February 2011 - Direct Marketing

DIRECT MARKETING
Vol. 23 • no. 10 • FEBRUARY 2011
FAST
forward
Editor’s letter
My smartphone,
my self
Directives
»3
PrInteD On 100% reCYCLeD PaPer
Demographics go
mobile with SiteWise
Tetrad Computer Application’s new app makes data more accessible than ever
»3
Mobile marketing—It’s
everywhere you are
News
»4
Remembering Martin
Smee
Deepak Chopra
appointed CEO of
the Canada Post
Corporation
»4
Mobile in direct
marketing plans
»5
Smartphones &
smart charities
»6
International » 6
mobile trends to
watch in 2011
The next generation
of telephone
marketing
»7
Pro bono
When marketing
matters more
»9
tHe art & SCIenCe OF PreDICtaBLe MarKetInG
Claude Legrand
Regional Report
Vancouver:
» 1
» 11
Cutting edge DM in the
Olympic city
BY SaraH O’COnnOr
e’ve all been there. You’re
strolling through a new-toyou neighbourhood and
find yourself thinking, I wonder what the
median household income is within a three
mile radius of this point. Or, maybe you’re
waiting in line at a Tim Horton’s drive thru
and suddenly have a burning desire to
find out the ratio of men to women living
within a ten-minute drive.
Joking aside, as the influence
of geodemographic profiling and
segmentation continues to spread, more
and more marketers and business owners
are looking for demographic information
for very specific locations. SiteWise by
Tetrad Computer Applications makes this
information more accessible than ever
before.
Tetrad Computer Applications first
got into the business of demographics
in 1988 when the Mulroney government
came into power. As part of a larger
promise to cut government spending, the
1986 census was cancelled. A significant
backlash ensued and eventually Mulroney
conceded that the census could go ahead
as originally planned, but that Statistics
Canada would have to find a way to
recover the incurred costs. Tetrad saw an
opportunity and approached Statistics
Canada with a proposal to licence the
census data and package it within a
 Continued on page 18
Direct & Personal
Click!
»14
Merging new
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traditional
analytics
W
In the Mail
Scoring a thumbs up from
parents and teens
DM Landscapes:
The gift of chocolate
» 16
» 23
Photo by Gary Tannyan
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data, but they just couldn’t afford it. It
was just too expensive."
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Columns
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
editor’s letter
Sarah O'Connor
I
remember a time, not so very
long ago, when I just wanted
a cell phone. I didn’t want a
camera, or an mp3 player, or even games. I
didn’t text. I just wanted a plain old phone
with buttons that I could push when I
With great speculation that 2011 will be
the year for mobile marketing in North
America, it is no wonder that organizations
are slowly trying to figure out which
aspects of this mobile technology they can
leverage for their own benefit.
We saw mobile marketing via SMS take
off in Europe a few years ago as a new
channel to reach the consumer. Initially,
it received negative media coverage
in many parts of Europe for being a
new form of spam (some advertisers
purchased lists and sent unsolicited
content to consumer’s phones!); however,
as guidelines where put in place by the
mobile operators, SMS has become the
most popular branch of the marketing
industry with several hundred million
advertisements via SMS sent out every
month in Europe alone.
As a risk-adverse country, Canada
probably wanted to make sure that mobile
marketing was actually going to work
without any negative backlash before
jumping onto the bandwagon—perhaps
this is why we’ve always been late
adopters rather than innovators. Now,
slowly but surely, Canada is starting to
embrace the possibilities with mobile
marketing as Europe’s marketing industry
continues to flourish—not just with SMS,
but with MMS, QR codes and interactive
mobile ads on smartphones.
SMS and the general population
The most common methodology in
mobile marketing is through the use
of shortcodes. It’s typically a five-digit
number that brands will treat as a mobile
domain name allowing the consumer
to text message the brand at an event,
in store and off any traditional media.
Shortcodes are an extremely popular
way for brands to collect feedback—and
it’s been noted that response rates for
Coming in the
March issue of
Direct Marketing
My smartphone, my self
wanted to call somebody. For a long time,
that seemed like plenty.
And then, suddenly but almost
imperceptibly, my phone became my
sidekick (no brand shout-out intended).
Almost two years ago I bought a
smartphone on a whim and today my
phone is my address book, my calendar,
and my first line of defence for email
when I’m on the go. It's where I keep track
of my bank accounts, check Facebook
and Twitter, read my favourite blogs, get
news updates, listen to podcasts, track
my exercise, tune my guitar, keep tabs on
the weather, get directions, share photos,
find restaurants and where I used to spend
way too much time playing Plants Vs.
Zombies until I underwent a self-imposed
intervention and quit cold turkey. It’s my
back-up voice recorder, back-up camera,
directives
By Anita Kapadia
Mobile marketing –
It’s everywhere you are
collecting feedback through mobile
devices can be over 40%!
Another way brands are leveraging
mobile technology to engage the
audience is through QR codes. These are
those little barcode-looking boxes you see
on so many marketing materials including
in store, on posters, and on event tickets.
Using your smartphone, you’re able to
scan the code and be redirected to a page
with more information about what you
scanned. Marketers are finding that this
is a fantastic way to convey additional
relevant information to interested
audiences.
SMS isn’t just a way to reach the techsavvy folks. More than 250 million North
Americans carry cell phones—that’s
80% of the population (according to the
CTIA [International Association for the
Wireless Telecommunications Industry]).
You should note that practically every
within the actual mobile game or even
sponsor the entire game—I’m sure you’ve
all seen the banners at the bottom of your
game apps as you kill time looking at your
smartphone.
Mobile web marketing is exactly what
it sounds like: you’re surfing the web on
your mobile device and every so often are
subjected to an ad—in whatever shape or
form. In fact, the mobile web marketing
world will soon be revolutionized as
media giant Apple recently announced
the launch of the “iAd”. The iAd is said to
be a breakthrough in mobile advertising
combining the emotion of TV, the
interactivity of digital and the power of
mobility. This new technology will let
organizations reach the Apple audience
through their favorite apps anytime—all
you iPhone and iPad users, beware!
The first location-based services
marketing went live in the UK in 2003,
Multimedia mobile marketing
In this era of Blackberry’s, iPhones, and
Androids, the potential for multimedia
marketing has skyrocketed through the
roof. Already in full swing in Western
Europe, multimedia ads are literally
“popping-up” across all content. There are
opportunities here for in-game mobile
marketing, mobile web marketing, as well
as location-based services marketing.
In the gaming world, brands are able
to deliver their promotional messages
Regional Report:
York Region
We’ll be visiting with direct
marketers of every ilk, right
here in our own backyard.
1. Include a consumer call-to-action—
just like any marketing campaign, the
consumer needs to know what to do next
2. Invite consumers to other mediums
and channels—it’s all about the multitouchpoint experience
3. Integrate with social media
marketing strategies—the more you get
the word out, the more impactful the
campaign will be
4. Adjust tactics based on campaign
performance—in such a new medium
of advertising, trial and error is every
marketer’s best friend
5. Combine with an offline marketing
campaign—this will make your brand
recognizable across all platforms
and now with every smartphone having
built-in GPS tracking systems, not to
mention the popularity of social media
services like Four Square, Facebook Checkins and Twitter locators, brands can target
their audience by not only geographic
regions, but by activities and habits.
Outlook on the mobile future
As we finally start to realize that the future
will be a mobile one, organizations need
to revise and update their marketing
strategies to stay up-to-date with the
changing times. Here are five ways to turn
up the volume on your mobile marketing
campaign:
Anita Kapadia has a diverse background in
marketing, public relations, customer service
and advertising across various industries
from high fashion and finance to insurance
and education. She is currently the Marketing
Manager for ResponseTek, a Customer
Experience Management software company
operating globally.
The list business
Search engine
optimization
Executives from Canada and
the U.S. share what’s new and
exciting in the world of lists.
in this issue
departments
Direct & Personal .......................................... 10
In the Mail ....................................................... 16
Worth Knowing ............................................ 17
Events Calendar ............................................ 23
advertisers
Canada Post 1
Environics 1&24
SMX4
Splice7
eMetric9
Mail-O-Matic11
PacNet12
Tetrad12
Metropolitian13
resource directory
On to a new era
B2B Marketing Magazine states that by 2014,
50% of all web browsing will happen via
mobile devices—not just smartphones,
but tablet computers and interactive
readers as well. This presents a huge
opportunity to reach an audience well
versed in technology. In this day and age,
this is an audience that would otherwise
PVR through TV commercials and listen to
commercial-free satellite radio; but they
will have their smartphone attached to
their hand at all times.
You know what else? The CTIA says
that in 2011 the global mobile advertising
industry will be a 16 billion dollar industry.
It’s high time that Canadians got a piece
of that pie.
By 2012, an estimated 10 trillion text
messages will be sent and delivered
globally. Those sure are some busy thumbs.
cell phone comes standard with SMS
messaging services, and it’s included in
most carriers’ plans.
back-up notepad, and imaging life
without it is getting harder and harder.
This issue fascinates me both
personally and professionally because
it offers a glimpse of not only the insider
direct marketing perspective, but also
an idea of how our lives as consumers
will be impacted by new services and
technologies. From what I’ve read, I say
bring it on.
