Sign up for second DM summer school in Spain

Back next month (June 2-5) for the second year – by popular demand – is the International Senior Management Program summer school, which launched in Spain in 2007 and is an intensive, groundbreaking and advanced course for international direct, interactive and relationship marketers.

The four-day agenda has been developed by European and American experts, is organised by the DMA in New York, FEDMA in Brussels and ICEMD in Madrid and is taught in English at one of Spain’s leading business schools, by instructors recruited from four continents.

For details about the course, email: Charles Prescott at the USA DMA: cprescott@the-dma.org or find out how to participate here:
http://www.icemd.com/summer_course_2008/DMA/home.html

Groups team to make posts greener

A greener postal sector is the aim for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which have agreed to work together to slash the CO2 emissions caused by members of the postal sector.

Under the agreement signed in Switzerland last month, the two groups will calculate the volumes of greenhouse gases generated by the postal sector, using a clearly-defined methodology.

The UPU’s International Bureau is shortly to launch a survey of the organisation’s 191 member countries, to collect data on the sector as a whole, including buildings and vehicles, the mileage these vehicles cover and the volumes of fuel consumed.

Once this information has been gathered and emissions generated quantified, the two will offer postal operators a range of cutback solutions and will monitor the impact of these measures from year to year.

The initiative is in line with the United Nations’ commitment to make climate change one of its top priorities. As part of this partnership with UNEP, the UPU is looking to move towards becoming a climate-neutral organisation.

Edouard Dayan, UPU director general (pictured), said: “Any initiative that puts environmental protection at the heart of postal businesses’ development strategy will have my support, and the scale of our contribution should reflect that of the sector.”

UNEP executive director, Achim Steiner, added: “By joining our forces we are bringing the issue of sustainability to one of the major global networks, the postal service, which has a massive responsibility to connect the world but which also has a significant footprint.”

The UPU estimates that the world postal sector currently comprises more than five million staff, 660,000 postal establishments, uses some 250,000 motorcycles, more than 600,000 cars, vans and trucks, and hundreds of aircraft to deliver mail to the world.

Come home, government campaign urges migrant Poles

The Polish government is urging one million of its citizens who have migrated to the UK to return home, daily newspaper Gazeta Polska reports.

Officials are using a major advertising campaign in the British media to encourage Poles to return to their homeland, where their work skills are urgently needed by domestic business leaders who say they are suffering from a shortage of labour, particularly of plumbers and builders.

The Polish government is launching a website offering information to potential returnees on the practicalities of settling back in Poland and a handbook is being put together, to be distributed in churches, embassies and other popular Polish meeting places overseas.

Website launches with a ‘25 per cent off marketing books’ deal

If you’re planning to catch up with the latest marketing thinking, here’s a special offer for you.

Independent European publisher, Kogan Page – which specialises in marketing, branding and PR books – is launching a new business resource website and is offering a ‘25 per cent off all books’ deal until August 15.

Kogan Page’s new website has a section devoted to marketing and branding books and will also offer free troubleshooting guides to many of the key issues affecting marketing today, free extracts from books and sample chapters and links to key international business agencies.

Over the next few months, the site will grow to include features, such as online products, podcasts, videos, interviews with authors, links to authors’ blogs and authors’ Q&A sessions for professionals, academics and students.

Take a look, from June 2 when the site goes live, here:
http://www.koganpage.com

Show organisers to go head-to-head in 2009

The three-day International Direct Marketing Fair (IDMF), staged at the start of this month in London, saw visitor traffic of around 9,200 (pre-audited figures) – an increase of ten per cent on last year – organiser Reed Exhibitions reports. Exhibitor numbers also recorded a healthy hike – up 20 per cent on 2007.

The 30-year-old show has been successfully co-located in London’s Earls Court 2 with the increasingly popular Internet World event since 2006 – but that relationship has now ended. Next year, Internet World organisers CMPi are taking it just round the corner to the Olympia conference centre, citing the need for larger premises.

To plug the gap, Reed is launching its own digital marketing show, E-Commerce & Digital Marketing Expo (ECDM) which will run alongside the IDMF next spring . . . on exactly the same dates as its rival, Internet World (April 28-30).

Internet World was acquired by CMPi – along with five other shows – last September, when it bought former organiser UK media business Ithaca for a reported £14.25m.

Chris James, IDMF exhibition director (pictured), said Reed’s launch of a new show came on the heels of CMPi’s recent decision to shift Internet World away from the IDMF – a decision which had provoked ‘huge disappointment’ among exhibitors and visitors. He added: “With more marketers expected to combine e-marketing and direct marketing disciplines in their roles, the show’s format has provided an invaluable source of inspiration and knowledge for a growing audience.”

