours, fonts, graphics placement and page size, in order to pinpoint which elements provide the best conversion rates in different cultural markets. GlobalMaxer uses elements from OBAN’s Cultural Database, which contains cultural norms in web design and conversion behaviour from all 26 countries that OBAN currently covers. The company then advises which elements are best to test in each region so that businesses will only ...

The job outlook for unemployed direct marketers in the US has sharply deteriorated since last summer, according to a new study by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, a major digital and direct marketing executive search firm. Jerry Bernhart, principal of Bernhart Associates, said: "In Summer 2009, we asked unemployed direct marketers how long they had been looking for a job. We decided to ask that same question one year later. Like last year, we broke down the results by levels of compensation, and for the first time we’ve segmented results by age." The survey focused on respondents who said they ...

Google has appointed the European database specialist, PAR, to supply business data for Google Maps for Sweden and Finland. Under the agreement, PAR will provide, and continually update, data for Google Maps from its pan-European business database, EuroContactPool. This will enable users of Google Maps to ‘see’ businesses in the location where they’re looking and click on to them to get more detail. Users will also be able to search for specific businesses using company name or industry and find their location on Google Maps. Google has partnered with PAR because the EuroContactPool business database is the most accurate and ...

By Paul Seabrook, director of online research company fast.MAP. The European financial outlook is stormy, so it is not surprising that new research has discovered people are anxious and cautious about which financial products and brands to buy. Consumers want to be certain the insurance company they choose is efficient and fair and the pension fund’s charges are reasonable. Which is why, although comparison sites and other promotional vehicles might help them to find the cheapest deal, more people are now seeking the kind of unbiased financial advice which only friends and family can supply. Similarly, they are relying more ...

Poland-based firm, Directan, has introduced a data cleaning system for both the Polish market and internationally. The system remotely checks the status of mobile phone numbers, without inconveniencing the user. Among its services, the system can check whether the number is live, connected, has been switched off and whether it has been registered with a Telephone Preference Service. Directan says its Data Clean system increases the productivity of call centres and any company using mobile numbers for telemarketing or SMS campaigns. General director Agnieszka Chappenden pictured said: “Using cleaned data significantly reduces staff costs by allowing them use of only ...

Regular DMI guest author Mark Bridges has joined US-based Data Services Inc as senior director for international sales and business development. Bridges pictured is an experienced international direct marketer who has worked with a broad range of blue-chip clients, primarily publishers and multi-channel merchants in both business and consumer categories around the world. British-born, he is a frequent industry speaker and contributor to international marketing publications – such as DMI. With Data Services – a major provider of US, Canadian and international data quality and enhancement services for global direct and multichannel marketing – Bridges will continue to be based ...

Small businesses seeking new ways to raise finance, achieve more sales, avoid unnecessary litigation and tribunals, or master the latest in technology are being encouraged to attend a conference in London on September 8. Fresh Business Thinking LIVE! 2010 takes place in Old Billingsgate and promises to be a power-packed one-day event that will include an array of clinics, workshops and presentations delivered by some of the world’s most sought-after entrepreneurs, as well as a selection of high quality exhibitors showcasing their latest products and services specifically geared towards the SME community. "It will be a genuine talking-shop," says Fresh ...

A global pricing consultancy has come up with a thoroughly modern way of celebrating its 25th anniversary. It has launched a mobile phone application. Simon-Kucher & Partners’ unique application measures the EBIT earnings before interest and taxes impact on the levers of sales, prices and costs, using the Germany-based company’s figures as the basis for the measurement. The app answers the crucial question facing every manager: Should I improve sales, reduce costs, or change prices? Available free at the iPhone App Store, the new application is easy and fast to use and, in a few clicks, allows you to calculate ...

New types of SMS mobile banking alerts will help to treble the volume of mobile banking messages to almost 90 billion a year by 2015, equating to one message every two days, per mobile banking user. So says a new in-depth global study by Juniper Research, whose interviews with mobile banking vendors and banks reveal there is considerable scope for banks to offer new messaging based services on top of basic balance alerts. Banks are seeking to exploit these new process alerts to speed up customer communications during applications for products such as loans and mortgages. Mobile Banking report author, ...

The international Chartered Institute of Marketing CIM has announced its major conference is to take place on October 21. The annual event will feature world-renowned experts on marketing, sharing their expertise on four key industry issues: marketing strategy, internal engagement, social media and digital customer relationship management. The one-day event will be staged at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel, London and the agenda will be a mixture of the latest academic thinking and practical engagement. Speakers already confirmed include Professor Douglas McWilliams from the Centre for Economic Research who will look at the key issues facing both the private and ...

Figures just released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations ABC indicate of an improving outlook for the UK consumer magazine sector. Total magazine circulation for ABC-audited titles reporting in the first half of 2010 increased by 0.3 per cent compared with the same period in 2009. This follows a robust performance in the previous period, where total magazine circulation fell by just 1.3 per cent year-on-year. The results underline the continued high level of consumer demand for magazines in the face of both economic pressures and the availability of an increasing array of media choices. A number of magazine sectors ...

The UK’s direct marketing industry generates £205 billion in sales annually in the UK, according to the findings of new research published by the UK Direct Marketing Association DMA . The DMA’s inaugural Value of DM Report, which provides a detailed picture of the total financial contribution the direct marketing industry makes to UK commerce, cites the retail sector as the biggest beneficiary of direct marketing. More than £102 billion in sales are attributed to direct marketing – 36 per cent of the £285 billion in retail sales recorded by the British Retail Consortium in 2009. Direct marketing is also ...

In just a month, social network Friends Reunited – which has 20.6 million members – boosted its email deliverability from 67.1 per cent to 92.5 per cent. In May, the company – which sends around 30 million emails each month – deployed Return Path’s suite of email deliverability monitoring tools and services to gain greater insight into the deliverability of its email newsletter, user-activity triggered emails and marketing emails. One in 20 of Friends Reunited’s emails were ending up in its subscribers’ spam folders and more than a quarter 27 per cent were going missing – totally undelivered, not in ...