SEO has been around for a long
time, yet continues to evolve
and become increasingly
sophisticated.
3
LISt SerVICeS 19-20
CleanList.com
ICOM
infogroup/infoCANADA
Arhway Marketing Services
SCOTT’S Directories
North American Direct Marketing
Direct Media Canada
Toronto Board of Trade
PLaStIC CarDS 19
CDN Print Plastic
DM CreatIVe 20
Designers Inc.
MaILInG eQUIPMent 20
Canadian Mailing Machines Inc
Bowe Bell & Howell
CaLL Centre PrODUCtS / SerVICeS 20
EXTEND Communications Inc
Protocol
DataBaSe MarKetInG 21
Boire Filler Group
Interact Direct
Environics Analytics
FULL SerVICe OPeratIOnS 21-22
Address-All Mailing Services Ltd.
Clixx Direct Marketing Services Inc.
CMS / Complete Mailing Services
Data Direct
DM Graphics
RDP Fulfillment Corporation
Mailmarketing Corporation
Origo Direct Marketing Communications
SMART DM
The FSA Group
Wood & Associates Direct Marketing
Services Ltd.
4
News
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
Deepak Chopra appointed CEO of the Canada Post Corporation
Five-year mandate for former Pitney Bowes exec By Sarah O’Connor
On January 18, 2011, the Honourable Chuck
Strahl, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure
and Communities, and the Honourable
Rob Merrifield, Minister of State (Transport),
announced the appointment of Mr.
Deepak Chopra of North York, Ontario, as
president and chief executive officer (CEO)
of the Canada Post Corporation for a fiveyear mandate, effective February 1, 2011.
Mr. Chopra is taking over leadership of the
Crown Corporation from Stewart Bacon,
who had served as interim President and
CEO since June 2010, following Moya
Greene’s departure.
Chopra brings more than 15 years
of international experience as a postal
industry executive, including his most
recent role as president and CEO of the
Canada and Latin America region at Pitney
Bowes in Toronto. He holds a postgraduate
diploma in business management and a
graduate degree in commerce. “Canada Post Corporation will benefit
greatly from Mr. Chopra’s dynamic leadership,” said Minister Merrifield. Minister
Strahl noted “His extensive experience
in dealing with government and postal
officials around the world, as well as his vast
knowledge of the regulatory bodies governing the mailing industry will definitely
be a strong asset to the corporation.”
The news of Chopra’s appointment has
been warmly received by leaders within the
Canadian direct marketing industry.
“I think it’s great that they reached out
to the private sector and found someone
who knows both the mailing business and
the importance of customer service,” says
John Gustavson, president and CEO of the
Canadian Marketing Association. “I think his
biggest challenge will be learning to work
in a Crown Corporation in a government
Remembering Martin Smee
Former CMA chairman, two-time Direct Marketer of the Year passes By Sarah O’Connor
Widely recognized as one of the greatest
Canadian marketers of his time, Martin
Smee is mourned by his many colleagues
and friends within the direct marketing
industry.
Smee immigrated to Canada in 1953 and
soon joined Simpson-Sears as a copywriter.
He later moved to MacLean Hunter where
he drove the circulation departments for
Maclean’s, Chatelaine, The Financial Post
and others. During his 35 years at MacLean
Hunter he earned a reputation for fostering
creative talents and pursuing innovative
marketing ideas.
Smee served as chairman of the
Canadian Marketing Association and was
twice named Canada’s Direct Marketer
of the Year. His work also garnered many
national and international accolades.
In 1978, Smee and his wife Joyce
launched Hampton House Books Ltd.,
selling books by mail order catalogue.
On January 6, 2011, Smee passed away
at the age of 83. He is survived by his wife
Joyce (to whom he was married for 54
years) and his children Catherine, Michael,
John (Glenda), Greg and Jennifer (Michael)
and his grandchildren Katie and Andrew.
“Martin served the association and the
industry in many capacities over many
years,” recalls John Gustavson, president
and CEO of the Canadian Marketing
Association. “He was a distinguished
Board Chair, a gracious host of our Awards
Gala and was named Direct Marketer of
the Year in 1992 for his many professional
accomplishments.
“On a personal note, Martin was a
great help to me in my first years at the
setting. That will be a new experience.”
Commenting on this appointment,
National Association of Major Mailer Users
(NAMMU) president Kathleen Rowe stated:
“Deepak Chopra certainly understands
the business of mail, and is bringing
additional business and human insight to
the most senior executive position at a very
critical juncture for the Corporation and its
employees. He has the advantage of a top
notch executive team, including interim
President, Stewart Bacon, to assist a smooth
transition. We certainly wish him well in
his new role – Canada Post’s success is the
mailing industry’s success.”
As president and CEO, Chopra now
sits on the Board of Directors of Canada
Post Corporation, and chairs the Strategy
and Priorities Meeting, which manages
the vision, strategies and priorities for
Canada Post and The Canada Post Group
of Companies, as well as the public policy
framework targets set by the Government
of Canada.
Smee served as chairman of the
Canadian Marketing Association
and was twice named Canada’s
Direct Marketer of the Year.
Association. He was always supportive,
encouraging and a great font of industry
knowledge. Always full of wit and humour,
he was a great friend to many of us and will
be missed by us all.”
“Martin Smee was no doubt one of the
great Canadian direct marketers,” says
Mona Goldstein of The Goldstein Group
Inc. “He was a true expert in classic direct
response – circulation creative, offers,
testing and on and on. I knew him as both
a client (MacLean Hunter) and a colleague
(the CDMA) and he was steadfastly a
gentleman, a kind, warm man with the best
smile in the business. My condolences go
out to the family.”
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Mobile
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
5
Mobile in direct marketing plans
What’s the Canadian context? By Steven Syczewski-Rapoport
The Canadian mobile landscape
is waking up, finally, and it
should impact direct marketers
in a significant way. Just sit back
for a second and think about the last
time you spent an entire day in the land of
direct marketing without hearing the term “mobile”
mentioned. Every client I engage with is thinking
mobile strategy—and this is across a diverse slice of
products and offerings. So, why shouldn’t Canadian
direct marketers be caught up in the mobile frenzy?
That’s simple—there are realities of imperfection that
still exist which are really Canadian in nature.
One barrier that recently started being chipped
away at is, simply, cost. A cell phone in Canada remains
an expensive monthly item for most—we average
about $57 per month on our cell phone bill (CWTA,
2010). But it seems our big three national mobile
providers, Rogers, Bell, and Telus, finally have some
price competition that might motivate them toward
offering more affordable plans. Foreign ownership of
Canadian mobile offerings saw changes to regulations
and that opened the door to companies like Wind to
enter the Canadian marketplace. With significantly
smaller profit margins and lower cost offerings, Wind
has quickly built up a base of 150,000+ customers
(CWTA, 2010). What will be significant in the next year,
as more foreign mobile offerings arrive in Canada, is
that we should finally see less expensive plans and
perhaps even unlimited plans in Canada, which are
already abundant in the U.S. marketplace. Hopefully
the increase in foreign competition will start driving
consumers to expect more of their mobile supplier.
Let’s also consider the reality of the audience
numbers. Canadians still lag behind when it comes
to mobile penetration—the Canadian Wireless
have access to a wireless phone. Is total adoption on
the horizon for Canadians? I think it’s likely. Although
we will never match the U.S. in terms of volume, we
certainly won’t be able to disregard mobile as a base
line tactic in any direct marketing campaign.
For me, as a direct response agency lead, the
What better place to find a one-to-one
connection with a consumer and potentially
glean the rich information that direct marketer’s
seek, including response behaviours and
purchase habits, than to create highly targeted
campaigns that drive efficiency?
Telecommunications Association tells us that 23.4
million of us subscribe to a wireless device. Our mobile
environment is significantly different from that of
our U.S. counterparts. With ten times our population,
wireless is a different animal in the U.S. Simply trying
to translate what’s working well in the U.S. to a
Canadian version doesn’t work.
The good news is that the landscape is changing.
We know that Canadians have really embraced
wireless over the past decade and I’ve read numbers
that claim as many as 75% of Canadian households
elephant in the room is the lack of benchmarks and
published success stories that have their roots in
Canada. The simple fact is that we don’t have access
to personal data on Canadian mobile consumers and
usage, and there’s practically zip on general trends.
What we’re doing is leveraging U.S. mobile campaigns
and learnings and struggling to make them Canadian,
and then hoping that post analysis results show us
that what worked in the U.S. might have worked
here. And, more often than not, that strategy doesn’t
drive efficient ROI. We’ve had help from insight
organizations such as Nielsen Online, Comscore,
and Evaliant but little of what they are currently
able to report on is truly Canadian, largely it is U.S.
extrapolations. We as direct marketers have to start
ensuring we take a hold of this, that we look for ways
to increase our knowledge of and validate Canadian
mobile behaviours so that we may put those to use
in effective mobile plans. What better place to find
a one-to-one connection with a consumer and
potentially glean the rich information that direct
marketer’s seek, including response behaviours
and purchase habits, than to create highly targeted
campaigns that drive efficiency?
