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Direct Marketing Vol. 21 • No. 5 • september 2008 CANADA’S PUBLICATION ABOUT INTERACTIVE MARKETING AND SALES fast8 Silence unlikely as forward DNC registry comes into Editor’s letter »3 I probably won’t win many friends with this one but if we keep in mind how it feels to be a customer, we’ll likely be better and more respectful direct marketers. effect on September 30 Critics say that too many exempt calls will undermine the list’s effectiveness Click! News and more -Profile: Vancouver’s WiderFunnel Marketing -Microsoft Advertising announces new ad network. -Ipsos Interactive Services announces PollPredictor. »12 Mail equipment & What are the prospects for the contact center industry and private firms engaged in contact initiatives? Colin Taylor presents us with a cross-section of strategies—with some more palatable than others. »14 systems showcase A look at the latest selections and technologies from a cross-section of premier manufacturers and distributors. »6 Privacy advocate Michael Geist provides his take on Canada’s new DNC registry and what we can expect over the short and long term. Unlock your data »17 Rick Brough explains how even in a tighter economy, intelligent database management can help you create more marketing ROI. »7 Canada's biggest call centre conference and exhibition has more than 30 concurrent sessions and includes almost 20 case studies.Check them out in advance here. »11 »13 Contact methods for » 4 recessionary times ICCM Conference Rick Ferguson drives you to “tiers” to help you deliver rewards to your most deserving customers. Paul McConville describes how on-demand lead scoring can help you treat incoming leads to increase sales conversions and customer value. New channels, media and technologies give marketers a virtually infinite supply of opportunities within which to communicate relevancy. Miro Slodki examines this slippery slope and its effect on privacy. Do Not Call report Loyalty Landscape Knock! Knock! Who’s there? »3 Directives PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER »25 C anada’s Do Not Call (DNC) registry begins on September 30 and all things being equal, Canadians should be able to add their numbers to the list by logging on to www. LNNTE-DNCL.gc.ca or calling toll-free 1-866580-DNCL (3625). For the hearing impaired, the toll-free number will be 1-888-DNCLTTY (1-888-362-5889). At the same time, everyone who makes telemarketing calls, and their clients (the companies that hire telemarketers to make calls on their behalf) will need to register with the new agency and pay an appropriate fee to it. The CRTC warns that telemarketing calls will not immediately stop at the end of the month, as callers will have 31 days to update their phone lists. However, if consumers continue to receive non-exempt calls 31 days after they have registered, they will be able to file complaints with the national Do Not Call list operator, Bell Canada, which in turn, will forward them to the CRTC. Registrations on the DNC list will expire after three years and Canadians will have to re-register with the database to continue to avoid telemarketing calls. Users can register their landline, cell phone and fax numbers. While at the outset, the DNC registry is likely to be popular with consumers who don’t want to receive telemarketing calls at home (a poll last fall found 63 per cent of Canadians said they would “definitely” add their name to such a list,) it probably won’t take long before they begin to recognize that unwanted calls are still reaching them. Until recently, the only alternative would have been for consumers to individually “opt out” by contacting hundreds of organizations one-by-one to make their wishes known. As things stand, registered charities, political parties, newspapers and polling companies, are all exempted from the DNC and can continue calling as In The Mail An integrated B2B campaign promotes Siemens Canada’s floating interactive theatre while building the brand. See DNC, page 8 Publications Mail Agreement #40050803 Want to boost response rates? Getting more attention in the mailbox just got easier. Now you can use Repositionable Notes on the outside of your direct mail. Make your message stand out. Call 1 866 511-3133 or visit canadapost.ca/bigimpact today. September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca 2 Direct Marketing is Canada's leading publication about interactive marketing and sales, including direct response, online marketing, CRM, loyalty marketing, and other forms of data-driven, ROI-producing strategies and tactics. With a qualified circulation of 7,200 primary readers and another approximate 11,000 secondary readers, Direct Marketing reaches a unique audience of marketing executives and their agencies who are responsible for creating, managing, supporting and fulfilling more than $51 billion in annual sales generated through a range of direct response channels. Call us at 905-201-6600 or 800-668-1838 or visit us online at www.dmn.ca to find out more. Commentaries dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 editor’s letter Pat Atkinson I n 1999 when Seth Godin released his first book and coined the term permission marketing, everyone pretty much nodded blithely and saluted as it was hoisted up the proverbial flag pole of new paradigms. Being able to target the “right” message to the “right” customer at the “right” time—a time of their choosing—seemed entirely consistent with our rapidly advancing technological capabilities and we were feeling magnanimous. If only it were that easy. Today, many organizations are still operating with multiple (disorganized) views of their customer. And while CRM technology has been with us awhile, not everyone can afford it and even those firms that that own it don’t necessarily use it as a comprehensive, unified customer-centric approach to dealing with consumers. Others are plagued with bad data, yada, yada, yada... Besides, there is an enormous delta between knowing facts about a customer and maintaining the kind of relationship with them that they want to have with us. And when it comes to telemarketing, we continue to interrupt consumers at inconvenient times and places, hound them to divulge their druthers and then mismanage or ignore much of what they tell us. That’s all about to change —albeit gradually. Canada’s DNC registry is clear, legislated backlash from disgruntled consumers who are united in their determination to drive their own agenda and if we’re lucky, ours, when they are good and ready. It’s taken the US all of five years to get its DNC act together but today, real, enforceable penalties drive home the requirement for marketers to heed the rules established by those same customers we all happily agreed would one day call the shots. Truth be told, we have not had the collective will to get organized and pay the customers we purport to serve their “props” (to employ an ‘80s rap term). This troubling theme resonates throughout our September issue. There’s the interview on page 6 with Michael Geist about his having created a centralized Web site directives Miro Slodki M arketers tend to universally accept that a consumer response will be triggered when the offer/communication reaches some requisite level of relevance with the consumer. How that relevance is defined is open to debate but believers will point to price as one of the final arbitrators of relevance and specificity (right time/right place) as the other critical variable. Ironically, just as we gain access to new channels/media/technologies that allow marketers to become ever more pervasive and “relevant,” we also stand at the fringe of an environment that has the makings of a perfect storm — one which can potentially redefine a brand’s value proposition in ways we might not appreciate. Setting aside the other elements of the marketing mix, many people will argue that as a consumer gets closer to the final purchase tipping point, the most powerful element in the relevancy matrix will be price. An “uncompetitive” price, it is argued, cannot be overcome by “marketing” – at least not in the span available to marketers trying to keep pace with their coming in the October issue of Direct Marketing (iOptOut.ca) to ensure Canadians who just want to be left alone at home can organize that simply and effectively. And Emma Warrilow’s warning that operationalizing the DNC registry and complying with it will be virtually impossible without a complete client view and CRM. Miro Slodki’s Directives piece below describes another symptom of customer disrespect: privacy invasion. Some marketers have mistakenly assumed consumers are willing to sacrifice privacy for relevance and choose to surreptitiously stalk online visitors without their permission. Just as with the DNC registry, government bodies are stepping up to establish boundaries and before long, penalties, related to this issue. Finally, in News Worth Knowing, we learn that Québec’s Association du marketing relationnel (AMR)is concerned enough about its April 2008 survey results (indicating that the majority of Québec companies have neither the requisite knowledge to adequately practice relationship marketing nor protect the confidentiality of personal information) that it’s providing training in these disciplines. Notes AMR president Bianca Barbucci, "As an industry, it is our duty to apply the necessary measures to ensure the continued application of best practices as well as maintain a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with Quebec consumers." Kudos to the AMR for telling the truth and showing leadership before both customer privacy and trust are squandered. Those marketers who have been gleefully awaiting the advent of the DNC list because they stand to prosper from bombarding customers with paper would do well to take note of this model of self-regulation before consumer backlash and government intervention rear their ugly heads inside the mailbox too. With all of these examples, the common denominator is respect for the customer— isn’t it about time we showed some? advertisers Canada Post4 1 Environics 4 1 McKinnon4 1 Assetprint 4 2 InfoCanada 45 Mail Marketing 411 RP Graphics 412-13 Transcontinental 414 FSA4 28 resource directory DISTRIBUTION / DELIVERY SERVICES 18 Aeromail Worldwide RDP Fulfillment Corporation MAILING EQUIPMENT 18 Canadian Mailing Machines Inc Bowe Bell & Howell Consumers also have something at stake in this dynamic. In exchange for some loss of anonymity, many seek or expect to gain more personalized and relevant (there’s that word again) offers and experiences. Until now, this has largely been a conscious, tacit choice as consumers become used to the idea that “cookies are our friends.” But as the technology escalates, we may begin to witness greater consumer reluctance about “sharing” personal information. This likely will not arise from any particular sense of propriety rather than a matter of principle and recognition of the increasing value of the digital footprint. Government intervention Advertising channels themselves are starting to raise these questions, as evidenced by this letter from AT&T in response to US Congress probes: Advertising-network operators such as Google, have evolved beyond merely tracking consumer Web surfing activity on sites for which they have a direct ad-serving relationship. They now have the ability to observe a user’s entire Web browsing experience at a granular level, including all URLs visited, all searches, and actual pageviews. Techniques include the ad network ‘dropping’ third-party tracking ‘cookies’ on a consumer’s computer to capture consumer visits to any one of thousands of unrelated Web sites; embedding software on PCs; or automatically downloading applications – that unbeknownst to the consumer – log the consumer’s full session of browsing activity. However this plays out, the final arbitrator has been and will always be the consumer. Government bodies are stepping up to help draw lines in the sand on the issue of privacy. But in the same way that the gasoline price run-up hit a behavioural threshold when US prices reached $4/gal, these actions will, at some point, trigger a consumer response. The same technology that enabled Behavioural Targeting (BT) will be used to disable it. All major browsers (Safari, Mozilla and IE) have or will soon have stealth mode functionality to address the desires of those wishing to make their Web activity invisible to the collectors. directives, Cont’d on page 27 Tell us your thoughts about this important subject. Email Pat Atkinson, [email protected] In "The Numerati," author Stephen Baker describes the booming world of data mining and analysis. Consultant Miro Slodki interviews him regarding the pros and cons of having mathematicians control the show. departments Directives.............................................................3 ReaderPoll...........................................................3 DM People......................................................... 9 ListWatch............................................................ 9 Field Notes......................................................... 9 News Worth Knowing................................ 10 Loyalty Landscape........................................ 11 Resource Directory....................................... 18 In The Mail....................................................... 25 Events Calendar............................................ 27 DM CREATIVE 18 Designers Inc. What (if anything) does Canada's new National DNC list mean to your business? Predictive Marketing in this issue COPYWRITER 18 Gerry Black, Copywriter Privacy: the price of relevancy short-term budget commitments. So, irrespective of all other marketing supports, and whatever else we may think about the spiritual cleanliness of organically grown demand, discount price management is the trump card used most often to justify or anchor a “relevant event.” Paradigm shift The paradigm shift is that these new channels/media/technologies give marketers a virtually infinite supply of opportunities within which to communicate relevancy. Marketing 101 tells us that pricing is a key signal for consumers. Used judiciously, it is an invitation to a purchase — conveying information about the brand’s value proposition and anchoring it in the consumer’s mind on the terrain in which the brand seeks to compete. Psych 101 warns us that pigeons (and humans) are adept at stimulus-response learning. Hence, the connection of “relevant offers” may become linked to inadvertent messaging about the brand’s de facto price proposition, which is but a short step away from potentially undermining the brand’s core value proposition. 8 ReaderPoll September Question for: “Oh gee, I can’t talk right now. Why don’t you give me your home number and I’ll call you later? Oh, I guess you don’t want people calling you at home? Well, now you know how I feel.” Jerry Seinfeld 3 Targeting Boomers Click! EVP of Zoomer Media David Cravit E-mail is a powerful cost-reduction discusses his new book, "The New tool. But issues with list turnover, Old," with DM Editor Pat Atkinson and customer data, results analysis, lays out strategies that organizations deliverability, and response rates can exploit to market to Boomers persist. We consult the experts on and Seniors. best practices. LIST SERVICES 18-19 a5Data Canadian Law CanLaw ICOM infoCANADA ManuData NetYellow.ca PTM Professional Targeted Marketing Resolve Corporation SCOTT’S Directories CALL CENTRE PRODUCTS / SERVICES 20 CallCentrejob.Ca EXTEND Communications Inc Tigertel UTR eMAIL MARKETING 20 Inbox Marketer DATABASE MARKETING 20 Cornerstone Group of Companies Boire Filler Group DATA PROCESSING 20 Environics Analytics infoCANADA MLS Production Data Corporation DIRECT MAIL SERVICES 21-21 Smartsoft Marketing & Mailing Software FULL SERVICE OPERATIONS 21-23 Address-All Mailing Services Ltd. Andrews Mailing Services CDS Global Clixx Direct Marketing Services Inc. CMS / Complete Mailing Services Custom Data imaging Data Direct / TDC Direct Digital-X-Press DM Graphics Key Contact Mailmarketing Corporation Origo Direct Marketing Communications Pillar Direct Postlinx Pitney Bowes SMART DM The FSA Group WATT Solutions Wood & Associates Direct Marketing Services Ltd. 4 Call Centre News September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca Contact methods for recessionary times What are the prospects for the contact center industry and private firms engaged in contact initiatives? Here’s a cross-section of strategies. T By Colin Taylor he US economy is generally thought to be in a recession. Today, the Canadian economy is slowing and many fear it too is heading towards a recession. In the face of declining consumer confidence and spending, many companies and organizations are looking to reduce expenses and improve efficiencies to help them weather the upcoming economic storm. Call and contact centers were originally designed as an efficiency initiative. By gathering in one place all of the staff that dealt with customers, a company was able to provide centralized staff management; gain the ability to employ premise-based technology, such as Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) and provide more consistent responses to customer and prospect inquiries. All of these elements worked together to improve staff effectiveness and operational efficiency. As companies realized the value of call centers as a lower-cost method of providing customer service and support, many of the traditional channels for activities, and an increase in technologies to support self-service and service automation within contact centers. Three themes So, what is the prognosis today for contact centers in recessionary times? They say that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it and in this case, the past presents strong themes which will govern call/contact centers in the near term. The recurring themes have been efficiency, technology and outsourcing. These themes are likely to govern the landscape and drive changes in contact centers as we move forward into an economic slowdown or recession. When faced with uncertain economic prospects, most companies will tighten their belts and look for cost reduction opportunities. This exercise will lead to an increased examination of outsourcing as a potential solution. Outsourcing can, when it is well researched and executed, reduce operational costs while maintaining or even improving, service quality. Offshoring the call or contact center activities can further reduce costs but it carries a Often, the primary reason for an organization not to outsource its call or contact center activities is political. When a company determines it must serve its customers directly, it will look to technology as a driver for increased efficiency and many companies will promote telecommuting and home-based agents to achieve it. Home-based agents can access all of the tools that are generally available in a contact center. These are delivered via the Internet; often through a secured VPN. The voice component can be delivered through the Internet and/or by assuming the agent’s home telephone line. Using home or virtual agents reduces or eliminates the need for bricks and mortar contact centers— saving the company real estate and operating costs. Further, since the most common model is to employ home-based agents as independent contractors, the company eliminates the costs associated with employee benefits. Finally, home-based