Precision Marketing articles from June 2007

Precision Marketing archives from June 2007

Tories reject 'junk mail' war.
June 1, 2007... The Conservative Party has rejected Environment Minister David Miliband's so-called 'war on junk mail', claiming a David Cameron-led Government would not force brand owners to seek consumer opt-in for direct mail. The Tories are...

Royal Mail to freeze compensation.
June 1, 2007... Royal Mail is risking the wrath of direct marketers by planning to suspend compensation payments for late or undelivered mail for up to two years. The postal operator has put the proposal to Postcomm, arguing that it simply will not be...

AIS poaches Orange data insight expert.(Mark Challinor appointed at Archibald Ingall Stretton)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Archibald Ingall Stretton (AIS) has lured a senior Orange data insight specialist to head a new in-house analytics division, five months after selling its stake in data consultancy Tree (PM, January 29). Mark Challinor, former head of...

IN BRIEF: Royal Mail in new mailshop scheme.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Royal Mail has revealed details of its new mailing house scheme, designed to replace the independent QMP accreditation system, which was axed last month after the company pulled its funding (PM, April 20). The postal body says the new system...

IN BRIEF: ATOC pushes railcard schemes.(Association of Train Operating Companies)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) is launching an 'Epic Savings' campaign for its three railcards. The drive, by Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel, uses pastiches of epic film promotions to highlight the savings on offer...

IN BRIEF: Third of IT staff 'snoop on data'.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... A third of IT staff snoop through company systems, looking at confidential information such as employees' private files, wage data, personal emails and HR background, according to a study. The report, by Cyber-Ark Software, claims workers can...

Brand owners 'miss out' on email acquisition strategy.
June 1, 2007... Brand owners are missing out on acquiring customers via email marketing because they ignore basic data capture techniques when consumers visit their websites. The warning comes on the back of report by the Internet Advertising Bureau...

WWF exposes plight of Asian elephants.
June 1, 2007... Independent conservation charity WWF is launching a direct mail cash appeal to raise funds and build awareness about the plight of the Asian elephant. The drive, created by WWAV Rapp Collins London, will target 74,000 existing...

Maserati strives to overturn 'pricey' tag.
June 1, 2007... Luxury car marque Maserati aims to shed its 'too pricey' image after it found that affluent consumers shunned the marque, wrongly assuming they could not afford it. The Italian sports car brand has appointed Crazy Horse Brand Response...

ICO claims: 'We don't have the resources to fight spam'.
June 1, 2007... The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has hit back at claims that it does not enforce email marketing laws sufficiently (PM, May 18) by blaming under-funding and a lack of powers provided by the EC Privacy and Electronic Communications...

Future of WWAV Leeds in doubt.(WWAV Rapp Collins)
June 1, 2007... WWAV Rapp Collins Group is considering closing its Leeds agency following what it has called "a lengthy period of difficult trading". The company is in consultation with staff and clients about the operation, which was launched as the...

Marketers still ignorant on PiP.
June 1, 2007... More than a fifth of senior marketing executives and print managers have never even heard of Royal Mail's Pricing in Proportion (PiP) system, almost a year after it was first introduced, according to a study. The survey, published by...

IN BRIEF: Google faces EU data probe.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... European Union data protection chiefs are to quiz Google bosses after fears that the firm is violating EU law by storing personal data of search engine users for up to two years. The EU's Article 29 Working Group is to probe whether Google...

IN BRIEF: Air Miles strikes eBay pact.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Loyalty programme Air Miles has formed a partnership with eBay.co.uk to reward members who spend on online auctions or 'buy it now' purchases. After a successful three-month trial, members can earn double miles for every #10 they spend on...

IN BRIEF: Postie jailed for stealing mail.(Joseph Bell )(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... A London postman has been jailed for six months after admitting hiding almost 3,000 items of mail in a shed, his bedroom and his car. Joseph Bell pleaded guilty to two counts of postal theft and one of illegally opening packages after ten...

Land Rover appeals to prospects from future.
June 1, 2007... Land Rover is revving up its 'fortune teller' campaign to engage warm prospects with its new Freelander 2. The drive features a mailpack by Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel and a website developed by HTW. The move comes amid...

Mailpack to aid Nepalese families.(Practical Action's smoke inhalation awareness campaign)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... International charity Practical Action is targeting a new group of donors to raise awareness about the 1.6 million people every year in Nepal who die from smoke inhalation because they rely on open fires in the home. The drive, created by...