As mobile marketing stretches beyond mobile
content providers, meaning those companies that
can easily sell via mobile ringtones, applications,
etc., and expands into other products, services, and
information companies, it’s time for direct marketers
to be pushing the envelope with mobile in their plans.
With the growing popularity and corporate/client
side adoption of more “mobile friendly” or “made
for mobile” sites that are delivering higher quality
consumer experiences as well as growth in content
and services that meet the mobile consumers needs,
the time for mobile integration in Canadian direct
marketing campaigns is now.
Steven Syczewski-Rapoport is Director, Response Media
for MacLaren McCann.
Mobile musings
A creative and a strategist share their views
By Les Tapolczai with Jason Chesebrough
Mobile is a battered and abused channel
in North America – one with widely
recognized potential, yet it has never been
given the love it so justly deserves. We need
to stop blathering on about QR codes, text
entry and mobile sites that mimic desktop
experiences, and focus on why people
are using mobile devices, and for what
purpose. Traditional folk take heed – this
isn’t another place to duplicate the print
ad or TV spot. Digital brothers and sisters,
leave your website at the door. We have the
opportunity, nay, the duty to engage our
consumers.
This isn’t a channel that is limited to a
cellular phone. Mobile means just that, a
device that you can walk around with. From
places us back where we once were.
Granted, running through the high fields
of hay towards Ma and Pa brings us to a
less rustic home, complete with low-flow
indoor plumbing, HE laundry machines
and streaming media from the handheld
to the flat screen – hell, even Mary’s been
sorted out thanks to Lasik surgery, but the
technology we feared would separate us
from the real world, has not. If computers
have made a gap, mobile has made the
bridge.
I find it fascinating the amount of
interaction I have with the ‘outside world’
through my mobile device. I consume
media, buy items, services, learn, explore
and share – without ever needing to
like minded people) on a spot where we
buy our butter, heralding one whipped
and salted delight over others, we listen.
You’ve heard the expression five friends tell
five friends… add a few dozen zeros to the
five, and you can see the ultimate power
available.
Just the other night Jason was having
dinner with his lady in an out-of-the-way
roadhouse, and going to the movies came
up in conversation amongst other things.
Here’s Jason’s version:
Over pints of red beer and long island
iced teas we chatted about this and that
while I launched my Flixster app as a
secondary thought – and we continued
to chat. With the skill of a ninja, I balanced
The technology we feared would separate us
from the real world, has not. If computers have
made a gap, mobile has made the bridge.
PDA’s to smart phones to tablets – people
are engaging with data in an entirely new
fashion.
When looking at mobile devices and the
way consumers use them, one stumbles
upon the realization that what’s old is new
again. I’m not referring to Gordon Gekko
(I’d love to have his “Greed is Good” speech
as my ringtone though). I’m talking about
what I like to call The-Little-House-on-thePrairie syndrome.
It’s a simple cause and effect where the
nostalgia we think we abandoned for the
promise of hi-fi and hover boards actually
interact with another carbon-based unit.
I don’t go to music stores, rarely set foot
in my bank and can’t remember the last
time I was in a travel agency, however I buy
music, get movie tickets, manage money,
plan trips and order food wherever and
whenever I want, and can do it 24 hours a
day.
But where the community aspect of
these seemingly independent experiences
lives, is in the state of always being aware of
who’s around me. No, we’re not going into
Mr. Olson’s store for a chat and a pound of
butter, but if he’s posted a comment (with
the conversation at the table with quick
glances and bursts of finger swiping to my
iPhone. In less than five minutes, without
skipping a beat discussing the silliness of
our days, we’d found a cinema nearby,
picked a movie, watched a trailer, gathered
the impressions from professional critics,
regular folks and our own friends – and
placed the proverbial cherry on top by
buying tickets to the show, then picked up
our evening without breaking stride. The
point of this tale? An amazing experience
with technology – fully integrated into our
date, where we accessed what we wanted,
and at our pace. As a marketer however,
take note: we were completely receptive as
consumers and if a brand had managed to
seamlessly integrate themselves into our
experience we would have been putty in
their hands.
Let’s face it, how much attention have
we been paying the consumer? A billboard
here, a banner there, and our work towards
immersive experiences is often preceded
by a flash loader, spinning its wares like
a third-rate carnie. As marketers, we’ve
been guilty of neglect. What happened to
the love? We’re not listening online, we’re
not bringing home flowers and I can’t
remember the last time we danced ‘just
because.’
A mobile experience is one of pure
power from the consumers’ point of
view. We need to be ready for them, and
it needs to be genuine. When someone’s
checking GPS to see the traffic on their
drive in – pulled over on the side of the
road with the vehicle in park of course – we
can’t just place a banner on the app and
consider our job done. Rather, this is a
perfect touch point to personally integrate
a brand into the task at hand. We can’t push
here – as consumers are pulling, it’s a time
to be gentle. We need to go along for the
ride, in whatever form that takes. I feel the
new world is one of predictive behaviour.
We need to ask ourselves ‘where is the
consumer now?’ and ‘where do we need
to be?’
Les Tapolczai is Director, Marketing &
Planning and Jason Chesebrough is Senior Art
Director at henderson bas khon.
6
Mobile
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
Smartphones & smart charities
How mobile is changing the way charities connect with donors By Claire Kerr
“Mobile” was one
of the biggest
buzz-words in the
charitable sector
last year. Canadians are rapidly adopting
smartphone devices, and the media
continues to be fascinated by stories of
mobile technology used for social good.
Everything mobile is sure to be a hot topic
for nonprofit professionals in 2011.
Most charities struggle to understand
how to successfully leverage the mobile
channel. It’s traditionally difficult for
nonprofit organizations to justify
experimenting in new technology without
a guaranteed return on investment.
The case for paying attention to
mobile-empowered donors and
supporters is now stronger than it’s ever
been. In Canada, the big three telecom
companies, Rogers, Telus and Bell, already
have a combined subscriber base of 6.7
million users on smartphones.
A recent analysis of traffic patterns
on our North American donation forms
at Artez Interactive revealed that seven
percent of visits in 2010 came from mobile
browsers. We are projecting this number
to grow by 30% over the coming year.
Statistics aside, many charities are
new to the idea of online fundraising
or advocacy, and are still wary of social
media. Investing limited resources in
projects or programs targeted to mobile
users can seem like a big risk – but those
organizations motivated to dip into the
mobile space are inspiring the sector with
creativity and innovation.
Canadian nonprofits are using three
popular strategies to reach out to mobile
supporters: text-to-donate (SMS giving),
the mobile web, and mobile applications
(apps).
Canada’s love affair with texting
One of 2010’s most memorable news
stories was the success of text-to-donate
programs in raising money for disaster
relief NGOs after the January earthquake
in Haiti. The American Red Cross alone was
able to raise $32 million through small gifts
via SMS.
Similar campaigns in Canada were
quickly deployed by organizations like
Plan Canada, World Vision Canada,
Canadian Red Cross, UNICEF and others
in order to capture micro-donations of
$5 and $10 for Haiti and Pakistan relief
response. International disaster aid is not
the only type of cause benefiting from the
immediacy of text-to-donate. Children’s
Miracle Network was able to raise over
$20,000 from text donations during a
single-day coast-to-coast radiothon in
April.
The Kidney Foundation of Canada also
integrated SMS giving into their holiday
campaign by featuring the short code on
www.kidney.ca and including a mobile
call-to-action (text KIDNEY to 45678) in a
special email appeal.
Smartphones continued on page 18
Top ten international mobile
marketing trends to watch in 2011
Rohit Dadwal of the Mobile Marketing Association offers a global perspective
Recent industry reports from InMobi and Synovate
have revealed that consumers around the world are
showing a greater inclination towards receiving mobile
advertising and marketing messages. The global
mobile advertising market is expected to grow to $13 to
$14 billion in 2011 with Asia Pacific expected to bring in
the majority of this revenue, followed by North America
and Europe.
As we enter 2011, here is a guide to new and existing
technologies poised to dominate the market that
should be on the radar screen of every organization:
Personalization and privacy will increase
the effectiveness and credibility of mobile
media as a marketing channel.
As mobile technology continues to evolve, mobile
marketing messages will become increasingly
personalized and relevant. Additionally, the adoption
of transparent, permission-based marketing along
with the introduction of regulations and applications
for blocking unwanted content will help overcome
the perception that mobile advertising is nothing but
spam. Mobile will be the only truly conversational and
measurable medium that can lead to an actual, realtime increase in business-to-consumer transactions.
Over-the-top services will drive data usage.
On-deck operator ad revenues will be overshadowed
by over-the-top application-based value-added
service revenues. These services will help create
mobile inventory and enable greater mobile ad spend.
Operators should take a step back from establishing
their own app stores and concentrate on enabling
more converged devices like tablets. Telecom service
providers will be forced to review their publishing
business investments and plans.
Free SMS/free video/free phone calls will be
available across devices.
Applications like WhatsApp and Viber are already
allowing free SMS and calls from mobile devices in
some markets. More such applications will be entering
the market making these basic mobile features
available free of cost across devices. We will also keep
seeing an increase in mobile video consumption. The
introduction of new ad units, including interactive and
partial screen, will subsidize free content.