agents have no transportation costs and reduced meal and wardrobe expenses. Emily) that mimic live agent interaction. In pursuit of cost-savings/greater efficiency, companies will increasingly direct inquiries to the Web and reduce or eliminate access to live agents. Alternate communication technologies, such as e-mail integrated into the contact center, Web chat and even SMS messaging, will also see increased use in weaker economic times since these technologies offer lower costs while still providing a level of service. Intentional service degradation Companies and call centers under economic pressure may intentionally degrade the quality of service they provide—actually choosing to increase the average time to answer and the abandon rate, or reduce the resolution rate, and lay off staff. While these tactics can reduce costs, it is a dangerous strategy to risk customers’ ire in this way. A few organizations may actually seize upon service as a key differentiator. This has already happened in the UK, where a major bank focuses on the fact that its contact centers are in Britain— rather Outsourcing can, when it is well researched and executed, reduce operational costs while maintaining or even improving, service quality. customer service were scaled back or eliminated. (When was the last time you went to your cable company’s office to speak to someone about your bill?) The consolidation of service delivery channels has spurred even more growth in call and contact centers. In the past ten years, an increased focus on efficiency has led to organizations working diligently to further reduce expenses in their contact centers and/ or generate revenues to help offset or defray these expenses. The demand for increasing efficiency has led to a dramatic increase in outsourcing and off-shoring of customer service and technical support significantly increased risk of service and quality erosion. Outsourcing can reduce costs based on any of three primary organizational categories: labour arbitrage (by operating in lower-cost environments and paying less than in-house centers) technology (by employing capabilities that in-house centers may find difficult to fund) and process management (by using a very robust operational model and highly efficient processes that are often absent from in-house centers). Here are some of the cost-saving options we are likely to see more widely used in a tighter economy. Home-based agents This often leads to lower labour costs. Technology-based solutions Technology also can play a role in improving efficiency and reducing costs through the increased use of self-service options and non-telephone contact channels. We are all familiar with the dreaded Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that prompts us to “Enter one” for this and “two” for that, yet somehow never seems to have the information we seek, nor any easy or logical way of getting to a live agent. IVRs are ubiquitous today and increasingly being replaced by voiceenabled systems (such as Bell Canada’s than offshore— in its TV ads. “The Book of Five Rings” includes the advice: In chaos there is opportunity. Economic slowdowns and recessions can create chaos in contact center and service-focused organizations. With so many firms emphasizing automation, scaling back and degrading service, smart companies are provided an optimal opportunity to promote service quality as a key element of their value proposition and can even use outbound telesales and direct marketing to target competitors’ customers—thereby increasing market share while competitors “hunker down” to ride out the storm. Regardless of the path your company Digital Marketing helps build brands: attracting involvement, advertising events and encouraging customers to buy By: Lyle Hamilton It is becoming increasingly difficult to grab consumer attention and get the reader to pay attention to even the best written piece. Why? People are busy, they are in a hurry, and they are bombarded with messages and stimuli. They are really only interested in paying attention to messages that are relevant to them at a particular moment. Digital screens and kiosks in stores are relatively new and there are a few reasons why consumers are paying attention to them. They’re different and dynamic because they incorporate moving images and some of them have sound. Research indicates that consumers are five to ten times more likely to respond to dynamic messaging than static print signage. The screen content can be entertaining, informative or educational; incorporating “how to” cook, build, play, and weather feeds and news feeds can also be included. While the location and size of the screen are important, the digital marketing strategies and the content are the most important components of any campaign. Goals Digital technology complements most direct marketing campaigns. Digital screens and kiosks create a unique and memorable consumer experience that enhance a brand’s equity – it is all about engagement. If it’s not unique, it won’t be memorable. If it’s not memorable, then it won’t be effective. Digital signage grabs a customer’s attention and influences purchase decision right at the point of purchase where 66 per cent of decisions are made. Digital technology strategies drive “the viewer” to act and/or purchase. In other words: buy the product, take the car for a test drive, order food and/or to buy a phone. Digital kiosks offer a dynamic one-on-one communication medium with your customer, it is permission based and the consumer can directly request information on your product or service—it is just the user and the kiosk. Digital signage enhances direct campaigns Digital technology allows a marketer to communicate the features and benefits of a product or service in an easy to understand way. It also helps a direct marketer brand build by getting community involvement and/or sponsorships, advertising special events and helping a customer shop for your brand only. Digital signage lets a marketer cross sell and promotes other services and products effectively. The use of digital technology is spreading quickly and it is becoming increasingly important that every campaign have good solid digital strategies in place to ensure that the campaign is effective and captivating. Lyle Hamilton is President of Lyton Group. Lyton Group is a leading provider of digital marketing strategies, digital content, screen installation, content management software, and on-site maintenance services. For more information, visit www.Lytongroup.com selects, your contact method will likely change and continue to evolve. Each organization must determine its own equation; taking into account the impact of reduced service and increased automation on the brand and customer loyalty. Colin Taylor is the CEO of The Taylor Reach Group, Inc., a call and contact center consultancy with offices in Toronto, Atlanta and Sydney. TRG assists organizations in improving the operational effectiveness and efficiency of their contact centers. In your estimation, what effect will Canada's Do Not Call registry have on Customer Relationship Management? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is about creating “relationships” with customers and enhancing their experience as a result. Honoring client preferences is a key component of creating a relationship; if you know your best friend serves dinner at 6pm every night, you wouldn’t dream of calling her at that time to chat. Unfortunately, companies have typically done a terrible job of this facet of CRM – and this is why the government has stepped in. Most companies don’t honor customer contact preferences; not because they don’t think they should, but because they can’t. Without a complete view of the customer, and a central place to store preferences, organizations are hard pressed to stop their different departments from contacting the customer. You may tell a credit card telemarketer that you don’t want calls, but the outbound call centre may not know about your other business with the institution and thus be unable to stop other departments from calling. In the end, this call registry [DNC] will become both a component of CRM and the driving force behind the need for it. Operationalizing the DNC registry will be difficult for many organizations; without CRM, and the creation of a complete client view, it will be virtually impossible to comply. Emma Warrillow & Associates Inc. helps companies articulate their analytic strategies and make the most of their customer data. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 5 Grow Your Business with Sales Leads & Mailing Lists! Business Databases • 15 Million Canadian & U.S. Businesses • Brand New Businesses • Small Business Owners Consumer Databases • 222 Million Canadian & U.S. Consumers • Homeowners • Lifestyle Demographics Executives & Professionals • 12 Million Canadian & U.S. Executives & Professionals • Professionals such as Doctors, Lawyers, etc. • Titles • Type of Business Call Bruce Christie, Sales Manager Tel: (800) 873-6183 Email: [email protected] See if you qualify for a List Resellers Discount! Vancouver • Mississauga • Montreal 1290 Central Parkway West, Suite 104, Mississauga, ON L5C 4R3 infoCANADA.ca 83DMN Call Centre News 6 DNC, Cont’d from page cover before. Meanwhile, any company that has an “existing business relationship” with a consumer—because it sold them goods or services—can also call that person for up to 18 months after the transaction is concluded. In return for this privilege, however, all of these exempted callers are obliged to maintain internal DNC lists of their own and to respect the wishes of consumers who contact them to opt out. Opting out easily Enter Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and a fierce advocate for Canadian privacy. Last March, he launched iOptOut.ca, a Web site that enables Canadians to opt out of unwanted telemarketing calls from the numerous organizations that are exempted from the DNC registry. Visitors to the iOptOut site are asked to enter their phone number and/or email address and to indicate their calling preferences for nearly 150 organizations, simply and without cost. Since its inception, the site has sent out millions of opt out requests on behalf of tens of thousands of Canadians and this number is likely to grow as more consumers learn that the DNC will not completely prevent unwanted calls from September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca reaching them. Yet, not everyone is happy about the convenience and popularity of the iOptOut site. Soon after it became operational, both the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) and the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) sent written complaints about it to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein asking that opt-out requests generated from it be regarded as invalid. (The CMA’s bulletin to its membership included the statement: “It is the view of the Association that members need not honour do-not-call requests that originate from the organization in question.”) As things turned out, however, this advice proved to be incorrect. Von Finckenstein rejected both the CMA and CBA’s complaints. Consequently, organizations that fail to honour customer opt out requests from third-party sites such as iOptOut.ca, may receive significant penalties—in some cases, up to $15,000 per violation. (In the U.S., after five years of operation, more than 145 million phone numbers have subscribed to the American DNC registry and the U.S. government has collected nearly US $26 million in penalties.) Article sources: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/dt200748.htm and http://ioptout.ca/ Call centres calling EAP more than other industries TORONTO - Call centre employees access their employee assistance programs (EAPs) at a higher rate than other industries, and for a specific set of stressors related to their jobs. This latest study by the Shepell-fgi research group has identified not just what unique job stressors call centre employees have, but the drivers to create a call centre that is engaged and healthy. "There is no question, working in a call centre is unique and has its own concerns," said Rod Phillips, president and CEO of Shepell-fgi. "It is important we look at the health of this specific group of employees as half a million Canadians work in 14,000 call centres across the country - a number increasing by 27 per cent every year. It is critical to the Canadian economy that this group of employees be well and productive." Shepell-fgi found that, when compared to other industries nationally, call centre employees: • Accessed EAP at a higher rate (7% vs. 5% of all other industries) • Accesses were far more likely to be under 30 years of age (42% vs. 17%) • Accesses were more likely to be for emotional (15% vs. 11%) and stress issues (19% vs. 15%) The findings estimate that among 100 recent hires at a call centre, 14 per cent may be experiencing high levels of stress, Rod Phillips, president and CEO of Shepellfgi says that with 14,000call centres across the country it is critical to the Canadian economy that this group of employees be well and productive. and ten per cent may experience high levels of depression. "This is a trend that employers need to be aware of because of the potential for this to negatively impact a business," said Karen Seward, senior vice president of Business Development and Marketing. "On any given day, ten per cent of call centre employees call in sick, turnover is between eight and 50 per cent a year, and the cost of training a replacement for employees who leave exceeds $6,000 dollars. It doesn't take long to do the math to figure out the impact of this on a company's profits." The study also looks at what makes a successful call centre, including job redesign and use of surveys and integrated health management to find out the perception of call centre employees and where programs can be best implemented. "These employees have a high level of what can be best described at times as a repetitive stress injury - only because the work is with people that injury is on an emotional level," said Paula Allen, senior vice president of Health Solutions and the Shepell-fgi research group. "If employers are aware of the unique stress of this role, and implement appropriate support programs, like Employee Assistance, then everyone in the organization will benefit." A full copy of the report is available at: http://www.shepellfgi.com/ Direct Marketing (DM) interviewed Michael Geist [who at press time is vacationing in Europe] via e-mail for his view of the American DNC registry and an idea of what direct marketers/telemarketers and consumers can expect from Canada’s new DNC registry. DM: The US DNC Registry launched in June 2003 and the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007 (which became law in February 2008) have been in place long enough for you to have an opinion about their usefulness in protecting U.S. consumer privacy. What do you think of them? Geist: I’m not sure that the DNC has protected consumer privacy, but has had some effect on creating some limits on unwanted phone calls. IB5913_ContactMan_FP.pdf 9/5/2007 1:12:37 PM DM: What do you like and dislike about how the system is working there? Barbados Prime location for Call Centers Geist: I don’t live in the U.S., so it is hard to say. I think the two main problems with the U.S. DNC – mirrored in Canada – are the limits of jurisdiction and the multiple exceptions. The exceptions mean that many organizations can continue to call despite inclusion on the list (some Canadian estimates say 85 percent of calls will continue). The jurisdiction problems mean that offshore calls continue. I have advocated a mutual recognition approach that would allow national DNCs to interoperate. As for the likes, DNCs are easy to use and enforceable. DM: As you may know, the Pennsylvania Attorney General recently sued two mortgage companies for violating the state’s do-not-call laws. The suit seeks full restitution for any consumer who suffered losses as the result of actions that violated the Consumer Protection Law, along with civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation (up to $3,000 for violations involving seniors). It seems that the DNC has real teeth— at least in the U.S., do you agree? C M Y CM MY CY CMY K + + + + + + + + + Customer Service Financial Services Inbound/Outbound Sales Collections Travel Help Desk Technical Support Healthcare Insurance CALL US AT: Toronto: 416 214 9919 | Barbados 246 626 2000 New York 212 867 6420 | Miami 305 442 2269 | London 44 0207 580 6077 Fax: 246 626 2099 Email: [email protected] www.investbarbados.org Geist: Absolutely. Enforcement is essential for the DNC and the U.S. has had good experiences in this regard. DM: Turning to Canada’s DNC registry, what is your take on how it is likely to evolve given the number of organizations that have filed for exemptions through the CRTC? Geist: It isn’t that organizations have filed for exemptions; it is that the law has built in far too many exceptions. With estimates that 85 percent of calls are exempt, I think many Canadians will be disappointed with the DNC. I think there may be calls for an elimination of the exemptions. I also think that people will look for other solutions, such as iOptOut.ca. DM: How exactly will it work from the consumer’s perspective? Geist: It should be pretty straightforward. The consumer will go to the DNC site and enter their basic phone information. Nothing more needs to be done. DM: According to the CRTC, there are 38 million phone numbers, including cell phones in Canada. Do you expect that the registry operator (Bell Canada) will actually be able to accommodate the number of consumers that is likely to register? Geist: Yes. I think the numbers will be significant, but Bell should be up to the challenge. DM: What do you advise smart direct marketers/telemarketers do, given the realities of the current situation, to avoid creating difficulties for themselves and in the case of service bureaus, their clients? Geist: I think telemarketers should be gearing up for the DNC. This will have an impact on their lists and should be a winwin situation. DM: Why did you devise iOptOut? What can direct marketers/telemarketers do to prepare for it? Geist: I created iOptOut in response to the many exemptions in the DNC. It is designed to allow Canadians to easily opt-out of many otherwise exempt organizations in an easy and straightforward manner. The CRTC recently confirmed the validity of the approach so telemarketers should be prepared for this additional source of opt-out requests. Indeed, the law requires exempt organizations to maintain their own private DNCs. DM: Overall, in your opinion, can we expect the Canadian version of the DNC registry to function effectively and do the job for which it was designed? Geist: I think it will result in a decrease in the number of calls, though the exemptions certainly undermines its effectiveness. Showtime dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 ICCM Conference Schedule-at-a-Glance Monday, October 6 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Contact Centre Site Tours 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Workshop 1-Call Centre Math: A Practical Workshop for Managing by the Numbers. Workshop 2-Success Strategies for Savvy Customer Service Leaders Tuesday, October 7 TRACKS—CUSTOMER SATISFACTION (CS),TECHNOLOGIES (TC),AGENT TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT (AT), METRICS / ANALYTICS/ KPIS (ME), BUSINESS STRATEGY & ALIGNMENT (BU) 8:30 - 9:20 AM CS1-ICT Bell Canada Case Study: 12 Tactical Steps to Achieving Excellence in Customer Service TC1-Wholesale Energy Group Case Study: How Wholesale Energy Group Tripled Productivity with New Outbound Call Centre Technology AT1-IDEXX Laboratories Case Study: Enhancing Employee Satisfaction and Performance with Developmental Coaching me1-Wisconsin Physicians Service Case Study: Never Miss a Word -Turn What Your Customers are Saying into Business Success BU1- Industry Megatrends: A Benchmarking Perspective 9:30 – 10:20 AM CS2-Bath & Body Works Case Study: Breaking the Rules-Delight Your Customers! TC2-British Telecom Case Study: How the ASP Model can be Used to Achieve the Holy Grail of Contact Centre Services AT2-American Express Case Study: Teaching Agents and Team Leaders about Workforce Management Principles me2-Improving Call Centre Effectiveness with First Call Resolution BU2-Best-Kept Secrets for Increasing Workforce Productivity 10:30 - 11:20 AM Peer Roundtables 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM Keynote Address (Open to all attendees): High Quality Leadership from Around the WorldThe Key to Contact Centre Success 12:15 - 1:00 PM General Session (Open to all attendees): The Future of Customer Self-Service and Multi-Media Customer Support 1:00 - 6:00 PM Exhibit Hall Open 1:00 - 2:30 PM Lunch and Exhibit Hall 2:30 - 3:20 PM CS3-Palm Coast Data Case Study: Building a Bullet Proof Business Case for Customer Service Investment TC3-End User Case Study: Self-Service Beyond ROI AT3-Coaching: The Missing Link in Agent Performance ME3-Unleashing the Enormous Power of Contact Centre Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) BU3—Choosing Projects that Align Your Centre to the Organization’s Business Objectives 3:30 - 4:20 PM CS4- Customer Experience Management- Maximizing Call and Contact Centre Investments TC4- Enbridge Case Study: Web Self-Service that Transforms the Customer Experience & Reduces Costs AT4- Contact Centre Training and Development-How to Grow Great Employees ME4- Bell Canada Case Study: Leveraging Customer Interactions to Drive Business Intelligence and Improve Customer Experience BU4-Consumer Impact Marketing Case Study: How Canada’s Leading Product Launch Firm Turned its Call Centre into a Profit Centre 4:30 - 6:00 PM Networking Reception hosted by ContractXchange. Wednesday, October 8 TRACKS-REMOTE WORKFORCE (RW), TECHNOLOGIES (TC), STAFF HIRING & RETENTION (ST), WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT (WM), BUSINESS STRATEGY & ALIGNMENT (BU) 8:45 - 10:00 AM Keynote Panel (Open to all attendees): 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Exhibit Hall Open 10:10 - 11:00 AM RW1-Interval International Case Study: Utilizing Home-Based Customer Service Agents to Increase Client Satisfaction TC5- CRM Integration Best Practices: Taking the Pain Out of the Call Centre st1- Aditya Birla Minacs Case Study: The Way to Get It Right-Avoiding Mistakes that Increase Turnover and Generate Low Performance WM1- Top Five Workforce Management Trends BU5- The Toronto Star Case Study: Reducing the Risks and Optimizing the Value of Outsourced Customer Care 11:10 AM - 12:00 PM RW2-The Shopping Channel Case Study: The 3 Strategic Routes to a Work-At-Home Agent Workforce TC6-AXA Equitable Case Study: Building Corporate Capability and Cutting Training Time through Product Knowledge Reference Tool st2- Building A People-Focused Culture in Your Call Centre WM2- Workforce Optimization: The Heart of the Matter BU6- Nova Chemical Case Study: Success through Staff Participation and Automation 12:00 - 1:30 PM Lunch and Exhibit Hall 1:30 - 2:20 PM TC7- Unified Communications- Gaining a Presence in the Contact Centre MetLife ST3- NetLife Case Study: Screening, Training and Satisfaction Scorecards for CSRs-6 Best Practices WM3-Navitor Case Study: Becoming More Customer-Centric Using Workforce Optimization BU7- The Buzz in Today’s Contact Centres: Systems, Tools and Applications 2:30 - 3:20 PM Executive Briefing: Contact Centre 2008 Awards to recognize best centres ICCM Canada producer Questex Media plans to issue three awards recognizing the excellence of Canadian call centres at the event this year. The winners will be chosen from among those centres which completed entry forms for the competition on or before September 15. The competition was free and open to all Canadian centres. Winners will be chosen from the small, medium and large centre categories. Small centres range up to 50 representatives. Medium centres encompass those with 50 to 200 call centre reps. Large centres comprise those with more then 201 representatives. Winners will be selected from criteria that take into account people, processes, technology, strategy, culture, and what puts the centre above and beyond the norm. Entrants were asked to describe: their leadership style and what they do to attract, retain, and engage top talent; the evaluation tools/techniques employed and the cost and efficiency gains; use of technology to build customer loyalty and improve performance; the centre’s growth strategy and how it supports the corporate strategy; the workplace culture and its importance in sustaining operations; and what sets the centre apart and makes it a place where people want to work. Keynotes & General Session Tuesday, October 7 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM End-User Keynote Panel: High Quality Leadership from Around the WorldThe Key To Contact Centre Success Moderator is Donna Miller, CEO, Contact Centre Canada Panellists: Graham Kingma, vice-president - customer experience, The Shopping Channel; Tim Cook, vice-president of North American Operations, Hilton Reservations & Customer Care: Alfredo Gonzalez, customer service managing director, Latin America & Caribbean, FedEx Express Three resourceful executives tell how their companies developed a new breed of contact centre leadership that is driving top performance from their centres’ people and operations. This session promises to provide an understanding of the role of contact centre leadership and how it drives centre performance. 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM General Session: The Future of Customer Self Service and Multi-Media Customer Support Speaker is Keith Smithers, national contact centre practice leader, Avaya Canada This session discusses how contact centres will be able to leverage new technologies to supply multi-media customer self service on multiple devices. They include PDA’s, Kiosks and Pac’s. Wednesday, October 8 8:45 AM - 10:00 AM Keynote Panel: 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes Moderator: Paul Stockford, chief analyst, Saddletree Research Panellists: Beel Yaqub, head of workforce & cc analytics, Royal Bank of Canada; Penny Reynolds, principal, The Call Center School; Samantha Kane, principal, Kane-MacKay Associates; David Butler, Ph.D., executive director, National Association of Call Centers; Bill Durr, principal, Global Solutions Consultant, Verint; Barb Bleiler, manager client support, WPS Health Insurance This session sees industry experts share a lifetime’s worth of contact centre experience in only 60 minutes. Each panellist will have exactly one minute to provide an idea for improving your contact centre and this will continue, in turn, for 60 minutes. Learn how to change your profits. Visit www.mapinfo.ca or call 1.800.268.DATA 7 8 Call Centre News September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca ICCM Canada Conference & Expo Metro Toronto Convention Centre October 6-8 Produced by Questex Media, ICCM Canada is Canada’s biggest call centre conference and exhibition. The event this year features eight tracks in the more than 30 concurrent sessions that run on Tuesday and Wednesday. They include almost 20 case studies. Site tours of American Express, Energy Savings Group, and Air Miles call centres will be held on the Monday before the conference. There are also two preconference workshops that day from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The first is “Call Centre Math: A Practical Workshop for Managing by the Numbers.” The second is “Success Strategies for Savvy Customer Service Leaders.” Following are synopses of the concurrent sessions by the track under which they appear. It also gives the dates, times and speakers. This session shows how to make the contact centre the focal point for the voice of the customer. It tells why you need to emotionally connect with your customers. CS3-Palm Coast Data Case Study 2:30-3:20 Tuesday Speakers: Jim Bradley, telecom-network services manager, Palm Coast Data; George Despinic, contact centre marketing, Nortel This session supplies the tools needed to develop positive business cases that align contact centre solutions with business strategy. Palm Coast Data’s business case illustrates the methods used to justify the strategic investments. Customer Satisfaction CS1-ICT Bell Canada Case Study 8:30-9:20 Tuesday Speakers: Jeff Lachenauer, EQUI-VEST training manager, AXA Equitable; Caroline Gray, senior vice-president, information technology and technology-based learning, Omega Performance. It takes a delicate balance of cost-driven operational management and customerfocused service delivery to be successful. Processes and technology often make the difference. CS4-Customer Experience Management 3:30-4:20 Tuesday Speakers: Mark Smith, CEO & executive vice-president research, Ventana Research; Richard Snow, vice-president & research director, Ventana Research Ventana’s research has found significant change as organizations look to establish customer performance processes and new technologies that provide immediate information and insights that can help improve customer relationships. This session unveils the changes in call centres and how the interaction with customers can be transformed to support the operational and financial priorities of the business. Technologies track CS2-Bath & Body Works Case Study 9:30-10:20 Tuesday Speakers: Patricia Crowley, director of customer experience, Bath & Body Works; John Goodman, vice-chairman, TARP TC1-Wholesale Energy Group Case Study 8:30-9:20 Tuesday Speakers: TBA, Wholesale Energy Group; How well do you really know your customers? Brett Shockley, president & CEO Spanlink This session discloses how Wholesale Energy Group dramatically improved outbound contact centre performance to drive increased revenue. The company has been able to maximize outbound calling and nearly triple the number of outbound calls it makes each day. TC2-British Telecom Case Study 9:30-10:20 Tuesday Speaker: Frank Shaffer, head of global inbound services, BT Global Services Delegates will learn the implementation issues surrounding a hosted on demand delivery of contact centre service. This session serves as a guide as to where these services are, and are not, appropriate, as well as which new applications the on demand platforms can allow. TC3-Self-Service Beyond ROI 2:30-3:20 Tuesday Speaker: David McSkimming, voice & video portal practice leader, Avaya Canada This session discusses the importance of a self-service strategy that goes beyond simple return on investment. Delegates will discover the role self-service plays in providing enhanced customer service. TC4-Self-Service: New Essential Tool in Customer Care 3:30-4:20 Tuesday Speakers: Anne Creery, manager, customer care operations, Enbridge Gas Distribution; Alex Sweeney, vice-president sales, IntelliResponse Current Web site alternatives like search, FAQ, auto-chat, and email are not effectively deflecting high-cost phone ? ? ? AT TRANSCONTINENTAL WE HAVE THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO DRIVE REAL BUSINESS RESULTS. By analyzing your data we identify opportunities that become the competitive advantage you need for marketing success! Transcontinental Database Marketing offers a full range of database marketing services ranging from strategic guidance to tactical execution, including: � DATABASE MANAGEMENT � CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT � PREDICTIVE MODELING & DATABASE ANALYTICS � CONSULTING SERVICES Call 877-585-2900 (x 2278) to schedule a free consultation on your Database Marketing Strategy. Transcontinental Database Marketing – Providing A Competitive Advantage Since 1995. Telephone: 416-585-2900 Email: [email protected] www.transcontinental-printing.com call and live agent support interactions because they do not really deliver the experience the customer wants. Reducing call volumes by deflecting calls to Web site self-service will avoid significant cost increases and free up call agent resources to handle complex or high-value interactions, but only if the Web service is as good or better. TC5-CRM Integration Best Practices 10:10-11:00 Wednesday Speaker: Paul Nussbaum, vice-president marketing, AMC Technology This session is packed with checklists for removing the pain from CRM integration. It details how to raise customer loyalty, cut costs, deal with variable call volumes, provide detailed analytics, and otherwise work more efficiently and effectively. TC6-AXA Equitable Case Study 11:10-12:00 Wednesday Speakers: Jeff Lachenauer, EQUI-VEST training manager, AXA Equitable; Caroline Gray, senior vice-president, information technology and technology-based learning, Omega Performance. This session describes the measurable benefits that can be achieved from using a flexible reference tool to manage product knowledge within a company’s contact centre. It describes the business issue AXA Equitable faced and how a product knowledge reference tool helped to solve it. TC7-Unified Communications: Gaining a Presence in the Contact Centre 1:30-2:20 Wednesday Moderator: Paul Stockford, chief analyst, Saddletree Research. Speakers: Serge Hyppolite, director of product management, Aspect Software; Ross Daniels, director, unified communications solutions management, Cisco Systems The concept of Unified Communications (UC) is helping define not only how disparate collections of communications will connect with each other, but what we will do with them once they are connected. Among the first communications innovations to emerge from UC in the contact centre is Presence, a communications application that will bring new efficiencies to customer service based on the concept that customer service representatives aren’t restricted to the contact centre. Business Strategy & Alignment BU1-Industry Megatrends: A Benchmarking Perspective 8:30-9:20 Tuesday Speaker: Eric Zbikowski, managing partner, MetricNet Understanding the megatrends of the support industry can give your contact centre a competitive advantage. This session looks at what the world-class contact centres have in common, and the investments in people, process, and technology they make. BU2-Best Kept Secrets for Increasing Workforce Productivity 9:30-10:20 Tuesday Speaker: Penny Reynolds, senior partner, The Call Center School This session supplies tips and techniques for making the most of an existing workforce, including new ideas for training, measuring performance, coaching more effectively, shaping adherence behaviours, and motivating for better performance. It will show how to restructure objectives and rewards to improve schedule adherence and attendance BU3-Choosing Projects that Align Your Centre to Organization’s Business Objectives 2:30-3:20 Tuesday Speaker: Lisa DiTullio, principal, Lisa DiTullio & Associates In an environment of increasing demands and stagnant resources, businesses must be precise in evaluating their priorities and setting the “right” agenda and selecting the “right” investments. This session reveals how to choose the right set of projects that properly align to business goals and optimize limited resources. BU4-Consumer Impact Marketing Case Study 3:30-4:20 Tuesday Speaker: Nick Ranieri, IT director, Consumer Impact Marketing Consumer Impact Marketing had an internal help desk like every other company, which amounted to a cost centre. This session describes how the firm’s help desk evolved into a key revenue stream. BU5-The Toronto Star Case Study 10:10-11:00 Wednesday Speakers: Sandy Macleod, vice-president, consumer marketing and strategy, The Toronto Star; Jeff Williams, executive vicepresident, corporate development, Aditya Birla Minacs This session describes how The Toronto Star improved the quality of its customer service and realized cost efficiencies through outsourcing. It shows how the newspaper converted a cost centre to a value centre and built its customer-centric brand in one of North America’s most competitive markets. BU6-Nova Chemical Case Study 11:10-12:00 Wednesday Speakers: Nabial Al-Ghanma, reliability leader, Nova Chemicals; John Pyecha, executive vice-president & partner, Competitive Solutions. This session discusses the power of combining business processes with automation to encourage staff participation and successfully achieve key business goals. It tells how Nova Chemicals has seen improvements in business focus, communication and accountability by using a process-based iccm, Cont’d on page 26 Departments dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 9 dmPeople Debbie Brown Travelex Global Business Payments, the largest provider of international payment services, has appointed Debbie Brown as the new global vice president of marketing. Formerly, she was the company’s UK marketing director. Cari Svensson Cari Svensson has joined Toronto-based integrated response agency BIMM Communications in a senior client service role. Previously, she was a group account director at MacLaren MRM. Karen Power Karen Power also joins BIMM as a senior account director, joining the company via MacLaren MRM and Cossette/Blitz. Kara John DMTI Spatial, a leading provider of enterprise Location Intelligence solutions, is pleased to announce that Kara John has earned the Certified Licensing Professional credential from the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. Kevin Shea Adcentricity Inc., a leader in the planning and buying of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) media, has announced that leading media industry executive Kevin Shea has joined the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. fieldnotes …Google has recently created a spin-off product from its popular Google Trends. The new tool, Google Insights for Search, is designed to help advertisers track a particular search term’s popularity across the Web and various geographic regions worldwide. This may serve to boost advertiser confidence and win the program converts that might otherwise be skeptical about how effectively they can target an online ad campaign. The program enables a user to conduct a search on a particular term to track how much it’s been “googled” over time, where on a “interest map” of countries it’s most popular, and what the top “related” and “rising” searches for the term are. Results can also be filtered by geographic region, timeframe, or category… The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has launched a new privacy policy and search tool to protect the privacy of dot-ca domain name registrants. Under the new policy, the personal information of individual domain name registrants, including their names, home addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, will now be automatically protected as private, according to the agency. Full registration information for corporate domain name holders will continue to be accessible and individuals may choose to make their information accessible… The Weather Network has launched another specialized service to help people make the most of everything that’s happening in and around Toronto. At 2 and 32 minutes past each hour, weathercasters now offer local weather specific to the GTA, including special reports on community events and traffic updates, all day long. Besides the vibrant, eye-catching yellow billboards, the out of home (OOH,) campaign uses humour to make certain the message stays top-ofmind, and to demonstrate just how local The Weather Network is… According to ZenithOptimedia, Western ad markets continue to slow but surging developing markets are propelling healthy world growth in ad expenditures. The firm forecasts world ad spend growth of 6.6% in 2008, up slightly from the 6.5% growth predicted in its March forecast. Growth forecasts for 2008 have been downgraded from 3.7% to 3.5% for North America, and from 3.9% to 3.7% for Western Europe but forecasts for the rest of the world are up from 11.1% to 11.8%. Developing markets are expected to contribute 62% of ad expenditure growth between 2007 and 2010, and increase their share of the global ad market from 27% to 33%. Economic uncertainty in developed markets is accelerating the shift of budgets to accountable Internet advertising and ZenithOptimedia now forecasts Internet advertising to break the 10% share barrier this year and account for 13.6% of world ad spend in 2010… iMedia International, Inc., a provider of digital entertainment content for the publishing industry, announced that it has signed its first iReporting licensing agreement with Precise/Full Service Media, an Ontario, Calif.