Thought Leadership
Just as we advise our clients on how to crystallize and manage information to capitalize on their potential, we leverage our own intellectual capital to produce relevant points-of-view regarding current industry trends, proprietary research and the latest developments in marketing.
12.04.2012
In Mail We Trust
“Direct mail is a trusted channel, in every sense of the word. Indeed, four in 10 consumers say they prefer to receive sensitive health information in sealed envelopes from their mailboxes, according to Epsilon's 2012 Channel Preference Study, released today. The reason: Privacy issues with email." Read more ›
11.03.2012
Retailers Find Profits with Paperless Receipts
“As smartphones proliferate, more stores and banks are offering to e-mail shoppers their receipts rather than giving them a printed copy. These electronic or digital receipts, touted as green for saving paper and convenient for saving time, enable retailers to market directly to customers." Read more ›
10.29.2012
Optimizing Your Online Ad Spending Across Platforms
“Many online marketers love audience-based display advertising, but their audience optimization remains trapped within each media platform. Audience-based display advertising starts with the consumer, asking “which consumers should I target?” instead of simply “on which web site should I advertise?"" Read more ›
10.01.2012
Jaguar Land Rover Aims to Increase Customer Retention
“Many automobile brands commonly use a blend of traditional and digital strategies to attract new customers. But a growing number of brands, such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), are also leveraging cutting-edge technologies to retain customers in an after-sales environment." Read more ›
10.01.2012
Rethinking Email Engagement: Best Practices vs. Revenue
“In no other marketing discipline have "best" practices and revenue been at such odds as they have been in email marketing. The conflict arises from the fact that the incremental cost of sending another million emails is virtually nothing and, therefore, marketers were, until recently, incented to always send more." Read more ›
09.04.2012
Epsilon Promises More Personal Email Ads
“Email marketers are about to be swimming in new ways to reach their subscribers. This week Facebook will begin letting brands target their email subscribers with ads on Facebook, and yesterday (Sept. 4) marketing technology platform Epsilon announced the ability for brands to email consumers based on what device they’re most likely to read and click a link contained in the message at a given moment in time." Read more ›
08.12.2012
Tackling Multichannel Attribution
“Brands reach their consumers via an ever-increasing number of channels. The ability to accurately parse out the effects on buying behavior of the various touch points, and understand each channel’s impact on an individual level, is becoming critical." Read more ›
07.01.2012
Can Facebook Ads Work for Large Brands? Readers Respond
“Can Facebook ads work for large brands? Readers respond to the July Gloves Off question." Read more ›
06.26.2012
Extreme Makeover, Time-Based Marketing Edition
“In “The Power of Now” (In the Spring 2012 issue of COLLOQUY), the first of our three-part series on time-based marketing, John Bartold introduced the concept of real-time." Read more ›
06.20.2012
Epsilon: Open Rates for Triggered Emails Soar
“Marketing services firm Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Email Experience Council released the Q1 2012 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks report, which shows a 12.6% year-over-year open rate increase in both triggered emails and business as usual (BAU) emails and a 5.9% increase over Q4 2011, says Jennifer Wiese, analytic consultant at Epsilon. Overall open rate was at 26.2%." Read more ›
06.01.2012
New Media Channels and Data Raise Agency Profits
Now that the recession is arguably over, direct marketing agencies are in an especially fortunate position. Given their efficiency and accountability, they're poised for success in the data driven digital marketing revolution — and business is finally beginning to grow, according to many agency heads. Read more ›
04.01.2012
Segmentation Optimizes Customer Experiences
Segmentation increases the relevancy of marketing messages, which can result in higher open and click-through rates, as well as stronger sales. Read more ›
03.30.2012
Maximizing Your Hotel Reward Programs
Even though they are increasing in popularity, hotel loyalty reward programs — better known as frequent guest programs — still have lots of catching up to do to the frequent flyer programs. Read more ›
03.30.2012
Three Steps to Building Loyalty to Last
Gain identification of the consumer. Don’t stop there. Learn even more about the consumer with third party data. Become part of their social circle and connect with them on a regular basis. Read more ›
03.21.2012
The Problem With Channel Attribution: Developing Marketing Metrics for Future Spend and Budget Allocation
Fractional Allocation can be quite complex. The good news is that marketers can still find answers to their questions by planning simple tests up front so they can track beyond a single mailing to count all of the media being received for a period of time in a controlled setting. Read more ›
02.13.2012
Surprise! Here’s a Ticket to a Movie Premiere, on Best Buy
If you're a Robert Pattinson fan, you probably would have liked to have been one of Best Buy's most-valued customers when, out of the blue, the retailer invited a handful of top shoppers and their family members to an exclusive preview of "Twilight Eclipse." Read more ›
01.09.2012
The Journey to Real Time: 5 Steps for Retail Marketers
Today’s consumers want and expect information in real time. Many retailers are saddled with outdated technology that hinders their ability to interact with consumers in a timely manner. The following five steps can help retailers overcome this obstacle, incorporate real-time communications and improve their overall marketing strategy: Read more ›
12.13.2011
Customer Loyalty: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Loyalty efforts traditionally provide rich amounts of data on a member’s transactions. Transaction data, however, only reveals what a loyalty program member is currently buying. Transaction data rarely provides insight on what else the member could be buying, the reasons behind the purchase or what differentiates this customer from others. Read more ›
06.17.2011
Firms Adjust to Hacks
When email-marketing firm Epsilon Data Management discovered in March that hackers had stolen consumer email addresses it maintains for major banks and retailers, Chief Executive Bryan Kennedy faced a choice: to disclose the breach or keep it under wraps. Read more ›
06.01.2011
Marketing Agencies Gain Momentum Headed Out of Recession
At this time last year the chief executives at direct and digital agencies and marketing services firms were just beginning to recover from staggering cuts to marketing budgets. The term of the day was "cautious optimism." This year, as Direct Marketing News interviewed executives at dozens of the leading firms, the message we heard over and over again was "revenues are back." Read more ›
03.08.2011
Customer Input Pays Off For Revamped Marriott E-Newsletter
At first blush, rewards statement design should be a no-brainer. By definition, a marketer is communicating with its most engaged customers. To paraphrase an old saying, any communication is good communication as long as the customer's name is spelled right. Right? Read more ›