We will see the re-birth of Windows 7 mobile.
The new and relatively strict hardware specifications
introduced by Microsoft are geared towards providing a
universal user experience much like Research In Motion
(RIM) and Apple. Based on prior experience with the
availability of too many phone variants, Microsoft is
focused on restricting the use of its new operating
system on phones that are not compatible. The re-birth
of the Windows 7 mobile will further fuel the growth of
mobile internet and advertising.
a new winner in the HtML5 versus apps war.
A lot has been said about how apps are expected
to peak in 2013 and have already shown signs of
slowing down. Though the new HTML offers great
opportunities, apps and app stores continue to rule
mobile content. The availability of basic functions
of an app even without an active or stable data
connection combined with the high level of usability
and engagement offered by app stores make it a much
more appealing option for customers. However, the
fact that apps are device specific and limit penetration
offers opportunities for experimentation that might
lead to a decline in their popularity over the
coming years.
Location-Based Services (LBS) + augmented
reality (ar) will be the leading integrated mobile
technology in the market.
The proliferation of GPS phones with digital compasses
has already given rise to a series of location-based AR
software platforms and applications. The combination
of AR with LBS allows for graphic content related to
the position of the user to be overlaid in real-time
onto camera images taken by the phone. This makes
for one of the most intuitive user interfaces currently
available on mobile and also makes the consumption
of location-based information a lot more fun. Such
specific targeting will not only fuel ad spend but also
transactions.
Mobile micropayments will allow customers to
pay from their ‘electronic wallets’ rather than atM
cards.
The electronic payment industry is growing rapidly
and provides significant opportunities for all electronic
payment channels including those on mobile
platforms. In developing countries, mobile banking
services can address a service gap that is critical to their
development. The key advantage of the introduction
of mobile payment will be quick transactions. There
are no credit card readers, no paper slips and more
security than written forms. It will be like an electronic
wallet that a customer will always have access to and
will provide them with relevant purchase opportunities
while they’re on-the-go.
the re-emergence of mobile blogging.
As mobile phones become more sophisticated and
feature-rich, they are increasingly being used as a
replacement for computers. With the introduction
and adoption of tablet devices, consumers now have
greater speed, connectivity and battery life in their
mobile devices. Several writers/bloggers are already
using these devices to pen down their thoughts. With
processing power that allows for editing and uploading
of content in various formats, these mobile devices
are fast becoming the preferred travel gadget for
professionals and have created opportunities for the
development of a whole new set of user applications.
Continued proliferation of smartphones and
mobile internet advertising.
It is expected that by 2011 over 85% of handsets
shipped globally will have browser capabilities. The
relatively large growth in smartphones combined with
their superior user interface will continue to encourage
more people to access conventional websites on their
mobile handsets. Business-to-consumer applications
can be delivered using conventional web tools as well
as web adaptation tools. As smartphone penetration
increases, more users will possess the technology to
view richer content on their mobile devices, making the
medium extremely useful for marketers.
Mobiles will jump on the 3D bandwagon.
3D technology is being incorporated in any and
every gadget available in the market today. Mobile
manufacturers have also experimented with the
technology and Spice Mobility in India has already
introduced a phone with 3D capabilities. Manufacturers
still have a long way to go in terms of creating a
sophisticated 3D mobile device but the market will see
a lot more experimentation in 3D phones in the coming
year. The technology will lead to the development of
new content and advertising avenues.
Rohit Dadwal is the Managing Director of the Mobile
Marketing Association Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
Features
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
7
The next generation of telephone marketing
Splice VoiceMerge software offers an innovative direct marketing solution By Kim Hughes
Splice VoiceMerge software allows marketers to connect
with customers via personalized pre-recorded messages so
sophisticated in sound and granular in detail that it sounds as if
an inexhaustible company spokesperson actually sat down and
called every single customer in his database by name.
When it comes to direct marketing and
customer service, perception really is
everything. Take phone calls, for example.
Research shows that companies
reaching out to existing or previous
customers with updates and special offers
are perceived as beneficial and welcome
and a far cry from the outdated (and now
stringently regulated) concept of poorly
timed cold calls pitching random stuff to
unsuspecting folks.
At the very vanguard of smart
customer-retention-based telephone
messaging is a wildly innovative and
high-tech new type of direct marketing
solution, Splice VoiceMerge.
Simply put, Splice VoiceMerge software
allows marketers to connect with
customers via personalized pre-recorded
messages so sophisticated in sound and
granular in detail that it sounds as if an
inexhaustible company spokesperson
actually sat down and called every single
customer in his database by name… and
from the exact locale the customer has
visited. Talk about engaging content.
If Splice executive vice president
Don Thompson has his way, the word
association conjured by the phrase
“marketing-based phone call” will soon be
“beneficial, individualized, cost-efficient,
measurable, smart,” and, well, “pretty darn
cool.”
“When I am dealing with other
executives trying to wrap their head
around our service—who correlate
phone calls with annoying pitches for
time-shares and cruise ships that come in
around suppertime—I realize our number
one business challenge is to get past that
perception.
“In order to do that,” Thompson
continues, “we have to make clients feel
confident about contacting customers,
and I’d say four things do that. Number
one, they are phoning receptive
customers with whom they have an
existing business relationship, or who
have provided permission. Number two,
the personalization and messages are all
in the same spokesperson’s human voice;
this always impresses customers when
they hear it. Number three, we are able to
provide statistical proof that it is accepted
by other clients and their customers. And
number four, the return on investment is
also excellent.
“When customers see the results we
can get for cents per call, they’re blown
away,” says Thompson, who describes
Splice’s ideal client as “someone who has a
big list of existing customers and likely has
some kind of customer loyalty database”
such as retailers and direct marketers.
“We also work very cooperatively with call
centres since we enable their staff to be
even more productive.”
Splice also handles non-marketing
customer service calls, more readily
permitted by the CRTC. And calls may be
delivered via phone, website, voice-overvideo and email.
The list of successes amassed by
Thompson’s Calgary-based company,
extensively catalogued on its website,
www.splicesoftware.com, are truly
impressive. For example, customers called
listen for an average of 40 seconds per
60-second message, which amounts to
60 percent listenership. Some 53 percent
listen to the entire message.
Eighty to 95 percent listen for at least
22 seconds, long enough to achieve
awareness of the organization and the
purpose of the message in question.
Only 15 percent of customers listen to
less than 20 seconds, which means they
still listen long enough to understand the
main message. And less than 0.5 percent
of customers ask to opt out of future
Splice messages which, critically, are both
FCC and CRTC (in the U.S. and Canada,
respectively) compliant.
So what exactly do the calls sound like?
In two words, smooth and personalized.
A customer will be greeted by name by,
say, a store manager at a specific location
where the customer has done business
previously. The customer may then be
thanked for their patronage and alerted
to a special offer. Significantly, the call
recipient is given the opportunity to opt
out of receiving similar messages in future,
not that many do.
“Fifty percent of adult Canadians have
signed up for the Do Not Call Registry
but given the choice, and we give every
customer a choice to opt out on every
phone call, only 0.5 percent are opting out.
So that’s one out of every 200,” Thompson
confirms. “We create a personal touch that
customers appreciate during an era of
increased digital and mass marketing. For
direct marketers, we fill an important gap
in personalized marketing.”
Neal Glickfield is a Splice believer. As
president of Marlo Furniture, with four
locations in the Washington D.C. area,
Glickfield reckons he has used Splice
technology “four or five times” to thank
customers for their business while inviting
them back into his retail locations to
collect special gifts of stemware and vases.
“And the calls have worked so well we
kept running them over and over again.
They haven’t lost their impact.”
Glickfield he was initially skeptical
about using the telephone for direct
marketing but high praise from similar
retailers in the U.S. and Canada who had
used the technology convinced him to
give it a try. His empirical success with
Splice compared to past marketing
initiatives sealed the deal.
“An email campaign is a bit cheaper but
without the same results. And a direct mail
campaign costs three times as much and
the results aren’t as great,” Glickfield says.
“People really like actual voices calling, the
personalization, being thanked for their
business, and being offered a free gift,
which is what we do.
“I mean, if you run this campaign four or
five times with very little opt-out rate and
every month you get fresh people coming
in, it’s clear this is something people like.
They vote with their wallets.”
Thompson continues: “The coolest
aspect of our technology is that we can
merge together multiple sound files from
one human voice into one continuous
message that is completely individualized
for each customer. So it sounds like the
person who did the voice recording cut
individual messages for each and every
customer. So in most cases the time
investment for, say, a store manager is
zero.
“We have a lot of intellectual property
and research and development into
being able to take streaming audio and
create sound files then splice them back
together again in a way that isn’t audible
or noticeable to the human ear. It’s pretty
high-tech stuff. Plus we can make this
process fast, efficient and not labourintensive to communicate with hundreds
of thousands or millions of customers as
if it is coming from hundreds of business
locations. We’ve automated that process
but maintained the quality.”
Enterprise Voice Systems … Made Human!
Dollar for dollar, SPLICE PERSONALIZED VOICE MESSAGES are more effective
than any media at generating awareness, traffic and qualified buyers.
