FEDMA Elects New Chair Ivan Hodac was elected the new chairman of the Federation of European Direct Marketing last month. Hodac, who will serve for two years, is senior vice president of Time Warner Europe, and is based in Brussels, Belgium. About 360 marketers attended the FEDMA forum in Strasbourg, France last month, up from about 250 last year.
Financial DIssension There was apparently some grumbling over finances at FEDMA’s general assembly meeting last month. The rumor mill characterized the rift as “fireworks,” while new FEDMA chair Ivan Hodac described it as merely a “hiccup.” Hodac wouldn’t say whether FEDMA is running at a deficit, but noted if it is in the red, it is only 2% to 3% of the entire budget.
The differences likely stem from the merger of the two groups that became FEDMA, the European Direct Marketing Association (a trade group), and the Federation of European Direct Marketing (a lobbying organization). The two merged in 1997 but operated in parallel until the following year.
“It was putting the separate accounting systems together that created openings or gaps,” said Alastair Tempest, FEDMA’s director general of public affairs and self-regulation. FEDMA’s corporate membership has remained flat at about 500 over the past few years. The group will soon conduct a survey of companies that have left to find out why they dropped out.
Telemarketing Guidelines FEDMA has released a set of voluntary principles on the use of the telephone as a marketing medium throughout Europe.
The guidelines cover waiting times, information requirements when making outbound calls, information on premium-rate telephone numbers and reasonable hours for calling. Marketers would have to maintain “do not call” lists and clean their prospecting files against the telephone preference services that exist in Europe.
FEDMA said the new principles respond to the European Commission’s support of industry self-regulation.
“The more transnational direct marketing there is, the more important it is to have guidelines across Europe,” noted Philip Cohen, chairman of FEDMA’s Teleservices Council. -TW
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