IN BRIEF: High Court throws out Royal Mail fine.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Postcomm has lost its High Court battle to impose a #1m financial penalty on Royal Mail for failing to ensure it did not gain a fair advantage over competitors in the 'access' market. Although it was ruled that Postcomm's case was acceptable,...

IN BRIEF: Acxiom finally sells to ValueAct.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Acxiom has finally been sold to two California-based investment companies, ValueAct Capital and Silver Lake, in a $3bn (#1.5bn) deal. The move, first mooted two years ago when ValueAct - one of Acxiom's largest shareholders - offered $2bn for...

IN BRIEF: Axe hangs over HTW brand.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... WPP is believed to be considering folding Harrison Troughton Wunderman back into the main Wunderman agency, six years after co-founders Steve Harrison and Martin Troughton negotiated a reverse buy-in of the then troubled business. The move,...

BHF battles for hearts to raise #1.5m in funds.(British Heart Foundation)(www.bhf.org.uk/helpaheart)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is launching its annual Help a Heart campaign this week, urging the public to lend its support to raise #1.5m to fund essential heart research. Mailpacks will be sent to 13,000 existing donors on the...

Radio Times pushes its fresh look.
June 1, 2007... Radio Times is launching an integrated campaign to support an image overhaul and widen its readership. The new-look Radio Times, which includes a new layout, design and content, has been evolved to strengthen its position as a comprehensive...

Database firms must go offshore or die.
June 1, 2007... Huw Davis, former global director of EHS Brann Discovery and Data Euro RSCG 4D, recently said many database companies will cease trading by 2009. He then resigned and started a new data and analytical consultancy in Singapore, backed by...

Spammers face five years in Hong Kong jail.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Hong Kong: The Hong Kong government is introducing new laws that will see persistent spammers face up to five years in prison and fines of $130,000, but has ruled out banning cold telemarketing calls. The regulations, which come into...

SmartFocus picks up Dutch loyalty brief.
June 1, 2007... Amsterdam: Loyalty Management Netherlands (LMN) has appointed SmartFocus to enhance its customer communication programme. LMN, the largest operator of loyalty schemes in the Netherlands, will use SmartFocus' Intelligent Marketing software...

Data protection cases on the rise in Ireland.
June 1, 2007... Co. Laois: The number of data protection cases investigated in Ireland in 2006 has more than doubled over a 12 month period. There were 658 complaints investigated by the Office of the Data Commissioner in 2006, compared to just 300 in...

Conquering the inferiority complex.
June 1, 2007... Canada's geographic proximity to the US has caused a long-term inferiority complex among many Canadian direct marketers. With over 90 per cent of Canada's population living within 50 miles of the border, the default strategy has been to...

ANALYSIS: How smart businesses can get spam off the menu.
June 1, 2007... Spam is far more than just emails for dodgy Viagra. Almost a third of the UK's top firms are guilty of sending unsolicited mail - but persistent offenders could seriously damage their business If the words 'spam email' conjure images of...

ANALYSIS: Are Acxiom US buyers in it for the long haul?
June 1, 2007... Acxiom's takeover has prompted speculation that the new owners will offload its European division. Whether they do or not, they may need to reinvent the company's core business to stay competitive Last week, Acxiom finally bowed to...

ANALYSIS: High street feels the online squeeze...at last.
June 1, 2007... Online retail spending in the UK has grown almost 13 times faster than high street sales in the past year. While larger outlets are catching up, budget and small retailers are struggling to justify the investment It's been a long time...

CONSUMER INSIGHT: Asset-Rich Achievers ready to reap career rewards.
June 1, 2007... Asset-Rich Achievers are about to retire after a successful career. They are close to paying off their mortgage and, with a high level of savings, they are looking forward to a very comfortable retirement People approaching the end of...

OPINION: Direct marketing with a little more bite.(Column)
June 1, 2007... Can you be bothered this? You probably have better things to do with your time than read the self-interested ramblings of a precious creative bloke don't you? Or do you? What if this precious creative bloke offered you a simple technique...

LETTER: Word of mouth.... do you really believe the hype?(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... It's every planner's nightmare. A report comes out, like the one by Keller Fay Group, (PM, May 18), with a splashy headline heralding word of mouth as being twice as influential as direct mail. Good marketers and planners alike know the...