Before SPLICE
After SPLICE
Hi, I’m Otto the Auto Caller,
Customers say I j st don’t
care abo t them bec use I’m
hard to und rst nd and can’t
personal ze what I SAY. Th t
hurts, bUt I am a bit cool.
“Each recorded call I make is personalized
with relevant information for every customer
and all in my real voice. Did I mention,
customers and call centers will love me.
SPLICE: 95% REACH + 45 SECONDS LISTENING = 2-10% RESPONSE
Test drive: www.splicesoftware.com/samples
1-855-677-5423
8
Features
10
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
key tips for building successful
data mining solutions
Part One: Identifying the right problem, getting the stakeholders onside and creating the quick win By Richard Boire
The following article is a first in a series
of articles on the top 10 tips for building
successful data mining solutions. The tips
listed below are in no order or priority and
should be considered equally in terms of their
importance.
henever I am interested in
reading up on a certain topic,
there always seems to be some
kind of top 10 or top five list pertaining
to successes or failures. Whether or not
they are the defacto list for that topic is
not really the point. The important point
to the reader is that these type of articles
attempt to draw on the broad experience
of the author regarding what has worked
versus what has not worked within a given
area. As one person who happens to have
worked within the area of data mining for
many years, it is my hope that I can provide
the reader with some key insights and
considerations as they undertake data
mining solutions.
W
1
Identifying the right problem
Anyone familiar with my company’s four-step approach to building
data mining solutions will recognize
that this tip is the really the first step of
our four-step approach. As any business
student will tell you, this issue is prevalent
throughout all business disciplines yet
companies still continue to face difficulties related to this step. These difficulties
arise because organizations encounter
many business problems in all facets of
their business; however, not all these
problems require a data mining solution
and, more importantly, how does one
prioritize these problems? Effective identification of business problems requires
the expertise and knowledge of the data
mining discipline complemented with
the domain knowledge of the specific
organization and its industry.
So what does this actually mean?
When undertaking any new project,
information and knowledge needs to be
gathered. As my father always stated in
the early years of my career, the key when
commencing any new assignment is to
“listen, listen, listen.” In this information
gathering process, the first step is to
identify the key stakeholders who will be
most impacted by the project. Interviews
and meetings will be conducted with
each of these stakeholders. In many cases
this process is simplified as there may
be only one key stakeholder who in fact
has been designated to represent the
interests of the company. In any case, a
picture of the real needs and issues from
the stakeholder’s perspective begins to
emerge. At the same time, the stakeholder
is also sharing their domain knowledge
with the data miner, thereby providing
insights to the data miner on what
solutions might be appropriate. Reports
and analyses are also sought out because
the knowledge and expertise of the data
miner may provide new insights and
findings that otherwise may have gone
unnoticed by the company.
Once this information gathering
process is complete, the issues and
needs become much more focused on
identifying problems that can be solved
by data mining techniques. For example, if
I have a campaign which yields a response
rate of 2% without any data mining and
which has a required breakeven response
rate of 20%, there are other issues beyond
data mining that need to be resolved here.
However, if this same campaign yielded
a response rate of 15%, potential data
mining solutions would be considered.
To better illustrate this issue of
gathering the right information, let me
provide another example. A company
asked us to build an acquisition response
model. Minimal exploration was required
as the need was very clearly identified
by the organization. We simply reacted
accordingly to the request and built the
required model. Yet throughout this
project, as expected, we developed a
stronger working relationship with the
organization and much more information
was shared with us, including how well
$ Benefits of RFM
# of Promoted Customers
Resp. Rate
# of Responders
Total Cost
With RFM
500000
3%
15000
$750,000
Without RFM
750000
2%
15000
$1,125,000
Difference
250000
$375,000
Using a promotion cost of $1.50 per customer, the RFM index yields a saving of $375000. This savings of $375000 is achieved since marketing can
promote fewer customers with the RFM index to achieve the same number of responders (1500) that are achieved without the RFM index.
is embraced by all the key stakeholders
within the organization? First of all, we
need to understand that the path to
achieving this is not necessarily straightforward, as roadblocks on this path
require the individual to think in a more
collective rather than individual vane.
In building solutions that are more
collaborative rather than individualistic,
our first step is to identify the key
stakeholders within the project. Typically,
these stakeholders will comprise
individuals from departments such as
marketing and I/T. In more complex
projects this can also include finance
and operations. Some projects might
even include solutions which involve the
needs to understand the solution. This
does not imply that the marketer needs
to necessarily understand the arcane
technical mathematical details behind the
model but at the very least they should
understand the information or variables
which comprise the model. Using the
explanation of the solution being a black
box because it involves advanced statistics
is not an acceptable reply. More common
understanding of these tools between
marketers and data miners helps to foster
a culture where these tools become
common components of the business
process. As we are all aware, most models
will be successful but indeed some will
fail. Adopting a black box approach
When creating either a tactical or strategic solution, the
key is communication amongst all the stakeholders as
this leads to increased understanding and ultimately
more likely buy-in towards a given solution.
these models performed. As a result, we
discovered that although our models were
working very well in targeting prospects
to respond, many of these new customers
were canceling within the first three
months. This discovery indicated that our
solutions should target prospects both on
likelihood to respond and also likelihood
to be retained within their first three
months. The situation indicated to us that
more engagement between ourselves
and the organization at the beginning of
this process would have resulted in more
appropriate tools upfront as opposed to
building these tools six months after our
initial engagement. A data discovery type
approach would have enhanced this level
of engagement from the beginning and
would have identified the real business
need as being a net response model rather
than a gross response model.
Once we have effectively identified
these issues and needs, some basic
level analysis should occur that allows
organizations to prioritize these issues and
needs based on the opportunity cost of
not undertaking this data mining work.
This can then allow the organization to
more closely align its resources toward
areas with the largest payback.
2
Getting stakeholders onside
As in any project-based discipline,
one of the keys to success is collaboration amongst the key stakeholders. How do we achieve a solution that
creation of customer-level profitability.
Projects that are deemed to be more
strategic rather than tactical will include
more stakeholders across a larger variety
of departments. The key to determining
these stakeholders is to identify
individuals who will be most impacted by
the solutions.
In a strategic-type project, such as the
creation of customer-level profitability,
many individuals are impacted by
the solution. Besides the ability of the
marketing department to develop and
execute campaigns that are more focused
on ROI, finance can also be more precise
when calculating the impact of any
business decision based on customer
profitability and how it impacts the overall
P&L. In terms of executing this strategy,
employees who are at the front line in
terms of serving customers are equipped
with better information about that specific
customer which ultimately translates
to a more appropriate customer-level
experience.
For more tactical-type projects, such
as building a predictive model, this effort
might consist of the data miner dealing
with a marketing manager and a person
from I/T. In fact, the level of involvement
from I/T might be very peripheral as I/T
is only used to explain information from
the database which the data miner does
not understand. Much more involvement
would occur between the marketer
and the data miner as the marketer
thwarts a more collaborative effort when
attempting to find out why the model
did not work. In the so-called black box
approach, the data mining practitioner
can explain mathematically what is going
on but cannot communicate what are the
real drivers and key variables of the model
and, more importantly, their importance
within the model. This is fine as long as
the model continues to perform; however,
if the model is not successful, both the
practitioner and the marketer will have
extreme difficulty explaining the causes
for failure. The causes for model failure
are best determined by opening up
the hood where both the marketer and
practitioner know the key model variables,
their relationship with the desired
modeled behaviour and their overall
contribution within the model. With a
black box approach to modeling, this type
of analytical forensics cannot occur and
ultimately leads to increased resistance
towards the use of future data mining
solutions.
When creating either a tactical
or strategic solution, the key is
communication amongst all the
stakeholders as this leads to increased
understanding and ultimately more likely
buy-in towards a given solution. But
the ability to achieve a certain level of
understanding that creates engagement
and buy-in is no easy task. This can require
much effort and work on the part of the
data miner but the rewards can be great.
Through this approach, the data miner
demonstrates the ability to collaborate
with others in order to achieve a given
solution. Corporate executives and
business books identify this trait as one
of the keys to being a successful leader in
today’s business environment.
3
Creating the quick win
As with any new process or
change, there will always be initial
resistance or simply a willingness to carry
on as before. The simple introduction of
data mining as the nirvana of increased
ROI does not necessarily imply that it will
become a standard business discipline
within the organization. Employee
engagement and executive level
engagement still adhere to the “show me
the money” philosophy. It is the immediate
bottom line impact of any change that will
ultimately alter behaviour. Data mining
is no different. So how do we effectively
demonstrate this?
Establishing quick wins is the key. By
producing a solution in a relatively shorttime frame with minimal resources can
yield results which indeed ‘show me the
money’. This can be as simple as finding
an initiative where no prior targeting
has been done. Using a simple index
approach such as RFM, we then apply
the RFM index to an upcoming initiative.
We can then select our targeted group
which have the highest indexes and then
compare them to a control group which
has been randomly selected. The table
above illustrates the calculations based a
list of customers (500,000) that have been
sorted based on their RFM index.
These kind of results can also be
demonstrated without waiting for a
future initiative. If we can identify previous
initiatives that have yielded results
without the use of any targeting, we can
then apply the RFM approach to this
initiative. We can then determine what
would have happened if we had used this
approach in selecting the best names.