-based multimedia replication, packaging, fulfillment and distribution company. The multi-million optical disc volume agreement will provide Precise/FSM’s customers the ability to better understand when, how and for how long people are using their CDs and DVDs…MasterCard Canada has begun testing Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled mobile phones with MasterCard PayPass capability on Bell Mobility’s wireless network. During the four month closed trial, participants will use these phones to make purchases at any merchant location in Canada that accepts MasterCard PayPass. MasterCard is leading the transformation of mobile phones into secure payment devices with numerous PayPass-enabled phone trials and rollouts underway in regions around the world. It is currently accepted at Rabba Fine Foods, Cineplex Odeon, Tim Hortons, Petro-Canada, Pioneer Petroleums, Loblaw Companies stores, and later this year, McDonald’s Restaurants will also be introducing the payment capability. listwatch ABMS Certified Physicians Lake Group Media Inc. has been chosen to manage a list of physicians that comes from the American Board of Medical Specialities. Data is derived from an ABMS directory published by Elsevier. It lists 570,567 U.S. and 6,765 Canadian doctors. Selections are available for more than 50 certified specialties, in addition to more than 100 sub-specialty selects. PCS Mailing List Co. was the prior manager. Selections: Type of practice, specialty, sub-specialty, medical school, graduation year, first certification, certification expiration, age, home/business address, gender, one per site, province, FSA, state/SCF/ZIP Sample usage: Cleveland Clinic Foundation, People to People, Massachusetts Medical Society, HCPro Inc., Cambridge Who’s Who, Oxford University Press Price: $115/M (U.S. file); $135/M (Canadian file) Contact: Lake Group Media Inc., Daniel Grubert (914)-925-2449; daniel.grubert@ lakegroupmedia.com American Entrepreneurs Network This listing contains a universe of 215,742 names of executives who run companies with one to 500 employees. Rate: $95/M, with phones (206,221) $120/M , SIC Code Groups +$10 (Mfg., Business/Professional, Wholesale, Retail, Construction); Sales volume +$10. Materials Format: email/ FTP, Diskette, Cartridge, CD. Run charges $10.00/M. Contact: Bill@NAMEFINDERS. COM. Telephone: (415) 955-8595, Fax: (515)955-8581. Asian Growth Stocks This list contains names of subscribers of a newsletter about Asia’s hot-house economies. Universe contains 1,378 names at $245M and 3,080 expires at $155/M. Subscription price $144/1 year, $182/2 years. Contact: [email protected]. Telephone: (415) 955-8595, Fax: (515)9558581. Consumer Canadian Residents This list contains Canadian online consumers who have asked to be contacted via e-mail with various consumer offers that meet their inter ests. These prospects have provided geographic and demographic informa tion and are responsive to a variety of marketing promotions. File contains 4,435,690 universe, age, gender, lifestyle, marital status, presence of children, province. Contact: eTargetMedia.com Inc., 6810 Lyons Technology Circle, Coconut Creek, FL 33073 Tel: 954-480-8470, Fax: 954-4808489; [email protected] Ih training list has 148,643 0-24 month Canadian responders/ inquirers IH Training provides customized training to meet the educational needs of Operators, Engineers & Technical staff working in a wide range of manufacturing environments. By utilizing classroom sessions, educational software & training Simulators, up to date advancements can be conveyed to manufacturing professionals across North America. Since no manufacturing plant is the same, all courses are tailored to meet the specific needs of the clients. Selections available are gender, Province, FSAs, home/business, language, sic codes, phone numbers, employee size and title/job function. Base rate is $165.00/M CDN. Email addresses are also available please inquire for costs. For more information, contact your list broker or call Jacqueline Collymore of Resolve Corporation at 416-503-4000 Ext 2275 or e-mail [email protected]. Mobiledirect SMS Text Messaging/Canadian DB Some two million cell-phone numbers for text messages and five million e-mail addresses are on this database. It identifies Canadian consumers who signed up for a range of notices—sports scores, stock quotes, horoscopes, ringtones and cell-phone wallpaper—while also opting in to receive third-party messages. Postal addresses are available. The sources are telemarketing and several thousand Web sites. Data can be matched with house files. Selections: Hotlines, e-mail/text message change of address, adult’s/child’s age, demographic, ethnicity, gender, income, lifestyle, occupation, religion Price: $200/M Contact: Millard Group Inc., Chris Montana (201)-476-2106; [email protected] 10 News September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca WORTHKNOWING Recent AMR survey reveals keys to relationship marketing in Québec MONTREAL–According to a recent survey conducted by Segma Recherche (Unimarketing) on behalf of the Association du marketing relationnel (AMR,) the majority of Québec companies do not have the knowledge required to adequately practice relationship marketing nor protect the confidentiality of personal information. The survey was conducted in April 2008 among 1,000 Québec consumers and 201 companies located in that province. Interestingly, 65.6% of the Québec consumers surveyed said that they trust the companies with which they do business to protect their personal information and 86.9% of them believe that companies should always request consent before contacting them. However, this expectation flies in the face of some of the key findings from surveyed companies. Company findings: • Only 33.1% of Québec companies dedicate at least one resource to client privacy protection; (among AMR members, this proportion rises to 89.7%). • Only 27.3% of Québec companies have proactively taken the necessary measures to respect recent changes to the telecommunications law which anticipates the creation of a registry for persons wishing to be excluded from telephone solicitation activities; (among AMR members, this proportion rises to 72.4%). • Only 9.3% of Internet sites of Québec companies respect one form or another of security attestation; (among AMR members, this proportion rises to 44.8%). The AMR contends that these results must be improved to ensure relationship marketing best practices and the protection of the personal information of Québec consumers. “These results clearly demonstrate that, in a context where relationship marketing is on the rise, a balance must be established between corporate practices and consumer expectations,” notes Bianca Barbucci, the Association’s president. “As an industry, it is our duty to apply the necessary measures to ensure the continued application of best practices as well as maintain a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with Québec consumers.” To that end, the AMR has announced that beginning this fall, it will make relationship marketing experts available to members of Québec’s Chambers of Commerce in order to raise awareness and train managers in relationship marketing best practices. In addition to promoting the principles of its code of ethics, the AMR will seek to prevent infractions and will see to the respect of consumer expectations. For more information, visit http://www. amrq.com/docs/RapAMRQ27-04-08-vo.doc About the AMR (Association du marketing relationnel): A not-for-profit organization, the AMR’s mission is to promote relationship marketing and contribute to the development, evolution and promotion of its industry across all of its channels. The AMR’s leadership is founded on three decades of active presence on the Québec scene. The Association numbers nearly 2,000 professionals whose collective and comprehensive marketing expertise gives the AMR a pivotal position and key perspective on media integration in Québec. The AMR is affiliated with the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) and facilitates dynamic exchanges between relationship marketing’s users, creators, management teams and suppliers. For further information, visit www.amrq.com. Social networking Global Connect opens Toronto data center ability of Global Connect’s customers to expand into Canada, we remain focused sites go global According to ComScore, social-networking sites may be nearing a peak in North America. The industry's foothold in the U.S. and Canada grew only 9 percent from June 2007, but in Asia it grew 23 percent, in Latin America 33 percent, and in Europe 35 percent. And social networks grew a whopping 66 percent in the Middle East and Africa. The 9 percent growth in North America meant that it was the only region of the world where the growth of social networks did not outpace the growth of the Internet-using populace as a whole, which ComScore pegged at 11 percent. The fastest-growing site is Facebook, with a 153 percent increase in unique visitors noted. Most of that growth is international: Its domestic growth was estimated at 38 percent. Hi5, a San Francisco-founded site with a big foothold in Latin America, grew 100 percent. Friendster, another Bay Area social network, grew 50 percent, thanks to a renewed interest among Asian audiences. Growing at 41 percent is Google’s Orkut, at 32 percent is AOL’s Bebo, and at 19 percent is Skyrock, a France-based social network that remains extremely popular among the youth in its home country. News Corp.’s MySpace, still the biggest social network in the U.S., is not doing quite as well internationally. Its unique visitors have gone up only 3 percent year-over-year, ComScore said. “Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year,” ComScore executive Jack Flanagan said in a statement from the company. “By increasing the site’s relevance to local markets through local language interface translation, the site is now competing strongly or even capturing the lead in several markets where it had a relatively minor presence just a year ago.” MAYS LANDING, NEW JERSEY—Global Connect, a leading provider of telephone voice broadcasting and notification services, offers data security and privacy in Canada, as well as the US, thanks to a data center in Toronto. The company’s Canadian data center, which opened this year, provides a secure, all-Canada storage and networking platform, enhancing the comply with Canadian data privacy laws. Global Connect customers use the Web-based system to reach lists of their own contacts with scheduled voice and e-mail notifications. The new data center allows Global Connect’s Canadian customers to store their data entirely within the Canadian jurisdiction. An independent consultancy group has audited the Global Connect site and reviewed the company’s policies, procedures and security, giving Canadian customers even more assurance that their information is safe in the Global Connect data center. “It has always been important to Global Connect to offer clients a system that is as secure as it is fast and cost-effective,” said Craig Bird, founder and CEO of Global Connect. “As we continue to grow and on the security of our system, and with our customers’ ability to comply with applicable privacy regulations. A number of clients in the Canadian market have already taken advantage of our new data center to ensure that their security and privacy needs are met.” Global Connect’s interactive system allows customers to deliver pre-recorded voice messages to designated telephone numbers at unmatched speed and capacity. Customers can create messages and access all features of the system using a Web browser, with no technical expertise required. Call recipients can use the interactive keypad to connect to live agents, leave voice messages or select other keys for polling and surveys. For more information visit www.gc1.com Montreal claims top spot on global Monopoly game board EAST LONGMEADOW, MA– Au revoir, Boardwalk! Montréal will represent the most expensive property on the new MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition game board. Hasbro Inc. recently announced that Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto will be among the 22 cities included in Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. The cities were chosen in an international vote that saw more than five million Monopoly fans cast ballots for the cities they wanted in the first global edition of the game. Montreal will occupy the place of honour previously held by Boardwalk and will be paired with the Latvian capital of Riga to represent the most expensive property group. Vancouver will be the flagship of the orange group, while Toronto will join Kyiv and Istanbul to comprise the magenta properties. Canada and China are the only countries to feature three cities on the board. Hasbro said nearly 6 million votes were cast during an online contest to name the cities featured on the global edition of the game. Monopoly Here and Now was launched Aug. 26. Events were held in all three Canadian cities, with life-sized game boards for fans and dignitaries. Nearly 7 out of 10 Canadians plan more coupon use in a slowing economy TORONTO – Pressed with a sluggish economy and escalating living costs, Canadians are looking to the coupon for relief, according to survey results released by North American target marketing leader ICOM Information & Communications (ICOM). Of the 2,099 Canadian consumers who responded to a recent ICOM survey, 69% said they are much more likely, or somewhat more likely, to use coupons during a recession. The breakdown was 42.4% much more likely and 26.4% somewhat more likely. The robust 69% bucks a trend, as overall coupon redemption rates have been on the decline in Canada in recent years, prompting many marketers to rethink their coupon strategies. ICOM’s nationwide survey of Canadian households was conducted in May. The online research was sent to 40,000 households in the ICOM Shopper’s Voice database. Broken down by age, 72% of consumers in the 35-54 year-old age bracket said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons in a recession. That compares to 67% in the 55 years and above bracket and 63% among those 18-34 years old. Geographically, 70% of Ontarians said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons during hard economic times, versus 59% of Quebecers. Those respondents describing their geographic location as Eastern Canada were 70% much more likely or somewhat more likely to cash coupons in a recession, against 68% of Westerners. Income didn’t make a significant differ- ence to respondents, with 69% of those earning less than $60,000 a year saying they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons in a sluggish economy, compared to 70% for those earning more than $60,000. Historically, coupons represent a key area in which manufacturers operating in economic hard times have not cut back. In the weakened economy of 2001, ICOM tracking showed a significant increase in the number of coupons redeemed. “Savvy consumers can actually make money while others rework budgets during hard times,” said Peter Meyers, ICOM vice president of marketing. “The typical household that wisely uses coupons can save 25 percent on their annual grocery bill – without cutting purchases. That pockets $2,600 a year based on the typical $200 a week grocery spend, which can significantly offset recent gas, living and food cost surges.” “Marketers are faced with a golden opportunity to engage consumers desperately looking for ways to save money. Blanket distribution tactics waste money and offend consumers. Why send cat litter coupons to households that have no pets? Brands that take the extra step of analyzing the audience will be rewarded for sending offers relevant to the consumer,” Meyers said. In the area of coupon technology, 58% of consumers responding to the ICOM survey see their coupon use increasing if they could download a coupon from the Internet and have it automatically connected to an electronically swiped loyalty card. Column dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 article8 highlights All clients are not created equal Differentiating allows you to to deliver the highest degree of reward and recognition to those customers who most deserve it. Loyalty marketers show favoritism A well-designed program segments members based on their actual or potential value and assigns them to different program tiers. Pamper the top tier Gold members typically receive additional hard benefits every time they spend with you. Provide a bonus that accelerates their rate of earning. 