LETTER: Focus on quality, not quantity.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... So nice to hear the rest of the industry finally starting to discover that selling data by the tonne does not meet client expectations or needs (Industry Vows To Clean Up Act, PM, 4th May). Still, it appeared alongside the annual league...

LETTER: The great search balancing act.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Will the use of MSN and Yahoo! spread the risk of search and compensate for more expensive Google activity (PM May 18)? Maybe, but marketers will also achieve increased ROI through the intelligent use of keywords. Google does offer high...

VIEWPOINT: Welcome to the new skills battleground.
June 1, 2007... With the skills demanded of young people becoming ever more polarised, you, too, can help avert a skills famine in the direct marketing industry Allow me to segment crudely the view from my agency window into three silos: advertising,...

LEADER: Why canning spam won't kill off email.
June 1, 2007... Heard the one about the brand owner which wasn't breaking email marketing law? You'll be lucky; apparently it's easier to find an NHS dentist than a compliant email marketer. According to one study, 93 per cent of all emails sent in the UK...

PROFILE: Caveman's brave new world.
June 1, 2007... Mike Cavers: After a 30-year career, Chemistry's very own 'Captain Caveman' could be forgiven for seeking a quieter life, but the rise of the Internet has seen him bitten by the interactive bug Charlie McKelvey Mike Cavers has never...

Creative critique: 01.06.07.
June 1, 2007... When we professionally classify people as prospects, empty nesters, conquests, loyalists etc, it's all too easy to forget that we're sending work out into a world that includes our friends and family. And I've always thought that producing...

POSTAL MARKETING: Floating downstream.
June 1, 2007... Things are finally hotting up in the deregulated postal market as competitors raise their marketing game to vie for business. But they have a long way to go before Royal Mail ceases to be the automatic choice of business clients ...

ONLINE MARKETING: Key to model behaviour.
June 1, 2007... Behavioural targeting is said to accurately profile consumers far more quickly than previous methods David Reed Improving the online customer experience is top of the agenda for many marketers - except, perhaps, for the 40 per cent...

DATA QUALITY: Who controls your data?
June 1, 2007... Work-arounds to deal with data quality flaws are too often stored in a risky and inaccessible location: the data manager's head David Reed What quality standard do you set at the point of data capture? For information from the call...

LIST/INSERT FILE: Kingstown unveils database for rent.
June 1, 2007... Kingstown Associates, the suppliers of health and beauty products, housewares, help-at-home products and accessories, has unveiled its database for rental through Caspian LDM. Selections include gender, location, order value, multi-buyer, age...

LIST/INSERT FILE: Timeshare owners' list up for grabs.
June 1, 2007... The Property Investors Abroad file of individuals has become available for rental through GMG Direct. This file consists of more than 500,000 postal and telephone records. Individuals are 0-12 month responders, who are interested in or have...

LIST/INSERT FILE: Latest update to medical database.
June 1, 2007... Binley's has announced the release of the latest update to its Database of Operating Theatres. This edition comprises more than 21,000 named personnel, including new contacts at more than 3,000 organisations at locations throughout the UK....

LIST/INSERT FILE: CD Wow! reveals newly updated list.
June 1, 2007... CD Wow!, the online retailer of chart music, games and gadgets, is making its newly updated list of over 600,000 0-12 month names available for third party rental through Go Direct Marketing. The company currently has over 3 million UK...

LIST/INSERT FILE: Insert opportunity from Moneywise.
June 1, 2007... Moneywise Magazine is offering an insert opportunity through ListLab. Profiling indicates that 62 per cent of readers are male, aged 55 and above, with an average income of approximately #45,000. More than 90,000 individuals have an ISA/PEP...

MOVING PEOPLE: New appointments beef up Tequila creative team.
June 1, 2007... Tequila, the integrated agency, has made several new appointments to its creative team with Dick Dunford joining as senior art director, Sanjay Patel as junior art director and Zahid Rehman as junior copywriter. Dunford joins the agency with...

MOVING PEOPLE: Dunnhumby appoints head of media solutions.(Lawrence Janes appointed at Dunnhumby)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Dunnhumby, the international marketing consultancy, has appointed Lawrence Janes to the new position of head of media solutions and development. Janes will be responsible for developing the company's capabilities in media research, planning and...

MOVING PEOPLE: ShoreTel hands board role to ex-Cisco chief.
June 1, 2007... ShoreTel, the provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions, has recruited Gary J. Daichendt to its board of directors. Daichendt is an industry veteran with extensive executive and board experience in industry-leading companies within the...