This approach is often referred to as back
testing and represents not only a quick
approach but a very cost efficient one with
the only cost being the practitioner’s time
in conducting this type of analysis. Armed
with these type of results, the practitioner
and marketer can more easily engage the
use of data mining in future initiatives
and to ultimately begin embedding it as a
standard business discipline.
Richard Boire, B.Sc. (McGill), MBA (Concordia),
is the founding partner at the Boire Filler
Group, a nationally recognized expert in the
database and data analytical industry.
Features
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
Pro bono: When marketing matters more
oes this sound familiar? You’re in a meeting.
In the heat of the marketing moment,
passions flare, and just when it seems things
might get out of hand, someone says “hey, calm down,
we’re not saving lives here.”
But sometimes, when we’re very, very lucky, we are.
As skilled marketers we get to use our mad powers
of persuasion to make the world a better place—with
pro bono work. And it’s not just an opportunity or an
obligation, it¹s a gift.
In my career I’ve worked on pro-bono creative
campaigns for the Toronto Humane Society, Special
D
Grey Canada brings dignity to life with real
objects atop bus shelters.
Olympics, The Canadian Anti-Fur Alliance, True Patriot
Love, Covenant House, Unicef, the International Fund
for Animal Welfare, Fashion Cares and the White Ribbon
Campaign. I’ve had the transformational experience
of being part of a global campaign that resulted in
the almost complete cessation of cosmetic testing on
animals in the 1980s. It’s almost impossible to describe
this feeling.
Of course there are lots of reasons why agencies do
pro bono work. Here are my top 10:
Passion for the cause
How often does one get the chance to rescue child
soldiers, save an animal, give shelter to a homeless
person, support our military, protect battered women
or fight cancer? For many agencies and marketers there
is a special cause that affects them profoundly, one that
is dear to their hearts, often for personal reasons. And
when they’ve reached a point in their careers where
they can make a difference, they step up.
By Brenda McNeilly
soldiers back into children, which involved mailing
out packages of what appeared to be toy soldiers,
but when opened turned out to be children reading,
playing and riding bikes. Y&R’s parent company, WPP,
is so committed to pro bono work that they have an
entire showcase of it on their website, wpp.com, under
Corporate Responsibility.
Motivate staff
There is a buzz and energy that swirls around the
creation of pro bono work in agencies. You have to see
and experience it yourself to truly understand it. That
energy cascades into other paying client work, makes
staff proud to come to work and be associated with the
cause and reminds us all of the bigger picture.
Social responsibility
Though there’s an element of altruism here, the reality
is that it’s considered more than desirable to for an
agency to help charities and community groups, or to
give back. Many agencies limit their pro bono clients to
one at a time or per year, and set aside a finite bucket of
non-billable hours, to ensure that paying clients don’t
suffer.
awards
The cynics would have us believe pro bono work is all
about ego and winning awards. There’s no denying
that some of the most famous campaigns in history
have been pro bono. Certainly the annual award shows
are filled with pro bono creative and Saatchi’s United
Nations Voices campaign even took home a Lion in
2008. Some awards shows, like the CMA’s, have even
created their own pro bono category.
“Award” is not a dirty word. Awards make clients and
charities famous too, and put their products and causes
on a pedestal for all to see. As for the stage-walk, that’s a
little bit of alright too.
Creative opportunity
Pro bono work is different. It affords creative latitude
and risk-taking that’s rare in agency work. It reveals
what creatives are truly capable of and pushes us to
our limits. Last year Y&R Johannesburg did a brilliant
direct mail campaign for Unicef about turning child
attract new business
When pro bono work gives an agency the chance
to show what it’s got, the resulting publicity can
attract future paying clients, and facilitate important
top-tier introductions. Still, there are no guarantees
and agencies have no illusions about this, yet their
This Y&R campaign raised awareness of child
burn victims in Mexico.
presidents and CEO’s continue to support pro bono
work. I like this.
Generate Pr
There’s no question than an agency adds to its profile
and reputation when it takes on a pro bono cause,
particularly if the campaign picks up awards. But even
in the absence of awards, marketing media are often
more than willing to cover feel-good stories about pro
bono work.
Pro bono continues on page 18
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Column
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
direct&Personal
by Billy Sharma
Claude Legrand
He could best be described as a catalyst
here is a certain chemistry about Claude. He
is warm, friendly and amiable. He is also very
smart. But the characteristic that sets him
apart from others is that he views things from a different
perspective.
He is at the cutting edge of a new wave of thinking
which allows organizations to become more innovative.
He not only is at the forefront of innovative thinking and
innovative intelligence but is also very busy writing a book
about it. The book is called Innovative Intelligence and will
be published in January by John Wiley & Sons.
As the name of his company, Ideaction Inc., would
suggest, his passion and commitment are directed at
helping business leaders discover ways to become more
innovative and achieve greater success.
The phrase “been there, done that,” aptly applies to
Claude. He has launched two very successful careers
from scratch: first direct marketing and now, innovation
consultancy.
As he told me when we met, “I studied business in
T
France and worked briefly as a stockbroker before being
bitten by the advertising bug. I worked for DDB in Paris
and then moved to Wunderman.
“It was at Wunderman France in 1975, when I got into
direct marketing. We produced catalogues and direct
mail pieces for Yves Rocher, a major mail order cosmetic
company.
“Direct marketing was in its pioneer years and I was
lucky to learn the business from a group of ex-Reader’s
Digest professionals who had moved to Yves Rocher. It
became a great school of learning about direct marketing
from the ground up.
Even though he has since moved away from direct
marketing, Claude is very proud of his accomplishments
in that field.
At Wunderman in France he helped build Yves Rocher
into the number two cosmetic company in Europe.
“This was a time when the sky was the limit and you
could produce ads or inserts that could beat the previous
control by 50% or 100%. Thrilling times. We tested each
incentive improving things along the way.
“One of the things I still remember from the precomputer era was developing all the ads and the monthly
mailings for Yves Rocher. Every month we would create
a slew of mailing pieces or ads. There would be a control
package and between 15 and 20 tests each time. And
each test would be a different version on a film overlay on
a master mounted on cardboard. I can’t believe we never
made any major mistakes with the number of details we
had to take into account.”
Then there was a time when he was asked to move to
Sao Paulo, Brazil. Claude was barely in his late 20s at that
time. As a young man he was in charge of building a new
office for Wunderman in Brazil.
“Once again direct marketing was in its infancy in Brazil
and there was no existing specialist to get information
from. Creating an industry was exciting but exhausting.
“When I moved to Brazil I learned my first two words of
Portuguese on the plane. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ were the
only two words I knew when I landed.”
Claude fondly recalls his move to Wunderman in
Montreal and the many talented people around him.
“I worked for an exceptional organization and a great
leader, Alan Booth, who later went on to lead Hume
Publishing in the U.S. At that time direct marketing was an
art and a science and all our clients were highly sophisticated and understood the intricacies of the profession.
“The toughest time of my career was in the early ‘80s.
After being with Wunderman in Montreal for a couple
of years, I decided to move back to Paris to create a new
direct marketing agency. Unfortunately my partner
proved to be less than ethical and I quickly returned to
Montreal and then to Toronto in 1982.
“I decided to start a children’s book mail order
business. However, the day after my inserts appeared in
newspapers and magazines, Canada Post went on strike
"This was a time when the sky was the limit and you could produce ads or
inserts that could beat the previous control by 50% or 100%. Thrilling times. We
tested each incentive, improving things along the way."
for over five weeks.
“I lost almost everything but this forced me to become
a consultant, which has proven to be fun and rewarding
for the past 30 years.
“In a strange twist of fate, in 2004 I got a contract to
facilitate the strategic planning for Canada Post. It was a
fascinating nine month contract that led in particular to
the renewed push by Canada Post to get into the direct
marketing field in a big way.”
As a consultant Claude also helped Cossette create a
direct marketing agency called Blitz
As he told me, “Blitz was really a promotion house at
the time. It was fun to help win some great accounts such
as Bell Canada. Cossette in those days could do no wrong.
“Finally, after spending many years as a consultant, my
last direct marketing job was to help develop the concept
for Direct Protect to help them sell insurance directly.
“I started drifting away from direct marketing in 1981
when my interest shifted and I developed my innovation
business. I was able to call it quits by the late ‘80s.
“I had left the direct marketing business for good and
I am happy I did. There are very few clients today who
know how to apply the type of rigorous direct marketing
methodology I knew and enjoyed once. Most of the direct
mail I receive at home today would not have passed the
tests I knew and practiced.
“My favourite was a direct marketing ad in a magazine
that was printed in reverse on a dark background,
including the coupon. So, you needed a white pen to
respond.”
Along the way of pursuing his two successful careers,
Claude acknowledges many people who have influenced
his life and his career and each of them were critical in
shaping the path he finally took.
At the top of the list is his wife Sheila Robb, who Claude
describes as magical (I have met her and I agree).
“The biggest influence has been my wife who tirelessly
supported me in my new direction and while I wrote a
book on leadership, innovation and how organizations
can become more inventive.