11 Ignore the bottom tier These members in your database aren’t spending enough to warrant any investment by you in the relationship. Be extremely careful about incenting them. Loyaltylandscape with Rick Ferguson The joy of tiers Differentiating allows you to apply various levels of treatment and funding in a dynamic model to deliver the highest degree of reward and recognition to those customers who most deserve it. L oyalty marketers understand that not all customers are created equal. A welldesigned program segments members based on their actual or potential value and assigns them to different program tiers— the Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of traditional loyalty programs. Each membership tier carries incremental benefits, with the top tier reflecting those members who consistently deliver the highest value. When you first launch your program, you may not have enough information to tier the membership base. As you collect transactions and data, you can determine which members may be worthy of top-tier status. The old Pareto 80-20 rule may be a cliché, but like all good clichés, it has some basis in truth—so put the top 20 percent of your members into the top tier, and you’ll be on the right track. If you decide to tier your membership base, you can proceed in one of two ways. The first way is to publicly name and identify the tiers within the published structure of your program. You can name your tiers and assign special privileges to each. You can issue identification cards that correspond to each tier. The advantage to this approach is that both which members earn benefits based on their tier. When members approach a new tier threshold, you can send them special offers to motivate them to spend enough to reach the higher level of benefits. This ability makes tiering one of the most versatile tools in your loyalty toolbox. If you do decide to tier your membership, you’ll achieve maximum benefit by implementing a separate marketing strategy for each tier. Here’s how. Pamper gold members We’ve looked at a lot of loyalty program databases, and every one showed us that a small number of customers delivers a disproportionately high value to the sponsor. Those customers at the highest end of the value spectrum – typically your top 2-5 percent - should receive special status in your program. While you can call this top tier whatever you want, we’ll use the generic phrase gold member to describe this group. After all, these clients are worth their weight in gold. The pattern of transactions you observe in your database will determine where you set the threshold for gold membership. You can set seasonal thresholds, or establish them based on the member’s lifetime value to your bottom line. Gold simply haven’t performed well enough to warrant full gold status. Silver tier strategy is similar to that of your gold tier. You can apply an earning bonus similar to that of the gold group, but you might apply it differently. While gold members always earn the accelerated bonus, silver members only earn the bonus when you want to extend it. This approach allows you to test the upside potential of the silvers. Can they give you more spend? Will they do so in return for an accelerated earning rate? Historically, the maximum potential in loyalty programs resides within the silver tier. While you should also extend soft benefits to the silver tier, they should be less comprehensive than those you give to the golds. Remember, soft benefits must be exclusive, and you should confine them to those member segments most likely to maintain the required spending level. Reward bronze members Bronze members typically fall below silver status. Unlike the top two segments, this group is hard to pin down. These “members” may be only occasional visitors to your part of town. Some, however, could be locals who only visit you infrequently or are otherwise devoting at least a portion of If every member receives the same level of benefits, then you’ll over-fund some segments and under-fund others. you and your members can use the tier structure as a public score keeping mechanism by which both sides understand the value of the relationship. Alternatively, if the expense or complexity of launching a tiered program strategy appears too vexing, you can tier members behind the scenes—in your database. This method allows you to enjoy the benefits of a tiering strategy without the marketing expense. And what are those benefits? Tiering allows you to extract maximum marketing advantage from your database. You can alter program rules to change the rate at members typically receive additional hard benefits every time they spend with you. You accomplish this through the use of a bonus that accelerates their rate of earning. Soft benefits are especially important to this segment; gold members are less motivated by hard-dollar rewards than they are by the special treatment and privileges associated with the gold tier. Bonus silver members Those members within that top 20 percent bucket who haven’t yet achieved gold tier status we classify as silver members. They’re good, high-value members; they your category spend to your competitors. If you can identify this segment of the group, it’s a target of opportunity. The bronze tier represents the bulk of your database, often as much as 60 percent of total program membership. You typically don’t extend soft benefits to this group, as it has yet to demonstrate a spending pattern that justifies the added privileges. Deliver hard benefits to this tier at your normal funding rate. You can introduce the occasional promotional or partner bonus to bronzes to determine if they have incremental value to give you. As they respond with increased spend, you can increase the bonuses. If a member segment remains unresponsive to bonuses, then you’re out nothing but the communications cost. If they remain cold after several attempts at enticing them through bonuses, then drop them from active communications and save the money for messages with a greater return on investment. Ignore lead members The remainder of members in your database isn’t spending enough to warrant any investment by you in the relationship. We call this group lead members because over-funding in this segment can drag your loyalty program into the red. Some programs allow leads to earn hard benefits in the hope that this group will come back and spend a second or third time. If they don’t, the benefits break. If they do return, then you may have set those members on the path to greater value. If you aggressively enroll a lot of lead names into your program, then you may want to withhold any communications or identity cards until you see them a second time. Some marketers even refuse to enroll first-time visitors. Regardless of your strategy, some customers will always bring up the rear in terms of value. Be extremely careful about incenting them. They don’t visit your store for a reason— maybe they only come to town once a year, for instance— and your loyalty program is unlikely to make a substantial impact. Tiering works because it allows you to allocate your program resources according to value. If every member receives the same level of benefits, then you’ll over-fund some segments and underfund others. Tiering allows you to apply different levels of treatment and funding in a dynamic model to deliver the highest degree of reward and recognition to those customers who most deserve it. It’s a core loyalty best practice that will serve both you and your customers well. Rick Ferguson is the Editorial Director for COLLOQUY. E-mail him at rick.ferguson@ colloquy.com. 12 Click! September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca profiting from the online Revolution Your Online Conversion Challenge with Raquel Hirsch débuts this October Vancouver-based WiderFunnel Marketing (www.Widerfunnel.com) is a unique marketing services company that helps clients convert their Web site traffic to actions that generate desired results. “Our clients come from a wide variety of industries and have many different objectives,” explains Raquel Hirsch, the firm’s president. “However, they all share one thing: the desire of getting more action on their Web site. It’s really about ROI. When you think about it, you’re spending a million dollars to drive 100,000 people to your Web site, and 10,000 of them buy. If you get 20,000 of them to buy, your ROI has just doubled.” She and her business partner, Chris Goward, both cut their teeth in the direct marketing and database marketing industry. The services they provide today on the Web are firmly rooted in testing—something that is very familiar to direct marketers. “The whole idea is transferrable: You run different variations of a direct mail piece and compare them against the control and then you can draw conclusions as to which one draws the highest conversion rate,” she says. “This same method also applies to landing page and Web page optimization, where a percentage of the traffic gets to see the control—that which the client has already posted— and the rest of the visitors see the variations created by WiderFunnel. In real time, we are able to compare what the conversion rates of the variations look like to the control version.” Raquel handles the firm’s customer acquisition, business development and works with each client to develop an overall strategy. Once a client is ready to sign off on it, Chris oversees the operation and execution of the strategy working with a small team of specialists. “I developed our processes ensuring we follow the Kaizen Method of continuous improvement and our processes follow statistically valid methods so that we are not just guessing, we actually know that what we are recommending to clients is actually going to improve their results,” he emphasizes. Prospective clients approach the firm about a variety of pains; from driving their lead generation conversion rate; or if they’re selling product online, to increasing their e-commerce conversion rate. Often clients are looking to quantitatively validate usability tests, something Chris and Raquel say should not be relied upon in isolation to make decisions about optimal Web page design, rather the results should be used as hypotheses for testing. “There is a statistical method running behind the madness,” notes Raquel. “It isn’t that we develop an opinion and say, ‘This is the winner.’ The tool (Google Website Optimizer) tells us when the experiment has completed and the results are statistically valid. Marketers often make decisions about Web design based on opinion and gut feel. Opinion now is completely outside the equation. We are testing a hypothesis and letting your own customers by virtue of coming to your Web site and by clicking or not clicking on what’s presented to them, determine what the optimal design is. That is a huge leap ahead for marketers who spend a lot of time defending their decisions based on aesthetic reasons. For us, it doesn’t Chris Goward and Raquel Hirsch “divide and matter what we like, it matters what conquer.”She helps clients develop the strategy and he customers demonstrably show oversees its execution. you.” client actions. Chris explains: “Within these Chris says that tools are now available that make running such experiments really five factors, there is a series of questions that we ask and use to evaluate each Web simple. Google Website Optimizer, which page. Taking the principles we’ve used from is free, is one that he recommends comother pages and from best practices, we can panies experiment with. (WiderFunnel is a evaluate each page based on its own merits Google authorized consultant.) At the same time, WiderFunnel has devel- and come up with a hypothesis that we can test and validate.” oped a proprietary tool called LIFT, which includes five factors that the firm knows from Readers can learn more about optimizing experience, directly influence conversion their Web site conversion rates by consulting rates. The value proposition, the urgency of Raquel Hirsch’s new column, Your Online the presentation, the presentation’s clarity, Conversion Challenge, in the October Click! any anxiety, or distraction, and/or any lack section of Direct Marketing. of focus on the page, exerts an impact on Marketing automation program announces new capabilities VIENNA, VA– Eloqua, a leading supplier of automated demand generation applications and expertise for business-tobusiness (B2B) marketers, has announced new customer programs and integration capabilities that accelerate and simplify the deployment of the company’s marketing automation platform, Eloqua Conversion Suite. The new offerings, based on more than 500 customer implementations, ensure that customers experience a fast and successful launch, while also gaining access to best practices in demand generation and lead management that are key to long term success. Deployment options include: • Eloqua SmartStart – For customers who want unparalleled time-to-value, Eloqua’s accelerated five-day launch program is designed to accelerate the adoption of not only the application, but also the integrated marketing and sales processes. Hosted at either Eloqua or a certified partner facility, the SmartStart program ensures that in just five days customers are fully trained and Microsoft Advertising announces new ad network Pingdom studies social network adoption Toronto—Microsoft Advertising has announced the launch of Drive Performance Media (“DRIVEpm”) – a new premium advertising network available to Canadian marketers that includes the top 40 Canadian Web sites (comScore Media Metrix, Total Audience Canada/US). In Canada, DRIVEpm reaches 60% of online consumers — totalling 14.2 unique visitors across a network of premium Canadian and global Web sites (comScore Media Metrix, Advertising Networks, Total Audience, May 2008). To help advertisers engage their ideal audiences, DRIVEpm provides robust targeting, tracking, measurement and reporting technologies that help deliver and optimize targeted campaigns. A full customer service team is also available to help advertisers connect with audiences, understand their behaviour, and translate that information into decisions and strategies that can help improve campaign ROI. A recent mini-study by Pingdom examines each major social network’s proportion of Web users per country based on the recently launched Google Insights for Search tool. Although US-based Facebook has more members at home than in any other country, there's more proportional "interest" in it in Turkey, based on Google searches for the term. In second place is Canada, followed by the UK, South Africa, and Colombia. For MySpace, the U.S. ranks at the top for regional interest, followed by Puerto Rico, Australia, the UK, and Malaysia. Interestingly, many American-founded social networks are significantly more popular overseas than at home. Friendster, which recently affirmed its focus on Asian countries, gathers the most “interest” in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Myanmar, respectively. ready to: • Execute an integrated e-mail and Web campaign; • Gain valuable customer insight with Web site tracking and lead profiling; • Ensure high e-mail deliverability with dedicated IPs and custom branding; • Manage customer communication preferences with subscription management; • Improve marketing and sales alignment with real-time synching of marketing and sales data; • Qualify and rank leads with Eloqua Co-dynamic™ Lead Scoring; and • Apply the marketing best practices learned from one-on-one consulting with Eloqua experts. • One-Day Deployment – Ideal for certified partners and power users, this rapid launch program provides access to the environment within hours. This option helps facilitate the continued growth of Eloqua’s global partner ecosystem, while giving product experts more flexibility and control over the implementation of their application. • One-Click CRM Implementation –Developed using best practices learned through hundreds of CRM configurations, Eloqua’s CRM configuration wizard guides customers through the process of synchronizing marketing and sales data, putting actionable insight into the hands of sales organizations with just one click. iProspect announces new offices Search engine marketing firm iProspect has announced the launch of two new offices in Belgium and Canada. “What we’re trying to do is establish as large as reasonably possible geographic footprint,” said Robert Murray, president, iProspect.com, which is part of the Isobar global network. IProspect Canada is part of the Torontobased agency Mindblossm, which was acquired last year by the Aegis Group, Isobar’s parent company. Belgium-based search marketing agency Extenseo, which was also acquired by the Aegis Group last year, has been re branded as iProspect Belgium. All iProspect Canada and iProspect Belgium employees will go through a rigorous certification process, Murray explained. “We’ve got 15 markets around the globe where we have feet on the street that are trained in our methodologies, use our tools, understand our systems and processes, and have gone through a rigorous training program before they’re allowed to use the iProspect brand in their market,” Murray said. In addition to Canada and Belgium, iProspect also has offices in Boston, San Francisco, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Interactive application exposes brand to millions TORONTO- Ipsos Interactive Services, a global leader in online survey-based market research, has announced the release of Poll Predictor, an interactive tool designed for Facebook. The game challenges users to correctly guess the percentage of “yes” answers to all types of fun questions initially put to Ipsos panelists in the US. Participants can guess, for example, just how many Americans make their bed in the mornings, what percentage believe in UFOs, and what proportion would tell on a cheating friend. The tool was spearheaded by an idea from Senior Interactive Media Analyst Andres Burgos, supplemented by data tested by Director of Panel Analytics Annie Pettit. “I wanted to create an interactive online game that encompasses elements of market research. This tool goes beyond just advertising on Facebook; Poll Predictor provides the opportunity to engage with our current panelists from i-Say and also has the potential to attract new members. We think it helps to differentiate us from other market research firms,” comments Burgos. dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 13 Knock! Knock! Who’s there? On-demand lead scoring can tell you how to prioritize and treat each incoming lead to increase your sales conversions and customer value. W By Paul McConville hen faced with questions about what you’re getting for your marketing spend, direct marketing provides some concrete results but you still may not be able to answer four crucial questions: Exactly who is calling your company right now or providing their contact information online? Can you actually reach the people who provide their contact info online? Which incoming leads should be your top priority? Which of your products or services is most relevant to each incoming lead? Although you may do a phenomenal job of target marketing, when it comes to deciding which inbound leads to talk to first and how to adjust your messages and offers to them, you may just be guessing. Without asking some important qualifying questions, it’s difficult to ensure your best salespeople receive the leads that are most likely to convert, place higher-value orders, and become loyal customers. information verification, then you won’t even know which leads can be reached—making the effort worthless. If your scoring solution doesn’t include up-to-date consumer contact information, then your ability to assign scores to your leads is compromised. Finally, if your scores aren’t customized to your business, then their predictive power will lack punch. Off-the-shelf lead scoring systems typically rely on consumer profiles that aren’t even tailored to an industry, let alone a company, so they tend to provide uneven results when used to drive real-time decisions. A real life example will help illustrate how such intelligence works: A credit card issuer’s advertising drives prospects to its 800 numbers and Web sites. In sub-second time, incoming calls are scored according to their potential value. High-value, likelyto-convert prospects are immediately routed to the best agents, eliminating wait times and improving service. The callers who are least likely to convert are routed to an interactive voice response system, allowing the likely-to-convert callers to get more attention from agents. On-demand lead scoring