Direct marketers coped with both personal and business losses today following the worst terrorist attack in American history.
But the extent of the human toll was unclear at deadline.
Three Direct Marketing Association members had offices in the World Trade Center: Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and G.C. Services at One World Trade Plaza, and Oppenheimer Funds at Two World Trade. It is not yet known how their staffs fared.
But all ten employees who worked at Charles Schwab’s office in building five of the World Trade Center are safe, according to a Schwab spokesperson.
And direct marketing personnel at American Express reportedly were able to flee their offices on the 41st floor of the World Financial Center.
The DMA has identified 78 member companies in the general area, and offered them temporary office space, computers and “whatever they might need,” said H. Robert Wientzen, president. “We’ve heard from three or four of them, who said they are fine,” Wientzen said.
Meanwhile, firms located in lower Manhattan struggled to return to normal.
Employees of CheetahMail, an e-mail delivery company, watched the Trade Center collapse from the roof of their office at 29 Broadway, then fled. By Wednesday, the company was operating remotely from employees’ homes.
Servers that house the e-mail campaigns are in the Chelsea section of Manhattan and are fully operational, said David Villeger, CheetahMail president.
A notice on the company’s Web site (www.cheetahmail.com) explains that the company’s physical location is blocked because of rescue efforts and directs visitors to a telephone number manned by a CheetahMail executive.
Most of CheetahMail’s 80 clients–brick-and-mortar department stores like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Saks, told the company by e-mail to cancel their mailings “because they feel this is not a good time to send an e-mail campaign at this time of tragedy,” said Matt Seeley, chief operations officer.
Meanwhile, inquiries and messages of condolence came in to the DMA from all over the world, according to Wientzen.
Ben Isaacson, executive director of the Association for Interactive Media, said most AIM members “are just worried personally about the safety of friends and colleagues.”
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