Bernice Grossman, principal consultant and founder of Direct Marketing Resource Services (DMRS) Group and one of the FIA judges, says the award is meant to spotlight innovation thriving in the face of a recession. "The economy was so stifling," she says. "This was a way that we could tell everybody else in the industry [that] there's a lot of wonderful stuff happening."
The 11 judges, who were selected from the DMA membership, took two rounds of evaluations to winnow the field of 54 down to the group of 12 finalists. Those evaluations were based on detailed explanations provided by each submission of:
the innovative product or service, including whether the offering is entirely new or a new spin on an existing offering;
the impact the product or service has on the end user and what benefits have been achieved or are anticipated; and
the impact the product or service has had on the marketing community overall.
It's an honor to have been recognized among all the deserving innvovations in the marketing field! See the full article here.
This award is a nice validation of NextMark’s developments for the list business. According to the DMA, “This award recognizes the innovative advances being made in the field of marketing. Today’s marketers, faced with unique challenges, are experimenting as they strive to rebalance. Recognizing that unexpected changes foster ingenuity and creativity, and that experiments usually garner surprising results, DMA’s FIA awards are now showcasing and rewarding those outstanding achievements. The awards will be presented each year to suppliers of new products or services exhibiting at DMA’s annual conference that are deemed the most influential and having improved the global marketing community in the previous year.”
Want to see what the fuss is all about? Stop by DMA09 booth #1930 or visit http://www.NextMark.com.
Necessity is the mother of invention. In a slow economy (will it ever end?), innovation is critical to survival. At DMA09 booth #1930, NextMark will be showing off its latest turnaround tools for List Brokers and List Managers, including NextMark Select. Here’s a sneak preview video:
For more information and live demonstrations, visit NextMark at booth #1930. See you in San Diego!
“Today’s marketers, faced with unique challenges, are experimenting as they strive to rebalance. Recognizing that unexpected changes foster ingenuity and creativity, and that experiments usually garner surprising results, DMA’s FIA awards are now showcasing and rewarding those outstanding achievements. The awards will be presented each year to suppliers of new products or services exhibiting at DMA’s annual conference that are deemed the most influential and having improved the global marketing community in the previous year.”
Other finalists for the 2009 Future Innovators Award include:
AmazingMail.com
BLI Messaging
City Twist
Epsilon
Experian Marketing Services
FirstData and Visant Marketing Services
FreshAddress
Global-Z International
Harte-Hanks
Neustar
Portrait Software
Propco Marketing
Unica Interactive Marketing
Some great companies in the running and the competition is sure to be fierce.
According to the DMA in annoucing the finalists, “The response to this new award was staggering, and the excitement and enthusiasm it generated beyond even our expectations. The DMA is delighted to be presenting the awards at its annual conference, DMA09, at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA, at a special Awards presentation ceremony on Sunday October 18 at 5:00 pm in the Exhibit Hall by booth #1147. We hope you will join us to celebrate with the winners and we look forward to seeing you there.”
Please wish us luck in the finals! If you are going to the DMA09 conference, please stop by our booth #1930 to say hello.
Thank you, William Shatner. Priceline saved me 63% on my hotel expense at the upcoming DMA*09 conference in San Diego. I got a room at the Omni San Diego for $96/night (versus the special conference rate of $259/night). That's $815 savings for my 5-night stay.
More accurately, thank you to Marty Shaw of Global-Z International for giving me this tip that has saved us thousands of dollars. Marty, I owe you!
DMA*09 is the premier conference of the year for anyone who wants to connect with their customers directly. With this tough economy, it might be hard to justify the cost and I know from experience that hotel rooms are one of the biggest items on the expense report. Here's one way to cut that cost significantly:
Enter "San Diego, CA USA" as location and your travel dates then click the "Bid Now" button
Choose "Downtown Dan Diego & Harbor Island"
Choose your star level (I chose "4-star deluxe")
Name your price (I bid $96)
Enter your name and hit next
Follow instructions to provide payment information
Cross your fingers and hit the submit button
Please note… You are not guaranteed to get any specific hotel and you can't change or cancel your reservation after you submit your bid. Priceline is not a good option if you need to stay at a certain hotel or need flexibility in your travel arrangements. Priceline won't make any guarantees and I won't either!
That said, I am very happy with my result with the Omni Hotel, which is right across the street from the convention center. I know of two others who have ended up at the Onmi by following this process and another two that ended up at the nearby Westgate Hotel.
Today's Wall Street Journal includes a story "How Banks, Marketers Aid Scams" that tells how common business practices may help scammers. Although the story mentions some of the controls in the mailing list business, it fails to mention most of them.