To help maximise next year’s crowds, Reed has pulled its dedicated information security event – InfoSecurity Europe 2009 – from its usual Olympia home to run in Earls Court 1 at the same time as ECDM and IDMF 2009.

James concluded: “The addition of ECDM and InfoSecurity Europe will allow us to create a world-class integrated marketing show in Earls Court in London.”

‘BRIC’ markets emerge to leapfrog major economies – report

We should stop labelling the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – as ‘emerging’ or ‘developing’ markets because, within ten years, their economies will overtake some of the current world-leading countries.

So says a Household Wealth Index report by banking giant Barclays Wealth, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The study says global wealth distribution is changing in favour of those ‘developing economies’ and is being driven by ‘the rise of the market economy in both former and current communist states, together with globalisation, technological and demographic change plus a growing thirst for commodities’.

Barclays says by 2017, China will accelerate from seventh to third place in the overall wealth rankings, India will jump from 12th to eighth place, Russia will catapult from 19th place to 11th and Brazil from 15th to 12th. (Top ten rankings below.)

The report says we are witnessing a ‘seismic shift in the location of wealth around the world’ and adds: ‘This shift in the balance of power is already well under way, as can be seen from the way in which countries such as China, India and the Gulf nations are being relied upon to sustain the momentum of the global economy as developed countries in North America and Europe start to run out of steam.

Over the coming decade, the gap in wealth between the world’s most developed countries and the leading ‘emerging markets’ will continue to narrow, with many new millionaires created in China, India, Russia and other countries that are undergoing rapid development.

‘This trend suggests that a point will soon come when it is more appropriate to say that these countries are central players in the global economy, and should no longer be classed as emerging or developing.’

The report also charts the rising amount of millionaire households (US$) around the world. Currently, there are seven countries containing more than a million millionaire households: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – and these will be joined by Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea over the next decade, says the report. Of the ‘emerging markets’, Brazil ranks highest in this instance – in 16th place, with 675,000 millionaire households in 2017.

Household Wealth Index – Top Ten Countries in 2007:
1: USA
2: Japan
3: UK
4: France
5: Italy
6: Germany
7: China
8: Spain
9: Canada
10: Australia

Household Wealth Index – Top Ten Countries in 2017:
1: USA
2: Japan
3: China
4: UK
5: Germany
6: France
7: Italy
8: India
9: Canada
10: Spain

New tool ‘can cut data wastage by 70%’

EDM Media UK has launched a bespoke lead generation service, offering pre-qualified, exclusive warm leads verified by telemarketing, which it claims can cut data wastage by as much as 70 per cent.

The new service – Nextday – has been introduced to the UK as a result of EDM Media Group's growth in Europe with clients such as Greenpeace, Vodafone and VISA. EDM says its European clients are experiencing major uplifts in response and conversion rates via Nextday, which was launched at the International Direct Marketing Fair in London earlier this month.

John Eddolls, director of EDM Projects UK, said: “The Nextday service provides our clients with fresh new warm leads for their exclusive use – real people, that the client knows have confirmed interest in their type of product or service and who have given their permission to be contacted by that organisation. The service is suitable for any sales business; it could be people that would like a copy of your catalogue, are interested in your charity or people that are actively looking for a new mortgage.

“Lead generation is not a new concept in the DM industry but most services provide data that is digitally produced and not pre-qualified with the individual. Nextday is different in sourcing the initial prospect data via a variety of channels, such as face-to-face, email, digital and call centres with consumers having responded to a questionnaire or survey. Bespoke questions relevant for specific offers can be researched as a fast, hotline lead service collected by face-to-face agents on PDAs for instantaneous uploads. We then go on to verify and qualify definite warm leads via our own follow-up telephone verification."

“A major advantage is that Nextday’s leads provide specific opt-in to their business so clients do not have to worry about TPS or MPS wastage restricting their prospecting - they have the individual's authorisation for the start of a commercial dialogue. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for cold list prospecting to have huge match rates with the preference services of 60 or 70 per cent, wasting so much of the data you are buying.”

Eddolls added: “The qualification of warm leads makes the data a bit more expensive but the score chance is much higher, giving a far greater ROI. More and more sales projects are moving to lead generation for a pre-warmed relationship between the prospect and the company, it's a logical development.

BBC to launch Russian-language blog

The BBC World Service is teaming up with Russian-language blogging platform LiveJournal.com to bring Russian-language user generated content to the BBC Russian website.

The project, called Live Report, connects Russian-speaking bloggers with the BBC Russian website, bbcrussian.com, via LiveJournal.