“Next, my life was dramatically changed for the better
after my daughter, Lauren, was born when I was 43. Until
then work was the single most important priority and
suddenly she became my priority. Today she is a second
year student at Wilfred Laurier in Waterloo.
“When I look back at my life and career, I realize that
I have worked for at least two clients in each major
category of advertisers. I have worked for six publishers,
three banks, two car companies, two phone companies,
and finally ran out of steam for direct marketing. I realized
I wanted to change when it became obvious that the new
generations of direct marketers were practicing a different
kind of art and science.
“The work I have done in the area of innovation has
been incredibly rewarding and exciting because it is
always different and gets the steam back up.”
As you can see Claude Legrand has achieved a lot.
However, the real litmus test to prove his success in both
fields, direct marketing and innovation, is the fact that
one organization remained a client for over 25 years - Yves
Rocher.
Try beating that!
Billy Sharma is president and creative director of Designers Inc.
He can be reached via email at: [email protected] or
by telephone at: 416. 203. 9787
Regional Report
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
11
REGIONAL
REPORT:
Vancouver
Cutting edge DM in the Olympic city
By Sarah O’Connor
Who we met with:
antarctica Digital
Peter Hrabinsky of Antarctica Digital
Antarctica is a results-driven interactive technology
services provider offering innovative technology
and processes that build customer engagement.
Contac Services, Inc.
Sekiwa Wi-Afedzi of Contac
Contac is a one-source solution provider specializing
in data-driven one-to-one communications and
supply chain solutions.
Datacore Mail Management Services
Karly Baker, General Manager of DataCore
Datacore is a 25-year-old database marketing
company with roots in data analytics, offering a onestop solution for data and mail management needs.
Harvey McKinnon associates
Harvey McKinnon of Harvey McKinnon Associates
Harvey McKinnon Associates is a consultancy
specializing in fundraising, relationship building and
direct mail for the nonprofit community.
Mail-O-Matic Services, Ltd.
Rob Rendell (left) and Frank
Ferrucci of Mail-O-Matic
Mail-O-Matic is a direct marketing and mailing
services provider, offering a wide range of services
including custom imaging and direct addressing.
Metropolitan Fine Printers
Niko Kallas, president of Metropolitan
Fine Printers
Metropolitan Fine Printers is an award-winning
printing company, specializing in environmentally
progressive processes and superior reproduction.
Pacnet Services Ltd.
Renee Frappier of PacNet Services
PacNet is a one-stop global payment solution
provider and has been recognized as the world’s
leading payment processing company for the direct
response industry.
responsetek
Marketing Manager Anita
Kapadia of ResponseTek
ResponseTek is a leading provider of integrated
customer experience solutions focused on
automating customer feedback and the voice of
customer information within business.
tetrad Computer applications
Programer/Analyst Alfred Jim (left) and President
Wilson Baker of Tetrad
Since 1967, Tetrad has been developing marketing,
engineering and management applications
software, including PCensus and SiteWise.
W
ith the Pacific Ocean on one
side and the Rocky Mountains
on the other, Vancouver is the
most populous city in Western Canada
and the third largest in the country (after
Toronto and Montreal). While the city
has always enjoyed a healthy tourism
industry, The 2010 Winter Olympics, held
last February, thrust Vancouver into the
spotlight in an unprecedented way. A year
later, Vancouverites seem more in love with
their city than ever.
“I love being in Vancouver,” says
Anita Kapadia, Marketing Manager for
ResponseTek. “Our marketing community
in Vancouver is just so vibrant and there
are so many people that you can reach out
to, bounce ideas off. I feel like Vancouver is
a really fantastic place to be as a marketer.”
“For us Vancouver is the perfect place
to do business,” says Renee Frappier of
PacNet Services. “Canada has reasonable
labour laws and it’s easy to attract quality
of Harvey McKinnon Associates, a
consultancy specializing in not-for-profit
campaigns.
While the advantages to doing
business in Vancouver are many, it’s not all
mountain vistas and mild temperatures.
“There are a lot of head offices that
Vancouver is not getting,” says Nikos
Kallas, President of Metropolitan Fine
Printers, “which is a problem for the
industry, because head offices are typically
the ones who are printing annual reports,
sustainability reports, that kind of stuff.”
“The only way I think [being located
in Vancouver] has really affected us is
when you think about dollar parity,” says
Frappier. “A lot of our commissions come
in foreign currencies and as the Canadian
dollar strengthened against the U.S.
dollar, that affected the way our profits
are reported. It is a bit of a double-edged
sword, because we are international. We
have expenses all over the world too.
Wi-Afedzi. “It was interesting; the economy
really slowed down but the Olympics in
Vancouver was huge. And we did a lot of
print work for the Olympics.”
“I think [the Olympics] had a big effect
on the psyche on the lower mainland and
as a result it was great for business,” says
Karly Black, General Manager of DataCore
Mail Management Ltd. “I can’t actually give
you a dollar value that I would have seen
injected into our business, but it was just
fabulous. It gave a reprieve, frankly, from
the time that we’d all spent grieving over
the economy and wondering and we had
some customers of ours directly impacted,
and as a result we did some work.”
“We’re talking about two of the worst
years in the world’s economic history, and
we fought through it and we probably
didn’t feel it as much, as badly as some
other markets,” says Kallas. “We were
very lucky to have the Olympics to fill the
gap that was missing. We did see quite
"This time zone is perfect for dealing with Asia. By the time
everybody wakes up it’s our afternoon and we’re on the phone
with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan."
employees to Vancouver because of the
lifestyle. The cost of living is a bit of an
issue, but once people arrive and look
around, they’re usually willing to tighten
the belt a bit for everything else the city
has to offer.”
“It’s really easy to live here,” says
Sekyiwa Wi-Afedzi of Contac. “It’s so easy
to get around, it’s so easy to walk to work,
be in the middle of the action. Where our
office is located is fantastic. We’re on the
edge of Gastown, Chinatown, and the
downtown core and the area is home to
a ton of animation studios, tons of design
studios. We’re in a really interesting pocket
of the city. It’s beautiful, it’s clean, it’s
surrounded by a lot of different kinds of
culture, and it all kind of comes together
and works together really quite well.”
“Vancouver is the best place to
live," says Peter Hrabinsky of
Antarctica Digital. “I’ve been to a
lot of places, but it’s a great place
to live." There’s nothing that
limits us due to geography. I just
love where we’re at.”
Hrabinsky’s sentiment was
echoed by several others who
find that Vancouver is the
perfect place to stay in touch
with their international clientele.
“This time zone is perfect for
dealing with Asia,” says Frappier.
“By the time everybody wakes
up it’s our afternoon and we’re
on the phone with Australia,
New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan,
Japan. Japan is a big market for
us.”
“If you’re willing to
occasionally hop on a plane, you
can do marketing anywhere”
thanks to technologies like
Skype, says Harvey McKinnon
And if we’re paying those expenses with
Canadian dollars, then it looks like we’re
paying an awful lot for these various
services. But I’d much prefer to see our
revenues when the Canadian dollar is
lower. It works much better for us.”
“Part of the problem being in B.C. is that
you need a certain number of households
to make mail profitable,” says McKinnon.
“Smaller nonprofits with limited
geographic areas they may not have
enough households to cost effectively
do direct mail. Because lists are harder to
get, print runs are smaller and many other
copy and design costs are fixed whether
you’re mailing to 1,000 people or 100,000
people.”
Olympic impact
“2010 was a pretty big growth period,” says
a bit of business that came directly from
the Olympics, but if we didn’t have that
business, [2010] would have been a bad
year.”
“We started planning months in
advance of the Olympics, trying to
troubleshoot in what way it might affect
us,” says Frappier. “We were concerned
about courier deliveries, because a lot
of our clients are sending, for example,
unendorsed cheques to us for endorsing
and processing. And we rely on those
courier deliveries, so we were concerned.
We planned and planned, and everything
went beautifully, there wasn’t a hitch.
There wasn’t a single thing that went
wrong for us. It was exciting.”
For McKinnon, the Olympics were not
such a boon, and in fact he found that the
event had a negative impact on the arts,
12
Regional Report
social services and other not-for-profit
services that experienced dramatic
government budget cuts.
trendspotting
Vancouver’s thriving technology sector
puts the direct marketing industry on the
cutting edge of emerging trends.
“What I see is really exciting is how
companies are finally realizing the
importance of aligning their marketing
initiatives with not only digital, but with
traditional initiatives,” says Hrabinsky.
“It’s easy, even as a professional marketer,
to think that, yeah, I’m going to bet
everything on this one initiative, or this
one ad spend, or this one list rental, or
this one thing. It’s really opening your
mind to the multi-channel marketing
aspect where you bring everything into
one unified initiative, where everything is
interacting with one another. I think that’s
a movement I’m seeing, integrating these
various marketing components to actually
drive marketing in a more efficient way.”
“We used to do direct mailers, you
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
know, 300,000 direct mailers, four-overfour, eight by six or something like that,”
says Kallas. “Now we’re seeing 25,000
specialty die cut, embossed, touchy-feely,
special coatings or finishes, embossing,
foiling, all these different things that add
value to the product.