Through an approach called on-demand lead scoring, it is possible to automatically know the answers to the questions above, at the instant leads contact Exceed customer expectations The credit card issuer also uses lead scores before the start of each call to determine which card is best suited to the caller, regardless of which offer spurred WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR MEDIA BUY? NOW YOU CAN GET INSPIRING RETURNS EVERY TIME WITH YAHOO! DIRECT RESPONSE. When ROI is driving your campaign, you need to reach your target in the most efficient way possible. Whether you’re motivated by clicks, conversions or impressions, Yahoo! Direct Response will work to your target metrics on one of Canada’s premium ad networks. YAHOO! DIRECT RESPONSE IS: PERFORMANCE DRIVEN: We auto-optimize your buy based on your ideal metrics to achieve your goals MARKET-BASED: You’ll never pay more than market price for inventory HIGH REACH: A simple way to access large audiences across Yahoo! and our publisher partners Calls whose scores indicate purchasing probability can be moved to the head of the queue and passed to top-performing sales agents. you. By combining your customer information with consumer data and predictive analytics, lead scoring can tell you how to prioritize and treat each incoming lead to increase your sales conversions and customer value. The predictive power of your lead scoring will depend upon how much it is tailored to your specific business, your objectives and your existing knowledge of your customers. Depending on your needs, you can develop scores with detailed household information—including demographics, lifestyle and behavioral data. Then, incorporate your own data; including sales history, product and channel usage. This blend of information will deliver razor-sharp insight on which leads are most likely to convert, which are potentially most valuable and which will respond to different types of offers or messages. Three keys to insight First, you have to be able to access and leverage this insight on demand, at the moment in which you’re interacting with leads. In the past, custom-made customer insight platforms haven’t easily afforded this capability. Second, your lead scoring is only as good as the information that drives it. If it doesn’t include contact the call. It’s an improvement to the caller experience that surprises customers by exceeding their expectations. Better still, the company reaps higher conversion rates and revenue with the same (more productive) staff. The credit card issuer’s Web leads can be verified and prioritized the same way. Before the sales team receives a lead, it’s automatically scored based on verified contact information and the credit card issuer’s likelihood of converting customers who fit the lead’s profile. The sales team is now able to prioritize those leads that are most valuable to them, promoting the most promising ones to the top of the queue for an immediate outbound call. The sales team begins each call with an actionable strategy: As each lead arrives, its score determines which product is most suitable, triggering a customized script. While the top leads get first attention, others are prioritized for follow up. Strategies like these help the credit card issuer take better advantage of its advertising spend. Bottom line: with on-demand lead scoring you can focus on the leads that are important to you and get more results from your marketing dollar. Paul McConville is director, Consumer-Facing Services for TARGUSinfo. Yahoo! Direct Response adds up to more control over your media buy and more achievable campaign targets. Now that’s self-help! BOOK YOUR BUY TODAY. Call Aileen Hernandez at 1-888-924-6620 or email [email protected] DIRECT RESPONSE advertising.yahoo.ca Join us at VROOM! Yahoo! Canada Direct Response and Search Seminar Wednesday, September 24th, 8:30 am – 1 pm, in Toronto Register FREE and get more details: [email protected] Limited Seating 14 Mail Equipment & Systems September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca Neopost acquires PFE to complement its successful folding and inserting range The DS-140 is a new high-end folding and inserting solution from Neopost. With its touch-screen PC interface, it is ideal for organizations demanding maximum productivity and flexibility. MARKHAM, ON—A key player in the dynamic mailroom equipment market and #2 worldwide, Neopost offers customers some of the most advanced, fully compliant and value-added solutions for both incoming and outgoing mail. Offerings include a wide range of mailing, folding and inserting, addressing, shipping solutions, traceability for letters/ parcels, as well as consulting, maintenance and financing solutions. Neopost folding and inserting solutions for the desktop and office environments are already world-class with acclaimed design, ergonomics and productivity. Now its growth continues with the acquisition of UK-based PFE Inc. and subsequent launch of the DS-100 and DS-140. These additions to the Document Systems line will strengthen Neopost’s presence in the higher-volume segment of the mailing industry. These new, highly modular tabletop folder inserters target customers with applications requiring maximum provides for very rapid changeover between jobs with different settings minimizing unproductive downtime. In addition, the DS-140 boasts a PC-driven touch-screen for ease of use and offers high security, outstanding productivity and intelligent engineering designed to increase reliability and reduce downtime. Integrated software suite provides one solution for all automated document factory management needs High-speed inserting system features intelligent material handling NORTH YORK, ON —Böwe Bell & Howell, a leading provider of document management and postal solutions, has introduced its new Turbo® Premium high-speed inserting system. Employing new, intelligent materialhandling technology, the system is designed to combine maximum inserting speeds with the highest levels of efficiency. Its design adds to the existing modular architecture and advanced document-tracking system for optimized processing integrity and security. The system has automated changeover capability and can process dual-input print streams at cycle speeds up to 22,000 envelopes per hour. productivity and flexibility. The DS-100 and DS-140’s high collation and constant document speed, combined with their parallel inserts and document folding handling, ensure high productivity throughput rate —regardless of the number of documents being inserted. The automatic feeder and folder adjustment NORTH YORK, ON —Böwe Bell & Howell has introduced an integrated enterprise management software suite for companies that are looking to increase overall quality and efficiency while lowering the cost of doing business. Böwe One integrates 28 of the industry’s leading technologies into one modular and scalable solution, and will allow customers to manage every aspect of their mail production environment It optimizes the forces and transport of each set based on its individual composition. This design provides control of the set throughout the inserting process, resulting in significantly fewer stops, higher operating efficiency and 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1820 North York, ON M2M 4G3 Fax: 1866.588.3291 To learn more about our products and flexible service offerings, contact (Sales) John Wilbrink ( 1.800.889.6245 x 2014 * [email protected] (Service) Leighann Paulionis (1.800.889.6245 x 2023 * [email protected] greater production. The inserter intelligently assembles and folds each document set based on the programming of the printed barcode read or database file lookup, then selectively adds enclosures such as business reply envelopes, marketing offers or supporting material to each set, and inserts the complete group into an envelope for mailing. The system transports the folded document sets and enclosures on edge (vertically) throughout the inserting process. This transport design provides control, security and integrity at the highest processing speeds. It also eliminates stack weight on enclosure and envelope feeding for reliability and capacity. It can accommodate a variety of input feeders, including 1-up or 2-up cut-sheet feeders, and pin-fed or pin-less 1-up or 2-up cutters. Available fold types include Z, half, double parallel, letter fold and cross fold. from data manipulation and postage management to enterprise workflow management, including piece- and job-level tracking. For mailing operations of all sizes, the Böwe One solution is designed to enable users in operations, marketing, IT, customer service and accounting departments to manage, automate and raise productivity in the most secure and transparent manner possible. Challenge line of inserters permits customized configuration Distributed by Montreal’s Canadian Mailing, every inserter in the Challenge line is available with mix and match technology. This permits users to configure the machine with one of four different insert feeder types and provides the flexibility to process everything from glossy inserts to booklets. The bottom side friction feeder is appropriate for thicker inserts. When equipped with the optional "lugs", the bottom friction feeder will feed inserts up to 112 ". Electronic miss and double feed detection is standard. As with all Challenge feeders, set-up is quick and intuitive, keeping overall set-up time to a minimum. The Top Side Friction is the workhorse of feeders that will cleanly and consistently feed a majority inserts. The top feed design also allows for the feeding of open edge inserts without the worry of catching the open edge and destroying the insert. For those glossy inserts that just won't run on a friction feeder, the option of a vacuum feeder is available. The insert is pulled into a waiting position by vacuum, then positively transferred to the main transport by a series of grippers. The suction drum feeder offers the same user friendly design and quick set up. Mail Equipment & Systems dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 15 Smaller footprint means inserting system costs less New from Pitney Bowes,t he Flowmaster® RS inserting system gives you the same speed as competitive products, and the same ability to run different applications. Yet it has a smaller footprint on your shop floor, and it actually costs less. The Pitney Bowes FlowMaster® RS features new modular rotary and friction feeders that can be swapped in less than 30 minutes – no scheduling, no specialized machinery or hoists required, just swap and go at full speed. Combine that with the FlowMaster’s proven servo motor technology and you’ve got the power to process virtually any insert material, at any time. With servo inside, the FlowMaster® RS helps you meet SLAs faster and expand value-add offerings with match mailings. You’ll have superior platform flexibility to process letters and flats on the same system, to meet even the most challenging application needs. And to further increase productivity you can customize your Flowmaster® RS with valueadd options like Speed Sort Output Conveyor, Flexible Bindery Interface, a Bulk Feeder, Camera Scanning and much more. High-speed inserter enables poly and paper wrapping New to the Canadian market is the exclusive Insource relationship with Buhrs. Buhrs has a reputation for high-speed inserting and both poly and paper wrapping. The BB700 also offers the intelligence required to ensure the integrity of each mail piece, an important prerequisite for all transactional and increasingly, Direct Mail applications, as well. With a product size range from C6/ DL to B4 and a mechanical speed of 16,000 products per hour, the BB700 sets new standards in the multi-format segment. The BB700 allows the operator to insert products with a total thickness of up to 15mm. This system combines high productivity and flexibility, in terms of both mailing formats and mailing applications. Kirk-Rudy remains the primary mailing equipment resource with new technology for UVInkjet printing and camera systems for matching, read & print and verification. The Pitney Bowes FPS RS Inserting System expands material processing by combining rotary and friction feeders and increases operator productivity with a high capacity bulk loader. It process letters up to 16,000 MP/HR and flats up to 9,000 MP/HR. Feeder/dispenser integrates with most mailing bases Available from Montreal’s Canadian Mailing, the V-1000 from Streamfeeder is the newest generation of continuous feeding technology in the manufacturer’s Value Series. It features rapid and toolless setup, quick make-ready, and easy maintenance. It is designed to feed a wide variety of materials and provide exceptional alignment qualities. Product applications include: mail processing, ink jet bases, labelling bases, tabber bases, folding machines, and reinforcing machines. Movable feed belts allow the operator to position belts for optimum feeding. The V-1000’s movable product separators enable product separation either on or off the belts and the ability to handle products that vary in thickness. This feeder features individual side guide position adjustment and allows side guides to easily pass over belts. The quick change carriage enables faster belt replacement and the quick access service panel provides easy access to controls and electronics. The V-1000 includes a Universal Electronic Interface kit that enables the product to interface the start/ stop function with most systems and the ability to integrate with most mailing bases. Canadian PRINTER Canadian PRINTER M A G A Z INE Canada’s only print buying conference Who: Come face-to-face with hundreds of millions of dollars in print buying power. Meet print buyers from consumer product companies, ad agencies, and communications companies from coast to coast. Take advantage of the intimate surroundings of The Carlu and get to know some of the most powerful print buyers in Canada. CORPORATE SPONSORS Marketers, Graphic Designers, and Production personnel What: Making print more innovative, effective, efficient, and green Where: The Carlu - Toronto When: September 25, 2008 For more information, visit www.canadianprinter.com or email [email protected] MEDIA SPONSORS September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca 16 Your consumers are watching! C M Y CM MY CY CMY K And don't think for one minute that your competition isn't paying attention. Respect consumer choice, protect the environment and meet industry standards. Use the CMA Do Not Contact list for all your mail, fax and telephone marketing campaigns. It’s the way of good business. For more information and to order the Do Not Contact List contact: Canadian Marketing Association E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 416.644.3760 72472119 Mike Kemp/courtesy of Getty Images Column dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 article8 highlights Slow economies equal lower marketing budgets Intelligent use of your database can make you more efficient, creating more marketing ROI and even justifying increased spending. Think small Segment your customers and target your message with greater precision. Understand “what” and “why” factors Develop basic customer models that identify important criteria, such as the level of commitment to purchasing a key product or service. Identify “why” customers make a purchase. 17 The takeaway Using database information in new and creative ways can provide the ammunition you need in a marketplace where companies are battling hard for every consumer dollar. unlockyour data with Rick Brough Using your database to stretch budgets and improve metrics Intelligent use of your database can make you more effective and efficient—creating more marketing ROI S low economies tend to result in lower marketing budgets, often leaving companies with difficult decisions about how best to apply the funds that are available. Making the wrong choices cannot only exacerbate current economic problems, it can also send your company spiralling downward toward longer-term performance shortcomings. So if we agree that it’s important to market your company on a consistent basis, but also recognize the reality of smaller budgets, how do we best spend the money to generate maximum results? Intelligent use of your database can make you more effective and efficient, creating more marketing ROI and even helping to justify increased spending. Here are some ways to help your marketing program move faster in a slow economy. Think small Don’t confuse “thinking small” with “small thinking.” What I mean is that you can cut expenses significantly by mining your database for information about your best customers and prospects. Focus on the process and the analytical aspects of your data; effectively segmenting your customers and targeting your message failings among direct marketers and it leads to wasted spending. Buyers who appear similar in their purchasing patterns can have widely varying reasons for making those purchases. Gaining a better understanding of the attitudes, preferences and motivation that drive particular purchases can help improve customer relationships and guide future marketing promotions. Look to outside sources if you lack the internal expertise. Forget unit costs One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to get caught in old unit pricing models. Your goal isn’t to reach more people at a lower cost per thousand; your goal is to reach the right people at a lower total cost of acquisition. A unit cost mentality inhibits companies from taking full advantage of new print personalization technologies that enable true 1-to-1 marketing. Obsessed with directives to drive down costs, marketers sometimes lose sight of the big picture; especially when it comes to data-driven print programs. The key is to evaluate response against total costs to determine whether returns justify the higher unit costs of more personalized promotions. Here is an illustration of how • 10% response rate = 1,250 • Revenue: 1,250 @ $100 average sale = $125,000 • Production costs as % of revenue = 10% • Marketing ROI = 10x • Cost per response = $10.00 • Gross profit = $112,500 Refine what already exists Your goal isn’t to reach more people at a lower cost per thousand; your goal is to reach the right people at a lower total cost of acquisition. with greater precision. Use demographic, psycho-graphic and socio-demographic data to zero in on the people most likely to respond to your campaigns, and identify those customers who will provide the greatest return. Even if your company lacks an elaborate CRM system, you likely still have the ability to develop basic customer models that identify important criteria, such as the level of commitment to purchasing a key product or service. This allows a marketing organization to at least work with the “what” factor and provides a starting point. Even more important is the ability to identify “why” customers make a purchase. Not understanding the why aspect is one of the most common the total cost concept works: Basic Targeting/Basic Personalization • Production costs: 25,000 pieces @ 40¢ each = $10,000 • 3% response rate = 750 • Revenue: 750 @ $100 average sale = $75,000 • Production costs as % of revenue = 13.3% • Marketing ROI = 7.5x • Cost per response = $13.33 • Gross profit = $65,000 High-level targeting/individual customization • Production costs: 12,500 pieces @ $1.00 each = $12,500 Often, companies already have data generating