Nice Work: Andrew Champion.
June 1, 2007... Andrew Champion Sales director Alchemetrics Responsibilities My core responsibility is to maximise the value that our clients derive from our services and the revenues that Alchemetrics generates from its provision. I achieve this...

Errant brands face data 'spot checks'.
June 15, 2007... Brand owners could soon face 'spot checks' on their marketing databases - and the threat of swift prosecution if they do not comply with the Data Protection Act - under new powers set to be handed to the Information Commissioner's Office....

Cancer Research UK splits top direct role.
June 15, 2007... Cancer Research UK is hunting a director of direct marketing following a restructure which sees Anthony Newman taking on the role of executive director of fundraising and supporter marketing. Newman, who is currently on a sabbatical,...

Kershaw leaves KBK for TDA executive job.(Simon Kershaw quits Keevil Barton Kershaw )(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Keevil Barton Kershaw (KBK) co-founder Simon Kershaw has quit the agency to join Cheltenham-based TDA as executive creative director, in a move designed to boost the agency's creative credentials. Kershaw is the second agency partner to...

IN BRIEF: HSBC hires Lynchpin.(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... HSBC is overhauling its marketing strategy by embarking on an online performance measurement initiative. The global banking giant has hired online marketing analysis agency Lynchpin to monitor consumers' behaviour when visiting the HSBC...

IN BRIEF: Royal Mail faces strike showdown.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... The first national postal strike for more than a decade has moved a step closer after members of the Communications Workers Union voted unanimously for strike action, following a dispute over pay and the threat of 40,000 posties losing their...

IN BRIEF: PDV snaps up NDL Realtime.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... PDV, the online permission-based marketing company, has acquired sales- lead generator NDL Realtime from its founders Tony Coad and Bill Burey. The deal forms part of PDV's ongoing expansion and will allow the company to increase its activity...

Direct and digital marketing M&A deals poised to rocket.
June 15, 2007... Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is set to soar in the interactive and direct marketing sectors more than any other marketing discipline, according to a new report, which predicts 2007 will be a boom year. The M&A survey, carried...

Carlson lures Barker to head data strategy.(Roy Barker appointed at Carlson Marketing Group)(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Former DM Results boss Roy Barker has rejoined Carlson Marketing as data strategy director, seven years after leaving the agency. Barker's appointment follows the recent hirings of John Hiney, as managing director, and Mark Attril, as...

Cost-savings to the fore in Mondeo push.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Ford is promoting the cost-saving advantages of the new Mondeo - from cheaper insurance to lower fuel consumption - as part of a new assault on the UK fleet market. The campaign, created by Wunderman, will target 30,000 influential fleet...

Industry steels itself for 'summer of discontent II'.
June 15, 2007... The direct marketing industry is bracing itself for a fresh backlash after a 'model' postman was suspended for stockpiling direct mail. Echoing last year's 'summer of discontent' - sparked by similar action against Welsh postman Roger...

NSPCC plots 'stewardship' push.
June 15, 2007... Child protection charity the NSPCC is claiming to be the first UK charity to appoint an agency to produce and manage its 'supporter stewardship' account. The business has been handed to charity specialist agency Cascaid following a...

IN BRIEF: Chelsea FC hunts customer chief.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Chelsea Football Club is hunting a customer management chief, following the departure of Bernadette Fitzsimons, who has left without a job to go to. The role includes responsibility for developing, maintaining and implementing Chelsea...

IN BRIEF: Google caves in to EC demands.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Google has bowed to pressure from Brussels over how long it keeps customer data by agreeing to slash the time it stores information. The search giant was pressured last month by the European Union's Article 29 Data Protection Working Group,...

IN BRIEF: RBS in ID fraud-busting service.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is launching a data-sharing service to help customers combat fraud. The scheme is part of the bank's expanding range of customer-not-present fraud management tools and will be provided by Ethoca. It will be...

IN BRIEF: Ex-Next boss joins DM Group.(David Jones appointed at Direct Marketing Group )(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... The Direct Marketing Group (TDMG) has appointed former Next chairman David Jones as chairman, having acquired charity fundraising agency Whitewater and Leeds-based agency JDA. The group now boasts a staff of over 300. Jones will be tasked...