The common public perception of mailing lists is that personal information is being freely traded without any controls. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, you'd be suprised how many controls are in place to prevent inappropriate use of mailing lists. Here are a few:
Mailing lists have well-established opt-out or opt-in policies to give individuals control of their inclusion on a list
Lists are typically "rented" or "exchanged" for 1-time use (versus purchased for unlimited use) – this prevents overuse
List rentals require list owner approval as part of a formal clearance process – this prevents mis-use
Getting approval requires samples of your mail piece or telemarketing script – this prevents inappropriate use of the list
Professional List Brokers and List Managers typically act as intermediaries on transactions and will stop fraud in its tracks to protect their clients and their livelihood. Many maintain black lists of unethical mailers to aid in this process.
List rentals require a formal list rental agreement (LRA) that restricts use of the mailing list to the purpose set forth. This contract prevents misunderstandings and adds formal accountability to the process.
List rentals are "anonymous" – the buyer never takes possession of the list. Instead, a trusted 3rd party service bureau handles the data - this prevents stealing of mailing lists
Lists are seeded to ensure that the use of the mailing list complies with the agreement. Mailboxes are set up to receive the mailings/emails/calls and these are tracked – this prevents mis-use.
NextMark's technology enables these controls and more that give consumers better protection. At the same time, NextMark enables organizations to reach their market directly with highly relevant communications (by weeding out people who consider their communication "junk mail" or "spam").
Of course, list owners aren't required to use NextMark, join the Direct Marketing Association, or go through the list broker/list manager channel to sell their list. But the ethical list owners, such as The Wall Street Journal itself, and their list managers will follow this protocol to prevent mis-use of their data and to protect consumers.
More attention needs to be paid to unscrupulous list owners and marketers who don't follow the rules.
NextMark Select bridges the gap between data cards and data. This two-way connection automates the tedious administration of data cards and paves the way for new analytical applications, such as advanced mailing list profiling, online custom counts, and online ordering.
The "wow" always came at the point of the demonstration when showing how it enhances data cards. Here's a snapshot of a mailing list profile:
Last month I created a quick poll on LinkedIn to see how direct marketing professionals felt about the DMA’s (Direct Marketing Association) service to the list industry. There may not be a ‘List Day‘ conference anymore, but almost all of the same folks are still present at the annual DMDays conference. There are list managers, list brokers, and list fulfillment providers lined up on both sides of the aisle. While the DMA has done a very good job in regards to advocacy on behalf of direct marketers, there seems to be less awareness about mailing lists than in times past — or maybe I’m wrong? Let’s look at the results from last month’s poll on LinkedIn.
The overall results are normally distributed with a minor skew towards needing some improvement. It is interesting to note that the female respondents gave the DMA more favorable ratings than the male respondents. Maybe the guys have set higher expectations for the list industry, or maybe we’re just jerks — well I don’t think so, because only 2 of 45 of us voted that the DMA had jumped ship. The response profile (gender) was 54% male and 46 percent female, so there’s no bias in the weighting. Feel free to share these results at DMDays next month, and let Mike Gamson know that we conducted the poll on LinkedIn.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today encouraged marketers to join its "Recycle Please" campaign and take its "Green 15" pledge in honor of Earth Day 2009. As a DMA Member, NextMark responded with a slightly different effort. Our engineering and operations teams took advantage of an opportunity to clean house on a warm Spring day, and filled the bed of a Toyota Tundra with yesterday's infrastructure.
Systems Plus Computers, Inc., a local supplier, was the beneficiary of multiple machines and monitors, large and small, of various types. Their computer hardware recycling program made it easy for us to contribute to a better environment. It is encouraging to know that some components may be put to future use, and that the remaining frames will not end up as landfill supporting the next new housing development in South Jersey. It is important for all of us to remember that the computers we use pose hazards when we discard them, so please reach out to your local computer hardware suppliers to see what recycling programs they offer.
NextMark has a right way to dispose of your unwanted hardware, but this clearly is not it.
Although the NextMark organization is virtually paperless, we are happy to 'go green' this April 22, 2009 Earth Day and to prevent unecessary waste. Hope you enjoyed the video. Visit the findlists channel on YouTube to see our videos about mailing lists.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) was founded in 1917, and currently represents more than 3,400 companies in the United States and 48 other nations. NextMark and many of our clients are also DMA members. The organization "advocates for responsible marketing and promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers," as noted on their web site. With 40 percent of a campaign's success dependent on choosing the right lists, it is clear that targeted list research is an important part of the direct marketing process. So how are they doing with the list side of the business?
I decided to conduct a quick poll on LinkedIn to find out what marketing services providers are thinking on the subject.
When I walk the aisles at the DMDays conference each year, I see dozens of list companies lined up with innovative solutions for helping mailers with new customer acquisition; and I know they paid good money to be there. Let's see what they think and how it might be paying off.