In a first for BBC World Service, a BBC-branded area has been created on LiveJournal.com, linking the blogging community to stories on bbcrussian.com. Users can click through to read the BBC stories and return to Live Report to post their blogs containing comments, photos and videos.

In Russia, LiveJournal has more than nine million users per month and more than 1.5m registered accounts. Since the pilot launch of Live Report last month, the community has already acquired 365 new members.

Indian conference: special DMI readers’ rates available

Make a date in your diary to visit India and the Third Annual Sales Force Management conference, which is taking place July 31 to August 1 in Mumbai.

The event promises to show how to improve sales performance and includes a special workshop on advanced negotiation skills for managers, co-ordinated by expert trainer/consultant Carlton de Couto of DOOR International.

Special rates apply for DMI readers wanting to register for the conference – for details of the offer, contact Ms Kelly Lee, telephone: +603 2723 6798, email: KellyL@marcusevanskl.com or visit the website:

Click Here

Slovakia gets closer to adopting the euro . . .

Slovakia’s adoption of the euro currency from January 2009 is increasingly likely, with EU finance ministers due to make their final decision next month and data released in the European Commission’s spring economic forecasts showing that the country is meeting Brussels’ strict criteria for euro zone entry.

Under the Maastricht criteria, countries wanting to adopt the euro must keep finance deficits below three per cent of GDP and public debt under 60 per cent of GDP; and inflation cannot exceed the average of the three lowest inflation rates of EU members by more than 1.5 per cent.

According to an economic report last month, Slovakia’s finance deficit and debt are below their thresholds and are expected to remain so. Slovak inflation undershot the 3.2 per cent limit in March and the commission forecasts price growth will stay below the forecasted ceilings for 2008 and 2009.

There are currently 15 nations which have adopted the euro and, of the central and eastern European EU members, Slovakia would be the second to join the eurozone, behind Slovenia.

. . . But, in Germany – a third want the mark back

Almost ten years after the introduction of the euro, a third of Germans would prefer to have their old currency, the Deutsche mark, back instead of the euro.

A recent survey by the German Banking Association showed that 34 per cent of those asked would rather ditch the single European currency – 53 per cent believe prices have risen since the euro was introduced in 1999.

French consumer morale hits new low

French consumer confidence has dropped to a 20-year low as the country's housing market cools and economists forecast a downturn in industrial demand during the second quarter.

Shopper morale, measured by the national statistics office, Insee, hit a record low for the third time in four months during April, falling to minus 37, the lowest since the measure began in 1987, from minus 36 in March.

Insee reported: “In the first quarter of 2008, firms judged that there had been a marked deterioration in the competitiveness of French industry over all markets. The general outlook for exports is that they are in retreat.”

Acquisition boosts Aegis Media in Romania

Marketing communications group, Aegis, is to acquire Tempo Media in Romania. Originally established as the media division of the Romanian full service agency Tempo Advertising SRL, Tempo Media is a major independent full service advertising agency in the region.

Following the acquisition, it will be integrated into Aegis Media, rebranding as Vizeum and taking the Vizeum network into its 43rd market since its launch in 2003. Tempo Media’s client portfolio includes a mix of international and local clients such as Tuborg, Carlsberg, Skol, Orangina, Granini, Alka, Nutline, Baneasa, Boom, Cetelem (BNP Paribas) and Kiwi Finance.

Romania is a rapidly emerging economy for advertisers. Annual advertising expenditure has grown from $230m to $690m from 2003 to 2007, an average annual growth rate of 34 per cent. That rate of expansion is forecast to continue, pushing through the $1bn mark in 2009.

Commenting on the acquisition, Robert Lerwill, CEO of Aegis, said: “Due to its population size and fast growth dynamic, Romania is becoming a lead market for many international advertisers in the south-eastern region of Eastern Europe. This acquisition significantly boosts our presence in Romania and further strengthens the Vizeum network’s offering in Europe.”

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Did you know . . . ?

Two German companies have patented smart card-sized chip technology for sending scented text messages on mobile phones.

Partners in the project – the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing Consultancy in Göttingen (ISI) and the Oberhausen-based specialist for interactive services Convisual – have been working on the project for some eight years, developing pleasant scents like vanilla and rose.

Convisual spokesperson Sandra Wiewiorra told Germany’s ‘The Local’ newspaper: “People will be able to send the smell of the beach and sunshine to their friends when they’re on vacation or flower scents for Mother’s Day.”

The chips are still in the developmental stages and should be on the market within two years, she said, adding that there will be about 100 different prefabricated scents on the chip for customers to choose from.

The companies are negotiating with different mobile phone providers on marketing and distribution plans for the chips, which could also have applications for branded advertisements and adding a sensory element to electronic games.