P&G in WOM blitz for Pringles rice brand.
June 15, 2007... Procter & Gamble (P&G) is embracing a word of mouth strategy for the launch of its new Pringles Rice Infusions brand in a bid to create a buzz around the product before it hits the shelves. The push, created by word of mouth agency...

Cancer Research in digital first.
June 15, 2007... Cancer Research UK is marking the start of the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces with what it claims is a first for the digital marketing industry. As part of an integrated campaign to coincide with the ban, Cancer Research UK is...

IN BRIEF: MPs blast Tesco Clubcard scheme.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Tesco has come under fire from MPs over the way it operates its Clubcard loyalty programme, with one MP accusing it of encouraging alcohol abuse. The scheme was questioned during a Commons home affairs committee investigation into whether...

IN BRIEF: Four jailed over data protection scam.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Four people have been convicted of fraud after sending bogus Data Protection Act letters to thousands of companies demanding registration fees, which could have netted them up to #2m. The four fraudsters, all from Leeds and Bradford in West...

IN BRIEF: M&S rocked by email scam.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... Marks & Spencer has been hit by a hoax email campaign, which claims to be giving away free M&S vouchers to recipients who forward the message to their friends. The email claims that the promotion is a joint offer between M&S and house...

Vue pins hopes on the summer blockbusters.
June 15, 2007... Cinema giant Vue is aiming to exploit this summer's blockbusters - including Shrek the Third and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer - to boost online ticket sales and support the launch of the Vue Gift Card. The Summer Blockbuster...

Yell promotes 'real life' results.
June 15, 2007... Yell.com, the online directories website, is promoting 'real-life' search results to encourage its target market - office workers - to use the service. The company is embarking on an integrated campaign, created by independent digital...

How the Internet is eating my lunch.
June 15, 2007... First it was classified ads, then direct mail, now it's radio. The Internet is eating everyone's lunch. And a lack of proper measurement and integration is making things worse. The days of a direct mail campaign being a simple closed loop...

Indian trade group to boost data protection.
June 15, 2007... New Dehli: India is acting to ease international concerns over the security of customer records and data by setting up a new self- regulatory body, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI). The body, part of the IT industry group Nasscom,...

US man faces prison term over AOL scam.(America Online Inc.)(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... New York: A Brooklyn man has pleaded guilty to sending unsolicited emails to 1.2 million AOL subscribers in a scam that foiled the service provider's spam-filtering system. Adam Vitale, and another man, Todd Moeller, were caught making a...

Singapore takes a strict line to counter spam.
June 15, 2007... Singapore: The Singapore government is introducing an anti-spam law in a bid to control unsolicited advertising. The Spam Control Act, which will come into effect on June 15, will see marketers based in Singapore who are convicted of...

Data holds the key to international success.
June 15, 2007... In the marketing equation, data is arguably the element that is least understood by marketers. By this rationale, it is also the part that probably instills the most concern when it comes to direct campaign planning and execution. Any...

ANALYSIS: Is the grass greener for clients shifting agency-side?
June 15, 2007... For many client marketers, making the switch to the agency side offers an array of rewards. But while there is greater variety, flexibility and creative thinking, you have to get used to not 'running the show' To many client marketers,...

ANALYSIS: List owners held to account over rise in data abuse.
June 15, 2007... As security breaches and misuse of marketing lists quadruple, the reputation of the direct marketing industry is at risk. List owners would do well to remember their responsibilities List owners are being warned to police their data more...

ANALYSIS: New sectors under attack as ID thieves wise up.
June 15, 2007... With serious fraud cases increasing by 313 per cent in the space of a year, identity thieves are to outwitting the authorities by embracing new methods Mobile phone firms are now one of the key targets of identity theft scams, according...

CONSUMER INSIGHT: UK consumers give in to their indulgent impulses.
June 15, 2007... As affluence grows and time pressures increase, UK consumers are finding themselves more likely to take risks and succumb to consumption temptation Britain has become a consumer culture much more given to flights of fancy and spontaneous...

OPINION: How re-marketing has lost its stigma.(Brief article)(Column)
June 15, 2007... I had not planned on meeting David Cameron. It was just an ordinary Wednesday and I was idling through my local town centre. Up ahead was a group of people holding blue balloons. The manager of the shop I was going into came out to see what was...

LETTER: Industry must act tough to combat spam threat.(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... In response to the News Analysis on email (How smart businesses can get spam off the menu, PM, June 1), as a fully compliant member of the DMA, I am fed up of being tarred by the same brush as the small number of firms abusing email....