Meet the Broker: Tobi Milgram

Today we meet Tobi Milgram, vice president of list brokerage at Teramedia Corp. Milgram’s list background goes back 10 years when she moved from New York to Florida.

Milgram was formerly a broker at Practical Marketing, where she worked with publishing, home security and other types of clients. She also has fundraising and other direct marketing experience involving list selection.

Her current brokerage clientele includes vacation timeshare firms Westgate Resorts, Pacific Monarch Resorts Inc. and Blue Green Resorts Management Inc. “I do brokerage work with agencies too,” she added.

On weekends Milgram enjoys cooking and sharing meals with extended family, besides pursuing her many pastimes. She collects Lalique crystal figurines, animals and anemones. She attends art shows and live theater performances of touring Broadway shows, in between trips back to New York. “I want to see Jersey Boys,” she said.

For relaxation Milgram watches basketball on TV. “I’ve always been diehard New York Knicks fan, but now like the Miami Heat too,” she said.

Do you have a specialty?

“I’d have to say the travel market,” said Milgram. “Travel has been my love and passion in this business.”

Opportunities for list brokers have increased as the travel industry has moved away from automated telemarketing campaigns to a more multi-channel marketing approach, according to Milgram.

She said she has seen the demand for response lists in the travel industry grow in synch with the supply of fresh new names coming from the Internet.

An increasing number of specific selections and data overlays are being used in the travel market. “People are no longer working with basic data. Now everyone wants response driven data,” she said.

Milgram cited several types of selections now commonly used for targeting travelers, among them timeshare prospects and timeshare buyers. That’s in addition specific lifestyle interests for travelers such as horseback riding, golf and fishing, she said.

Do-not-call list regulations imposed by the Federal Trade Commission have forced companies to stop telemarketing prospecting, but other forms of telephone marketing survive.

Milgram said companies now combine postal and e-mail campaigns with “telephone chasers” to reach consumers who’ve requested information. For companies not yet doing multi-channel marketing that only have direct mail experience, Milgram said she tries to win them over by offering them a free e-mail list.

Looking ahead, Milgram said she believes the next big new opportunity for brokers will come from emerging mobile marketing media—and not just in the travel market.

What’s one of the big challenges faced by list brokers?

Finding good quality lists for targeting specific ethnic groups is problem in Milgram’s opinion, she said because most lists of ethnic groups are generic compilations that rely too heavily on surnames.

“Some companies include every Hernandez and Gomez in Hispanic lists. Not every Steiner and Steinberg is Jewish. Not every Anthony is Italian either,” she said.

One of her clients wanted to target a specific ethnic group. Rather than rely on a “generic” ethnic list, Milgram said, she found a response list generated from a direct mail campaign and had the ethnicity verified by telephone.

Know someone you’d like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim Emerson at [email protected]