August/September 2010
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Features
Full Coverage: Integrating Social, Direct and Mass Media Insures Success for SBLI
When people get to certain stages of their time shuffling around in this mortal coil say, getting married or becoming parents they realize that life insurance...
E-mail Metrics That Matter
For geeks and wonks, the ease of accessing a multitude of e-mail marketing metrics is akin to being the proverbial kid in a candy store. But just as even...
Fixing Loyalty: How Brands Are Shaking Up Rewards Programs
In a sense, loyalty programs have nothing to prove. Since the first S&H Green Stamp was handed out in 1896, customers have been drawn to the notion of...
Power of Incentives: How Marketers Are Building Loyalty and their Bottom Line
Whether you're a rocket scientist or a housekeeper, employee recognition programs that use incentives to reward staff members for doing good work can...
T-Shirts to Talk About
Causes that fire up emotions in people can bring out the best in what promotional products can do. In October, about 4,000 people will walk in the Hartford...
Beyond the Carrot: Using incentives to inspire your sales team to engage
Companies use incentive campaigns to inspire sales reps when its time to launch a new product, gain market share or meet quarterly goals. The internal...
CM Corner Table: The Value of Loyalty
Loyalty programs have been around for more than 70 years, and more marketers than ever are turning to rewards to retain and reactivate customers. But...
2011 PRO Awards
This year’s winners are an elite collection of agencies and brands doing some of the best work in promotional marketing...
Editor's Note
Editor's Note: Hey, Direct Marketers…Listen to Your Customers!
DIRECT MARKETING STOLE MY DINING ROOM TABLE. Or about half of it. For the past few months since May I've had the lazy habit of sorting my mail into magazines,...
CM Report
Behind the Scenes at the Latest DEWmocracy Campaign
The people have spoken, and Mountain Dew's newest citrus flavor, crowd-sourced for a year and due to hit store shelves in late August, is White Out. But...
NWF Moves Quickly on Spill With Direct Mail
Timing is everything in dealing with a news-focused fundraiser. When an oil rig exploded on April 20, spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico and threatening...
Sweet Treats for a Tweet
From her desk in midtown Manhattan, a woman tweets out a message to Ben & Jerry’': Can they have the "Scoop Truck" stop by her office so she and her friends can get a free sample of some of its new flavors...
Ben & Jerry's Lids Sinc With iPhone App
Besides its Twitter tour, the Vermont ice cream superpower has launched another way to get people in touch with its treats: an iPhone app that makes visions...
Credit Card Helps Intercontinental Check in With Top Travelers
Chase Card Services and the InterContinental Hotels Group used direct feedback from their frequent travelers to design a new credit card product, the...
Data & Analytics
Phone-Based Analytics Ring True
Meineke Car Care Center is taking a minimalist approach to data analysis: All it uses to fuel its calculations are phone numbers. The company uses between...
You've got Data, So Use It: Why You Need to Go Beyond Traditional DM
According to a Forrester survey, only 7 percent of U.S. consumers think the marketing e-mails they receive are relevant. And only 10% of direct mail pieces...
CM Listline: Best Ways to Market to the Government
ONCE UPON A TIME, Sept. 30 the end of the federal government's fiscal year meant renewed optimism among government sales reps. Leaves seemingly fell off...
Measurement/ROI
The Road to Great Advertising: What Brand Can Learn From Direct
Most ad agencies and clients want to create great advertising. Unfortunately, despite Clios and Superbowl polls, great advertising is often difficult...
Marketing Operations Management
Personal Touch in the Mailbox: PURLs Drive Variable Data Growth
You might not want to put pearls before swine, but if you want to make the most of variable data printing, PURLs are what you need to put in front of...
The Chieftains
Chieftains: How Many Loyalty Programs Do You Actively Use?
QUESTION: HOW MANY LOYALTY PROGRAMS WOULD YOU SAY YOU BELONG TO, AND HOW MANY DO YOU ACTIVELY USE? SHAWN R. SALTA, VICE PRESIDENT, DIRECTMAIL.COM I belong...
Tip Sheet
Check out this month's Tip Sheets
Resolve Your Direct Mail Deliverability Issues
If approved, the latest proposed postal rate increase will likely take effect in early 2011. With that on the horizon, now is a good time for mailers...
The Next Generation of Direct Mail Is Here
Combining traditional direct mail tactics with new, interactive capabilities is a cost-effective way for every business—particularly small and midsize businesses without large marketing departments—to produce a higher return on their investment and generate business leads. ...
Advice for Successful E-mail Appending
E-MAIL APPENDING, in which a data provider supplies you with the e-mail addresses of customers for whom you already have postal addresses and other information,...
4 Oft-Overlooked E-mail Metrics to Track
Some metrics, such as open rates, get much more scrutiny than they arguably warrant (see E-mail Metrics That Matter, page 17). Others, though, are criminally...
Sears Rolls Web Site Targeting Puerto Rican Market
When it comes to targeting Hispanic consumers, most online merchants take an approach that centers on simple translation of their Web site...
Meta-Movies: Consumers Watching More Online Video Than Ever
New research from Frank N. Magid Associates finds consumers watching more online video than ever. Half of Internet users now say they watch Web video...
iAds and iPads: App-Based Ad Targeting
NO MATTER HOW YOU GRAB HOLD OF IT, iPhone 4 was good for Apple's revenues. And the iPad hasn't hurt either. The company posted a 61% year-over-year gain...
Papa Gino's Sweeps Boosts Data Collection
A quick way to add quality names to your loyalty program database is to run a sweeps with a rock-solid match between the prize and the appropriate demographic....
Get Social With Incentives
Know Your audience: Understanding the psychographics and technographics of your audience is paramount. What are their triggers and inhibitors? What motivates...
Idea to Steal: Package Deal
Putting a high-end premium in a cheap, no-frills package can defeat the whole purpose of a given campaign. Think about the context of the promotional...
As Seen on TV—And Beyond: DRTV Trends and Tips
DRTV TRENDS AND TIPS FOR THE INTERNET ERA Chief Marketer recently chatted with Robert Medved, CEO of Cannella Response Television, LLC, to get his thoughts...
Be Honest in DRTV and Embrace the Web
Remember the scream and sell infomercials of yesteryear, with over-the-top claims that exaggerated a product's benefits? For smart marketers, those are...
Lunchbox Wars: Hillshire Farms Throws Down the Tasting Gauntlet to Moms
Moms, Hillshire Farms is throwing down the gauntlet and it kinda smells like ham. Before school gets back in session, the brand is calling on lunchbox-packing...
Vehicle Shopping Tips for Your Next Road Show
When StarKist asked Grand Central Marketing to handle a vehicle tour over the summer to promote the healthy benefits of tuna, the agency chose an Airstream...
Events: Dirty Streets Make Great Canvases
City streets have a well deserved reputation for being filthy. And whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your perspective. GreenGraffiti, a company...
