Q&As

Last week represented a personal milestone: I managed to make it through seven consecutive days without writing “2005” on any check, form, or other note I was scribbling.

In honor of — finally — putting 2005 to rest, I offer the following verses on some of the more noteworthy direct marketing events of the year. If they seem skewed toward one specific subject… well, so was most of the year itself.

Draft Inc. is backing one of its top executives, who has been named in a sexual abuse lawsuit stemming from an alleged relationship that took place more than 30 years ago.

JCPenney is set to open a virtual store in New York City where customers can purchase the company’s products at interactive kiosks in a spectacular initiative the company said is its largest branding event ever.

Following a move beyond its basic distribution method, Coca Cola Co. is facing a lawsuit brought by dozens of its bottlers.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is still waiting for an initial ruling in a $20 million lawsuit it filed in September against 20 retailers, wholesalers and individuals for alleged fraud using RJR’s buy-down trade promotion program and its consumer coupons.

Classic Media is rolling out a new marketing campaign with LifeSavers, Nestlé and Applebee’s restaurants around its latest animated feature Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie on DVD.

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., the Official Burger and Drive-Thru Restaurant of NASCAR, has teamed up with Coca-Cola to drive the NASCAR experience to its double drive-thru restaurants across the country.

Brian Smith spied an opportunity and believed direct mail was the best way he could reach new prospects for his high tech digital surveillance systems.

Not all Web start-ups died with the dot-com bust. In fact, some actually took their original ideas, tweaked them a little and grew into booming small businesses.

A sign of how ineffective the training of direct marketers has become is the plethora of tip booklets, articles and books that guide DM professionals today. If you want something printed in a direct marketing publication; you need only follow the current title formula: odd number + secrets + specific area.