systems in place that can be tweaked to economically build even greater sales. An obvious example is the retail checkout system—both bricksand-mortar and online versions. We’re all familiar with cash registers that can print an instant coupon based on your purchase. You buy cat food and you get a coupon for cat litter. Or the online system that suggests a blouse or shirt for a suit you purchased. In short, the buyer’s action triggers a second opportunity to cost-effectively make a pitch for another product or service. There is also a great deal of data to be mined from a visitor’s Web site activity or the fact that they opened a particular article from an electronic newsletter. By knowing their interests, you have an opportunity to create and distribute a follow-up communication that is more likely to be favourably received. Many companies have these types of database opportunities available but don’t take advantage of their budget-stretching potential. Get creative with channels Virtually every study shows that multiple channels work better than one. Get a little creative in both identifying new channels and building better synergies within the ones you already use. Get your database act together and pay attention to other success factors such as timing. For example, a Dannon Activia yogurt campaign that tightly coordinated 3 million demographically targeted direct mail pieces with freestanding inserts, in-store sampling and television advertising, resulted in a 78 percent sales increase from participating stores. No one complained about cost. Perhaps you can get outside the box in other ways that won’t break your budget. Would data-driven, multi-version scripting for your call center produce better results? Or would a personalized URL (pURL) included with a direct mail or e-mail campaign lift response at little extra cost? There’s only one way to find out. And don’t forget to measure Your gut feeling about how a campaign is working isn’t what senior managers (translation: budget setters) want to hear. There is constantly growing pressure for marketing performance metrics and you simply can’t neglect to measure the success of your campaigns. Fortunately, technologies are available for both traditional and new media that make this task easier than ever before. Just be sure to incorporate them into your data-driven campaigns, and then use the results to support the value you deliver to your organization. The takeaway As a marketing professional, you know this is not the time to stop marketing. Rather, it’s a time to use all the tools and knowledge in your arsenal to market smarter and deliver the most return on your investment. Using database information in new and creative ways can provide the ammunition you need in a marketplace where companies are battling hard for every consumer dollar. Rick Brough is director of consulting for Transcontinental Database Services, which offers a full range of database marketing services ranging from strategic guidance to tactical execution. Visit www. transcontinental-printing.com for more information. September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca 18 Resource Directory MAILING MACHINES INC.qxd DISTRIBUTION / DELIVERY SERVICES MAILING EQUIPMENT Remail – an alternative mailing service utilizing the delivery services of a Postal Authority other then that of the originating country, Benefits - faster delivery times to points worldwide, cheaper postal rates, increased control over the handling of your mail Aeromail Worldwide Inc - we are an international remail company located in Mississauga, Ontario. Aeromail has been serving the international mailing needs of business clients since 1993. We provide professional international document and merchandise mailing services at the most competitive pricing, while ensuring your international mailing requirements are met on schedule - everytime. If you are interested in reducing your current international mailing costs, while enhancing delivery quality, please contact Mark Fagan at Aeromail Worldwide. aeromail worldwide International Mailing Services 2781 Thamesgate Drive Mississauga ON L4T 1G5 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1820 North York, ON M2M 4G3 Fax: 1866.588.3291 To learn more about our products and flexible service offerings, contact (Sales) John Wilbrink ( 1.800.889.6245 x 2014 * [email protected] (Service) Leighann Paulionis (1.800.889.6245 x 2023 * [email protected] Tel 905-678-2040 or 1-800-618-7615 Fax 905-678-2420 [email protected] www.aeromail.net LIST SERVICES DM CREATIVE Manufacturers & Reps ManuData 9 9 9 9 9 109,000 Canadian Manufacturers 82,000 Canadian Contacts 620,000 U.S. Manufacturers 520,000 U.S. Contacts 19,000 Manufacturers Reps 225,000 North American Manufacturers Email Addresses* 440,000 North American Manufacturers Fax Numbers* *usage policy and conditions apply. Call for details! 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Contact Jannett Lewis or Kim Young to Resolve your marketing needs. dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 19 Quality Data Makes a Difference! The Best Business & Consumer Databases in Canada and the U.S. • Direct Marketing • Email Marketing • Data Processing Call 800-873-6183 or Visit infoCANADA.ca STRICTLY BUSINESS A5Data 9 9 9 9 1.6 1.1 14 8.2 Million Canadian Businesses Million Canadian Contacts Million U.S. Businesses Million U.S. Contacts 4.7 Million North American Email Addresses* Opt-In E-mail List Aquisition/Management 3.8 Million North American Fax Numbers* *usage policy and conditions apply. Call for details! Verified and Updated Daily * Accuracy Guaranteed Visit A5Data.com or call 1.866.936.8484 Reach over 2,000,000 Canadian consumers with TargetSource® TargetSource® delivers superior results and exceptional value Canada’s largest consumer responder database – over 2 million Canadian consumers and 1000+ data selects for targeting • 350,000 permission based email addresses • Package Insert Programs to over 1 million households annually • Modeling, profiling and research services • Find out more Contact Tony Rizzuto at 1-800-603-4555 ext. 2290 | [email protected]. www.i-com.com Reach the right people. Achieve remarkable results WHY ISN’T YOUR COMPANY LISTED? Contact Peter O’Desse at 800.668.1838 or [email protected] Resource Directory list services September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca 20 ResouRce DiRectoRy LIST SERVICES CALL CENTRE PRODUCTS / SERVICES Telemarketing Experts Contact: Diane Pinto 416-406-4420 [email protected] It’s about RESULTS! 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Contact Peter O’Desse at 800.668.1838 or [email protected] tŚĞŶLJŽƵĞŶŐĂŐĞdŝŐĞƌdĞůĂƐLJŽƵƌĐĂůů ĐĞŶƚĞƌƐĞƌǀŝĐĞƉƌŽǀŝĚĞƌ͕ƌĞƐƚĂƐƐƵƌĞĚ LJŽƵƌĞdžƉĞĐƚĂƚŝŽŶƐǁŝůůďĞĞdžĐĞĞĚĞĚ͘ zŽƵǁĂŶƚdŝŐĞƌdĞůƚŽĂŶƐǁĞƌƚŚĂƚ ĐĂůůǁŚĞŶLJŽƵǁĂŶƚƚŽ͗ /ŶĐƌĞĂƐĞƌĞǀĞŶƵĞ KƵƌĐŽŶǀĞƌƐŝŽŶƌĂƚĞƐ ĂƌĞĂŵŽŶŐƚŚĞŚŝŐŚĞƐƚ ŝŶƚŚĞŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ eMAIL MARKETING >ŽǁĞƌĐŽƐƚƐ ϭϮtZt/EE/E' >Kd/KE^K^ddKK^d WƌŽǀŝĚĞďĞƚƚĞƌĐƵƐƚŽŵĞƌ 'ĞŶĞƌĂƚĞƋƵĂůŝĨŝĞĚůĞĂĚƐ /ŶĐƌĞĂƐĞLJŽƵƌĚŽŶŽƌĚĂƚĂďĂƐĞ DĂdžŝŵŝnjĞĞǀĞƌLJŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ >>h^EKt dK&/EKhd ,Ktt>/sZtKZ> >^^Z^h>d^͘ KEEdt/d,KE&/E͊ dƵƌŶĞǀĞƌLJĐŽŶƚĂĐƚŝŶƚŽĂƌĞǀĞŶƵĞ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJƚŽĚĂLJ͊ ϭͲϴϲϲͲϱϮϭͲϬϯϲϲ KZs/^/dǁǁǁ͘ƚŝŐĞƌƚĞů͘ĐŽŵ DATABASE MARKETING dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 21 Contact Bob Coles 416.932.9555, Ext. 103 [email protected] Cornerstone's mission is to help our Clients find the best prospects available and to be the best in the world at managing and enhancing their customer data. We invite you to call us to explore how we can make your customer experience a long-lasting one. 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T: 416.490.8030 1.800.508.3941 F: 416.490.8455 E: [email protected] Resource Directory DIRECT MAIL SERVICES DATABASE MARKETING September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca 22 Resource Directory FULL SERVICE OPERATIONS 2565 dmworks ad r5:Layout 1 8/21/08 10:22 AM Page 1 Introducing dmworks.ca, the do it yourself direct mail tool. %PINF"WF5PSPOUP0/.#: 5FM 'BY &NBJMJOGP!DPNQMFUFNBJMJOHDPN 5PMM'SFF XXXDPNQMFUFNBJMJOHDPN *OLKFU&OWFMPQFTPS%JSFDU*NQSFTTJPO .BJM.FSHFBOE1FSTPOBMJ[FE-BTFS1SJOUJOH *OTFSUJOH"VUPNBUFEBOE.BOVBM "EESFTT7FSJàDBUJPO$PSSFDUJPOBOE1PTUBM4PSUBUJPO "EESFTTFE"ENBJMBOE1VCMJDBUJPO.BJM %BUB&OUSZBOE%BUBCBTF.BOBHFNFOU 1PMZCBHHJOH5VCJOH)BOE"TTFNCMJOH,JUT 1IPUPDPQZJOH$PMMBUJOH4UBQMJOH'PMEJOH1SJOUJOH Est. 1951 4-226 Industrial Parkway North Aurora, Ontario L4G 4C2 DATA SERVICES INKJET LASER INSERT AFFIX POLYBAG FOLD & SLIT FULFILLMENT CO-PACK www.andrewsmailing.com • tel: 416.798.7557 email: [email protected] With dmworks.ca from Pitney Bowes you can create, produce, manage and distribute customised direct mail campaigns or brochures right from your desktop. 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High Quality Leadership From Around the World & 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes Platinum Sponsor: Gold Sponsor: Silver Sponsors: Produced by: Media Sponsor: dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ September 2008 25 inthemail This column is sponsored by Canada Post. Bolstering the brand by thinking inside the box Integrated B2B campaign promotes Siemens Canada’s floating interactive theatre of automation Vuksanovich ny marketer interested in global integrated multi-media campaigns would do well to review one that is currently underway from Siemens Canada (”Siemens”), the domestic arm of the German based conglomerate Siemens AG (SAG). SC is just one of 20 regional companies owned by SAG, which employs over 400,000 people worldwide. With a staff of 6,000, the Canadian organization manages the execution of platforms devised at headquarters in Berlin and Munich, and specializes in electronics and electrical engineering for firms operating in three distinct sectors: Industry, Energy, and Healthcare. (As a frame of reference, automation systems and drives are made for industrial manufacturing clients to help them customize end-user products. Turbines and other systems are produced for energy providers. Devices, such as MRIs, are sold within the medical sector.) In a nutshell, the global organization’s strategy everywhere it operates is to unleash trendsetting innovations for particular technologies at precisely the right times. This plan is obviously working: Siemens’ 2007 revenue worldwide was €72-73 billion —approximately $100 billion (CAD). In its own right, SC’s arsenal contains several hundred thousand products—far too many to promote to its diverse client base at one time. The alternative is for the firm to attract customer interest by establishing itself as a sought-after innovator. According to SC’s director of Corporate Communications Dirk Miller, there’s good reason for the electronics developer to want to stand out against the clutter because “there are a lot of companies competing with us in the Canadian marketplace.” A complicated business Due to its business scope, SC has a diverse about the campaign A By Kalan client base. For example, in the industrial sector alone, the subsidiary serves firms in the Automotive, Construction, Pharmaceutical, Food and Beverage, and Oil and Gas industries. And while the typical target customer is generally a C-level manager, the firm’s technologies and systems are so assorted that sector specific showcases are an absolute requirement of doing business. Beyond this, within a single client company, there are often multiple layers of employees and executives that need to hear different types of product information related to the same sale. This means that the sales force must display an acute familiarity with a variety of corporate departments. “Normally we have much more than just one contact person within one company. So it’s quite a complex sales environment,” explains Miller. Finally, there’s the challenge of working in the Canadian business to business environment. “We don’t have a highly profiled brand name in Canada, although we have been here for almost one hundred years,” Dirk emphasizes. “Canada is still an economy which is in growth mode… we constantly strive to be part of this growth. Managing it means we have to attract more and more customers.” Client: Dirk Miller, director Corporate Communications, Siemens Canada Campaign: Exiderdome promotion direct response campaign The marketing challenge Based on this business challenge, the marketing focus was defined as getting more Canadian businesses to identify SC as a technical powerhouse. To that end, the Corporate Communications team opted to bring an ambitious and exciting integrated marketing platform developed by the firm’s German head office to Canada. The “exiderdome,” is an existing massive global road show of Siemens products that is promoted using a highly personalized, multi-platform direct mail campaign aimed at existing and potential clients within Canada’s industrial sector. It brings the international might of SAG to Canadian soil. Well, perhaps not to the soil per se. Housed within 55 transport containers atop a 108 meter-long barge, exiderdome is a floating two-storey multi-media installation. When docked, the containers transform into an exhibition composed of seven product showrooms, a screening room, plus the obligatory meeting rooms for corporate seminars on topics such as energy management and power solutions, safety technologies, and industrial communications. All together, exiderdome represents over 130,000 products to customers and partners from “We have very positive feedback from our direct marketing and communication activities… All our specific seminars and all our customer events and employee events are fully booked.” Dirk Miller Agency: Commercial Colour Labs (CCL) Mississauga Account Executive: Alex Orlenko the industrial sphere. It is, essentially, an interactive theatre of automation. Targeting Spreading the word about the exiderdome’s arrival in each Canadian city and ensuring targeted customers attend its seminars has required a three-wave direct mail campaign managed by SC’s Corporate Communications and its various external agencies (Mississauga’s Commercial Colour Labs for direct mail, Toronto’s User in Mind for Web design, and for PR, the Siren Group INC., Toronto). A cross-country list of 24, 000 names was derived internally by SC’s own customer relations management (CRM) department. However, lists licensed from external sources provided 30,000 additional names for the mailings. Dirk explains, “Although we know we cannot reach everyone by hosting them on the exiderdome, we would like to get the message out. It’s a branding piece as well.” Wave one of the campaign involved a 2-Dimensional mailer shaped like a shipping container. On the cover, the text reads: “Now thinking outside the box...starts inside one.” When this mailer is unfolded, the prospect sees, along with his or her name, a letter explaining key features of the exiderdome and the available dates for that specific city. As well, an entrance ticket reiterates important information, including the call to action. Each recipient is asked to register online at www.exiderdome.ca or by contacting a sales representative to attend one or more of the seminars. Wave two consists of another mailer, this time a generalized one-page piece with important information regarding the exiderdome’s tour schedule. The third wave is a blast of e-mail reminders to over 100,000 contacts. Banner ads are also deployed on the Web sites of several trade publications to help aggregate online interest. It is important to note that all mail pieces point to the Web site. The registration information entered online is relayed to the sales team for each particular region prior to the exiderdome’s stop there to enable representatives to prepare for interactions with existing clients and prospects at specific seminars. June saw the Canadian début of exiderdome at Calgary’s Global Petroleum Show (an additional incentive piece was included in the mailing that offered to cut the admission price for the Show in return for early exiderdome registration). Since then, the barge has sailed across the Great Lakes to Detroit/Windsor and Toronto and is scheduled to visit Montreal, Québec City and Halifax before heading south to Boston. In its current sailing iteration, the exiderdome is far more efficient than its predecessor, the exider train, which was constrained by established track systems. Making a splash Given that the exiderdome is still touring Canada, it is impossible to know exactly how it will secure future deals for SC in the growing economy. Regardless, Dirk is pleased with its brand-building power. “We have very positive feedback from our direct marketing and communication activities,” he stresses. “All our specific seminars and all our customer events and employee events are fully booked.” He adds that the exiderdome has also attracted significant media coverage, with engagement from trade publications and even, Business News Network. But the story doesn’t end there. “We’re still waiting for some tracking and measurement, but it was really interesting to see how long people stayed at the Web site,” he notes. “It was over the industry average. This told me that they (visitors to the site) really found information. It wasn’t just clicking.” For Corporate Communications, attracting a high response rate to the mail 26 Column September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca Deriving ROI from sponsored events Web-based digital photography application helps WestJet convert festival-goers to database members Like other major Canadian brands associated with athletic, cultural or philanthropic sponsorship, WestJet wanted to achieve a measureable return on its investment from its Fun n’ Festival Series. It also hoped to provide festivalgoers with a “WestJet Experience;” one which would be enjoyable and entertaining, while communicating the company’s unique brand characteristics, value proposition and culture. This was particularly important because the airline had been increasing its investment in the Series exponentially. In fact, during 2008, WestJet’s “Fun n’ Festival Series will expand from eight events to more than 20 recognized and popular activities, including: the Global ComedyFest, Vancouver; Okanagan Wine Festivals; Calgary Stampede; Folklorama, Winnipeg; Winterlude, Ottawa; the Just For Laughs Festivals, Toronto and Montreal; and the Halifax International Buskers Festival. “Not only will you see the WestJet Fun ‘n Festival Series from coast-to-coast this year, but you’ll see us extend the reach from our larger Canadian destinations into many of our smaller markets, as well,” explains Scott Hartley, manager of Sponsorship, Community Investment and Creative Services. “The Series really does connect Canadians with celebration right across the country.” Business challenge The Series also affords the airline exposure to more than six million festival-goers; most of whom are potential customers. This is no small consideration given that WestJet is Canada’s second largest and fastest growing airline. Still, the question of how to convert festival attendance to ROI was a challenging one. Management eventually determined that if a significant number of attendees could be persuaded to participate in the company’s JetMail database marketing program, then it would realize its desired ROI. To that end, WestJet approached Tenzing Interactive Marketing, a Web-based experiential marketing company that uses one-to-one solutions to reach more than 500,000 consumers every year on behalf of its more than 30 clients. Tenzing proposed deployment of its Pics2Web solution, a unique one-to-one marketing program that activates sports, culture and philanthropic sponsorship programs using a combination of digital photography and the Web. Individual consumers at an event give permission for digital images to be taken of them. Thereafter, they are invited to visit a sponsor-branded Web site to retrieve the picture. “Most consumers who attend sports, culture or philanthropic events view them as once-in-a-lifetime activities — something they will likely never experience again and would really value a permanent reminder of,” Tenzing partner, Greg Keaney, emphasizes. “Unfortunately, most don’t have the opportunity to record the moment with a photograph because they either forgot to bring their camera or the venue they’re at doesn’t permit the use of cameras while the event is taking place.” The Pics2Web application is also appealing to sponsors, who have typically invested heavily in events and are looking for a sophisticated way to reach attending consumers. “…They (sponsors) want to connect with them in a way that is memorable, personalized and moves them along the buying cycle through the establishment of an ongoing relationship with their brand,” notes Tenzing partner, Tom Casagrande. “Capturing” the crowd The program typically engages and captures the images of up to 1,000 consumers daily. Using a sophisticated digital camera, Pics2Web photographers station themselves at key entrances, exits and other strategic points at an event, taking photographs of consumers and giving them a credit card-like, barcoded Pic card that provides Web site and access information to retrieve their photograph. When respondents enter the site immediately following the event, the sponsor has the opportunity to ask them to complete a survey about their experience, provide them with an incentive to purchase a product or service and/or get their approval to receive information from the sponsor from time-to-time. When festival-goers entered the WestJet site to retrieve their photographs from the Fun n’ Festival Series, they were offered the opportunity to win a pair of tickets to any Canadian destination where WestJet flies, in return for providing their contact information— including their email address. They were also given the option of forwarding their photos to friends and family from the site; thereby iCCm, Cont’d from page 8 approach to technology. Agent Training & Development If not, learn how to deliver the right marketing message to the right customer: AZkZgV\ZndjgdlcYViVidjcYZghiVcYl]dndjgXjhidbZghVgZVcY l]ViegdYjXihi]ZnlVci JhZi]ViadXVi^dc^ciZaa^\ZcXZidYZkZadeiVg\ZiZYXdbbjc^XVi^dch 9Za^kZgi]ZhZXjhidb^oZYXdbbjc^XVi^dchY^gZXianidndjgXjhidbZg Learn how to change your profits. Visit www.mapinfo.ca or call 1.800.268.DATA AT1-IDEXX Laboratories Case Study 8:30-9:20 Tuesday Speakers: Anne O’Neill, business operations consultant, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.; Tom Larkin, senior vice-president, Communico Ltd Most organizations don’t know how to engage associates in a way that encourages commitment and growth. This session discloses why most traditional coaching is ineffective and how developmental coaching can help increase service and employee satisfaction. AT2-American Express Case Study 9:30-10:20 Tuesday Speaker: Luc Denis, call centre manager, American Express Agents and team leaders do not always understand the workforce management concept, even though they are in the middle of it. This interactive session helps agents and team leaders understand the charts and numbers being thrown at them constantly. AT3-Coaching: The Missing Link in extending the reach and viral aspect of the WestJet program since friends and family who received the photographs would also be given the opportunity to opt-in to the Jet Mail program. ROI Of the more than 10,000 festival-goers photographed last season by the Tenzing team on behalf of WestJet, 45 percent of them visited the Web site to retrieve their photographs. Of that group, 48 percent opted in to participate in the WestJet JetMail service. “Our two primary objectives for the photo experience – create a memorable and personal interaction with festivalgoers, and acquire qualified opt-ins for the JetMail database marketing program, were met,” notes WestJet’s Scott Hartley. “…The Tenzing Pics2Web solution has allowed us to deliver consistent quality at each of our WestJet Fun n’ Festival Series events and is flexible enough to be used at indoor or outdoor venues, in an anchored physical environment as well as with roaming street teams,” he adds. “It also allows us to adjust themes based on the content of each festival activity and has a direct call-to-action to an ongoing, revenuegenerating direct marketing initiative. Harding says that on-site activation has been simplified so that more time can be spent encouraging guests to participate in the photo experience, thereby driving the participation numbers to greater heights. “We’ll use a scratch-and-win coupon tactic to help attract them to our space and let the Pics2Web product help our people create some magic from there,” he adds. Agent Performance 2:30-3:20 Tuesday Speaker: Tab Norris, founding partner/ president, Aslan Training & Development This session supplies a six-step coaching model for developing reps. It furnishes the keys to intrinsically motivating even the most unreceptive learner. AT4-Contact Centre Training and Development: How to Grow Great Employees 3:30-4:20 Tuesday Speaker: Connie Smith, chief evangelist, Envision Training and developing a contact centre workforce requires wearing many hats including firefighter, peace maker, cheerleader, disciplinarian and centre counsellor. This session promises some fresh ideas, best practices and a renewed energy for training and developing a contact centre workforce. Metrics, Analytics & KPIs ME1-Wisconsin Physicians Service Case Study 8:30-9:20 Tuesday Speakers: Barb Bleiler, manager client services, Wisconsin Physicians Service; Brian iCCm, Cont’d on page 27 Column Spraetz, solutions consultant, NICE Systems. Call centres record hundreds, if not thousands, of calls a day containing immense amounts of business intelligence. This session presents a method for extracting that knowledge, backed by real-world case studies. ME2-Improving Contact Centre Effectiveness with First Call Resolution 9:30-10:20 Tuesday Speaker: Rob McDougall, president Upstream Works Software Ltd. Measuring First Call Resolution (FCR), once implemented, becomes the primary way to increase overall business effectiveness. This session shows how to use FCR as a powerful business tool to improve effectiveness and customer satisfaction. ME3-Unleashing the Enormous Power of Contact Centre Key iccm, Cont’d from page 26 Performance Indicators (KPIs) 2:30-3:20 Tuesday Speaker: Eric Zbikowski, managing partner, MetricNet This session demonstrates definitive cause-and-effect relationships between the most commonly tracked KPIs. It discusses how these insights can revolutionize contact centre management. ME4-Bell Canada Case Study 3:30-4:20 Tuesday Speaker: Erika Van Noort, director, contact centre management, Bell Canada Most organizations record customer interactions but do little more than use the information to coach agents. This session reveals how to use analytics to take quality to the next level. Remote Workforce RW1-Interval International Case Study 10:10-11:00 Wednesday Speakers: Denise Ehrick, executive director, consumer marketing, Interval International; Tim Gordan, senior vicepresident, service delivery, VIPdesk Home-based customer service is increasingly becoming a viable alternative to a centrally-located call centre. This session relates how Interval International has benefited from increased customer satisfaction and loyalty since implementing a home-based customer service model. RW2-The Shopping Channel Case Study 11:10-12:00 Wednesday Speakers: Graham Kingma, vicepresident, customer experience, The Shopping Channel; Brian Pritchard, CEO, LiveXchange. There are three strategic routes to take to a home-based agent workforce: the “go-it-alone” or in-company model; the outsourced home-agent model, or the remote agent service provider model. The session traces how The Shopping Channel moved through this critical decisionmaking process. Staff Hiring & Retention ST1-Aditya Birla Minacs Case Study 10:10-11:00 Wednesday Speaker: Warren Collier, director, talent acquisition NA, Minacs, an Aditya Birla Company. The session tells how one talent acquisition specialist significantly improved new hire performance and retention, and why many well-defined processes don’t produce the desired results. It shows how to effectively develop a return on investment strategy that will develop organizational support for new ideas. ST2-Building a People-Focused Culture in Your Call Centre 11:10-12:00 Wednesday Speaker: Jeff Doran, president, CCEOC Inc. The session relates how building a people-centric customer contact brand offers a unique opportunity to build pride and enthusiasm with employees and create an ultra-loyal customer base. It presents six key objectives and ten areas of interest in building a people-focused culture. ST3-MetLife Customer Case Study 1:30-2:20 Wednesday Speakers: Dee Buell, senior business consultant, MetLife; Dru Phelps, director of diagnostics, UCN. Supervisors need a strategic practice to select new hires, get them quickly involved and maintain their quality and productivity. This session covers best practices that can help agents contribute and give excellent service to more than 50 callers per day. Workforce Management WM1-Top Five Workforce Management Trends 10:10 -11:00 Wednesday Speaker: Vicki Herrell, executive director, SWPP This session covers some leading trends for making the most of personnel resources from the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP). It tells what’s hot and what’s not in workforce planning. WM2-Workforce Optimization: The Heart of the Matter 11:10-12:00 Wednesday Moderator: Paul Stockford, chief analyst, Saddletree Research. Speakers: Ian Lafleur, director of operations, CALEA Health Access; Christian Corso, national leader of contact centre optimization, IBM; Tim Kraskey, vicepresident marketing, Calabrio; Kevin Hegebarth, vice-president marketing, GMT Corp. Workforce Optimization directly and positively impacts productivity and the bottom line, yet there is still some confusion in the market and hesitancy to embrace this integrated productivity tool. This session strives to eliminate any uncertainty via a professionally moderated panel discussion. WM3-Navitor Case Study 1:30-2:20 Wednesday Speakers: Cory Gallagher, department manager customer service, Midwest Call Center, a Navitor company; William Durr, principal, global solutions consultant, Verint Systems This session discusses workforce optimization as a strategy and how it enables customer-pleasing process reengineering. It examines the technology and process transformation that Navitor took and the results achieved. 27 directives, Cont’d from page 3 The push and pull of progress leaves us at a new crossroads where the value of relevancy is still supreme but like the Arthurian Grail, just beyond one’s reach. Despite the possible “setback” for marketers, I think it will likely save a lot of brands from self-immolation and enable them to re-channel their efforts back into the creation of meaningful dialogue with one’s customers/partners bound together on a journey for share of life. To review a framework which might assist you in better balancing the components of your brand’s matrix, leading to greater customer relevancy, please visit: “The Anatomy of a Brand Purchase” at http:// miroslodki.wordpress.com/articles/theanatomy-of-a-brand-purchase-part-1/ Article Sources: Google Privacy Practices Worse Than ISP Snooping, AT&T Charges http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/googleprivacy.html http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/ Responses%20to%20080108%20TI%20Letter/110ltr.080108responseATandT.pdf Miro Slodki is the sole proprietor of Brand Central, a passionate consultancy providing strategic/tactical support for customer centric brand marketers seeking to build stronger, more profitable customer affinity. With a bias toward street-level execution, Miro’s experience spans Marketing (Direct, Brand, Product and Service),Market Research, Loyalty, Sales and Relationship Management in both the B2C and B2B spaces. He can be reached at [email protected] EVENTSCALENDAR September 22-25 Esomar 61st Annual Conference Montreal The World Organization for Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals, ESOMAR, will hold its annual Congress under the theme: FRONTIERS. As the world is transforming, each new day presents uncharted frontiers. With knowledge, creativity and experimentation, the Congress will explore how research explores and advances new business and societal paradigms, sets the trends and responds with new and better solutions. It will challenge the status quo, focusing on everything that is cutting edge, innovative, creative, and ‘business unusual.” For more information, visit www.esomar. org/web/2008-congress September 22-25 Icsa Toronto Chapter Manager’s Certification Program The Manager’s Certification Program, tentatively booked for September 22nd25th, is an intensive four day immersion into the world of the three core components that define an organization’s ability to be best in class: People, Tools and Operations. Through a combination of workshops and group interactions, you will benefit from exceptional speakers, relevant and practical content, networking, post-program support and certification. Our experienced senior leaders are direct marketing CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - [email protected] Rick Brough Rick Ferguson Lyle Hamilton Paul McConville Miro Slodki Vol. 21 | No. 5 | September 2008 PUBLISHER Mark Henry - [email protected] Neil Spivak Colin Taylor Kalan Vuchsanovich Emma Warrillow EDITOR Pat Atkinson - [email protected] MARKETING INFORMATION COORDINATOR Adam Lloyd - [email protected] PRODUCTION MANAGER Michael Demi- [email protected] SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Peter O’Desse - [email protected] LLOYDMEDIA, INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION: 302-137 Main Street North, Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Phone: 905.201.6600 Fax: 905.201.6601 Toll-free: 800.668.1838 [email protected] www.dmn.ca known for their expertise, delivery and keeping participants engaged. Class sizes are limited. For additional information and to reserve a seat call, 905-477-5544 or visit www.icsa.on.ca. September 23-26 44th Cam-X Annual Convention & Trade Show, Huntsville, On Industry professionals and leaders attend this annual conference to gain insight and to network with their peers. Our convention theme is ‘Leadership: Colour outside the lines’. The program includes sessions on Growing Your Business, Sales, Hiring & Compensation, Screening & Coaching, How to effectively promote from within, Remote Agents, VoIP, EDITORIAL CONTACT: Phone: 905.847.9454 Email: [email protected] Direct Marketing is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc., plus the annual DM Industry Source Book, List of Lists . Direct Marketing may be obtained through paid subscription. Rates: Canada 1 year (12 issues $48) 2 years (24 issues $70) U.S. 1 year (12 issues $60) 2 years (24 issues $100) Direct Marketing is an independently-produced publication not affiliated in any way with any association or organized Terminal Services, Client Services: Wooing your own clients and Marketing: Branding. Location is Deerhurst Resort, Huntsville, ON. For more information, contact CAM-X Executive Director Linda Osip at 800.896.1054 or [email protected]. Sept. 24 Vroom! Driving roi with direct response and search (yahoo! Canada) Enter 2008 with the 2008 Online Direct Response (DR) and Search spend predicted to hit $20 billion (almost 50 percent of all online ad spending). In today’s performance driven advertising environment, online advertisers and media buyers finally have the tools to measure ROI and optimize their group, nor with any publication produced either in Canada or the United States. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. However, unused manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by sufficient postage. Occasionally Direct Marketing provides its subscriber mailing list to other companies whose product or service may be of value to readers. If you do not want to receive information this way, simply send your subscriber mailing label with this notice to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North, Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada. POSTMASTER: Please send all address changes and return all undeliverable copies to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada campaigns To help tackle these challenges, and get the most out of your responsedriven campaign, Yahoo! Canada invites you to this powerful half-day session: a breakfast and power lunch seminar aimed at transforming and informing the way you look at DR and Search. Join Yahoo!’s panel of DR and Search experts for an in-depth exploration of ROI driven online advertising. Locations: Toronto - Sheraton Centre Toronto, 123 Queen St. West “Civic Ballroom”. (Broadcast to Montreal via live Webcast); Montreal - 3801 University Ave, Montreal, QC, 78 auditorium style (Broadcast to Toronto via live webcast). Contact: Adina Zaiontz, adina@yahoo-inc. com, tel: w: 416-848-6189, m: 416-728-7913. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40050803 Printed in Canada: Metroland Media Ltd. printed on 100% recycled stock THIS ISSUE OF DM MAILED BY: Complete Mailing Service 1-888-683-2501 • 416-755-7761 www.completemailing.com September 2008 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca Jan Kestle Tony Lea Doug Norris Danny Heuman Mark Kaminski Gary Wood Catherine Pearson Michele Sexsmith Peter Baker Rupen Seoni When Experience Counts, Count on ENVIRONICS ANALYTICS ENVIRONICS ANALYTICS has more experience in micromarketing and site location analysis than any other provider in the Canadian marketplace. From a startup of just four people in 2003, our professional staff now totals over forty, including many of the industry’s most respected thought leaders and pioneering technical analysts. At ENVIRONICS ANALYTICS, we integrate different approaches to analytics, rather than making you choose between them. Through our expertise and our many industry partnerships, we provide unmatched assistance in every key component of marketing strategy development, deployment and assessment: Segmentation Predictive Models Geocoding Trade Area Definition CRM Mapping / GIS Site Models Customer Insights Psychographics Media Planning Geodemography Survey Research Net Worth Diversity Marketing Business Intelligence Consumer Lists Market Planning Data Hygiene We have more than our share of technology geeks, but we’re expert marketers first and foremost. Our analysts and account professionals help you understand how best to use data and how to interpret and implement research results. Our PRIZMCE is Canada’s only segmentation system that incorporates Social Values—revealing the hearts and minds of customers along with their demographics and behaviour. 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