“You know, I live in an apartment and I
go down and I see some of the junk mail
printed on newsprint and stuff like that,
and it’s all in the garbage. I rarely see the
nice stuff that comes in the mail in that
recycling bin.”
“In my opinion a lot of the market, I
don’t know if it’s everywhere but out
West has changed to a lot of small volume
mailers,” says Brenda Porter of Mail-OMatic. “It’s not necessarily that people are
just mailing smarter but there are a lot
of people that maybe weren’t doing DM
before that have smaller lists and things
like that.”
“I think that we’re going to be seeing
that companies are really bringing
customer experience onto the main
stage,” says Kapadia. “They’re really
beginning to notice how big of a role that
plays in not only getting new customers,
but also retaining their current customers,
especially in really competitive industries,
such as insurance providers, or telecoms,
or even banking.
“I’m assuming that the customer
experience management field is going
to grow immensely. I think that a lot of
companies are really going to start to use
the internet and technology as a medium
to really reach out to their customers and
get that feedback, no matter which way
they do it.”
Looking ahead
After a generally difficult year in 2009 and
the unique influence of the Olympics in
2010, it’s difficult to predict what 2011 will
hold for Vancouver’s direct marketing
industry.
“I see 2011 as being a little bit higher
than 2010,” says Kallas. “I see some of the
weaker companies falling behind and
some of the stronger companies getting
stronger.”
“We feel cautiously optimistic,” says
Frappier. “We’ve been speaking to a lot
of our clients and really engaging them
about their plans for this coming year. And
many of them have plans to target new
markets, to roll out new products. They’re
innovating, and I think they’ve decided
that this is the year that everybody gets
back on their horses and goes charging
off. And we expect that we’ll see positive
results from all of that activity on the client
side.”
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
METPRINTERS.COM/GREEN
13
14
Click!
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
PROFITING FROM THE ONLINE REVOLUTION
Web Marketing/Online Integration/Internet
Initiatives/eCommerce Tactics/Digital Transactions
Merging new media and traditional analytics to increase tourism
How Atlantic Canada attracts visitors using segmentation online
BY CatHerIne PearSOn
In the afterglow of the 2010
Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, tourism
agencies across the
country were eager to
capitalize on fired-up
interest among
Americans for visiting
their neighbour to the
north. But with budgets tight
and the U.S. still climbing out of
a recession, the Atlantic Canada Tourism
Partnership (ACTP) recognized that, when
it came to marketing, business as usual
wouldn’t be enough to entice Americans
to pack their bags and open their wallets
once again. While previous advertising
efforts had focused on traditional print
media, the Marketing Committee of
ACTP’s four provinces—New Brunswick,
Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia
and Prince Edward Island—decided to go
in a bold, new direction. They earmarked
one-third of their U.S. budget for a targeted
online marketing campaign to prospects
from New England, whose proximity to the
border allows for quick and easy Canadian
vacations.
Bolder still, the project involved a
collaboration between an innovative
segmentation system and an untried online
data exchange attempting one of its first
cross-border marketing campaigns. “The
world is changing and ACTP recognizes
that the way ACTP communicates with the
region’s visitors has to change as well,” says
Dave Bryanton, Senior Tourism Policy and
Research Analyst at the Atlantic Canada
Opportunities Agency, who directed the
research project.” ACTP still believes that
you need a combination of traditional and
new media to reach prospective tourists.
But ACTP knows that new media is the
future and they want to be prepared when
that tipping point occurs.”
To determine the New Englanders
most likely to visit Atlantic Canada, ACTP
asked Environics Analytics (EA) to segment
previous visitors and those who had
inquired about coming to the provinces.
It wasn’t the first time ACTP had worked
with EA. In 2007, ACTP asked for EA’s help
in classifying visitors from the Northwest
and Mid-Atlantic states using PRIZM, the
U.S. segmentation system from Nielsen that
groups consumers into one of 66 lifestyle
types. Three years later, EA analysts were
able to leverage the previous research,
supplementing the earlier data with new
findings to project the types of visitors and
inquirers into New England. The result:
researchers identified three target groups
of prospective tourists representing 46
percent of the 5.5 million households in
New England. EA associates then analyzed
the three target groups, detailing their
demographics, lifestyles, values and, most
importantly, media preferences to help
ACTP determine how best to allocate its
media dollars.
Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership is delivering a variety of different online banner ads targeted to visitors depending on the interests.
Tourism Prince Edward Island
Nova Scotia Economic and Rural Development and Tourism
New Brunswick Tourism and Parks
The three target groups represented
a wide range of tourist lifestyle types.
Exurban Explorers, a group of about
1.1 million New Englanders, consists of
affluent, mature empty-nesters with high
educations and a preference for newspaper
and magazine media over online channels.
When they travel, they like to experience
diverse cultures and scenic destinations,
frequenting cultural events, pro sports
matches and farmer’s markets.
Outdoorsy Elite, also about a million
households, is characterized by middle-
as much of that market as possible,” says
Bryanton.
Because the New England target
group analysis indicated there was
significant potential in both print and
online marketing, ACTP developed a
media strategy using both channels. “Our
goal was to make ACTP’s media buy as
efficient as possible,” says Bryanton. But
while the group had a positive track record
with various print outlets, online media
represented new territory. “The ACTP
Marketing Committee wanted to know
"This isn't rocket science, but it is necessary
to reach an audience in a new type of media
where people are now spending a lot of time."
aged, married couples with high incomes
and educations who are heavy users of
both print and online media—especially
websites for banking, shopping and travel
planning. They like to vacation in areas
where they can experience lots of outdoor
adventures—fishing, hiking, camping and
kayaking.
Then there are the Young Sophisticates:
about 400,000 households of younger,
married couples with young children
concentrated mainly in Boston and its
surrounding suburbs. They enjoy luxury
travel as well as weekend getaways filled
with afternoon excursions and downtown
nightlife. But rather than reading
newspapers or magazines, this group is
constantly plugged in, taking the internet
with them on their smartphones, iPads and
laptops. And although Young Sophisticates
is much smaller than the other groups,
ACTP still considered them a desirable
audience because they may evolve into the
other lifestyle groups. “ACTP wants to build
a relationship with them and try to capture
which online media provided the best way
to communicate with its target groups,”
he says.
The answer to that question began
to take shape last November when
Bryanton attended EA’s annual user
conference in Toronto. There he learned
that EA had recently formed a partnership
with BlueKai, a California-based data
exchange that compiles anonymous
audience data on over 200 million online
users—approximately 80 percent of the
U.S. internet population. Through the
partnership, BlueKai enables marketers
to deliver digital advertising to PRIZM
segments and target groups in real time
whenever users go online. Bryanton saw
a perfect opportunity for ACTP to find
its online audience through this new
collaboration.
In December, BlueKai compiled an
audience segment of Americans with the
targeted PRIZM codes and a geographic
overlay for New England. ACTP’s media
buying agency, Jungle Media, then
Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, Culture and Recreation
contacted the adConion ad network to
develop a custom list of sites with a strong
reach across the three target groups and
a solid presence in New England. The
lineup included tripadvsior.com, usatoday.
com, smithsonian.com, outsidehub.com,
iexplore.com, facebook.com and nytimes.
com. Whenever the IP address of a targeted
visitor lands on one of those websites, an
advertisement—a banner ad, tower ad or
streaming video—would appear with a
message promoting tourism in one of the
Atlantic Canadian provinces, customized to
each group.
“When the ad network recognizes the
user, it instantaneously fires off an ad from
Atlantic Tourism,” explains Julie Gardner,
a New York-based account manager at
BlueKai. “And it goes to any online user who
has the PRIZM code in the New England
geography. It’s really a new way to reach
people online by matching them through
PRIZM offline.” The approach also has the
benefit of helping clients like ACTP precisely
measure campaign effectiveness by
calculating the number of click-throughs,
inquiry requests and conversion rates from
bookings and other travel plans.
To Gardner, the ACTP offline-online
project isn’t so much a technological leap
as a natural evolution in target marketing.
“This isn’t rocket science,” she says. “But
it is necessary to reach an audience in a
new type of media where people are now
spending a lot of time. You don’t want
to miss out on online marketing.” While
BlueKai has been focused on providing
intent data (identifying people who are
in-market to buy) on U.S. online users for
several years, this winter for the first time
it’s making PRIZMC2 data available on
Canadian online users.
ACTP’s online ads are scheduled to break
this month and run through June. And
while tourism officials don’t have a specific
goal for increasing the number of visitors as
a result of the campaign, they do want to
see a return on their investment. “For every
media dollar spent or purchased in the
U.S., ACTP wants to generate ten dollars in
visitor spending,” says Bryanton. “At the end
of the day, we want to increase awareness
and drive visitation to Atlantic Canada from
its key segments. We want the conversion
and the ROI.” Next fall, ACTP will receive the
results from a visitor spending survey and
will then determine whether the PRIZMBlueKai approach was a success.
Bryanton hopes that a positive
outcome will lead to more projects that
merge offline segmentation with online
targeting. “ACTP hopes to measure the
results, refine the process and then apply it
again,” he explains. While ACTP’s budget is
tiny compared to the likes of Las Vegas or
Disney World, the smart use of innovative
media and marketing options can result
in smaller tourism groups having an
outsized impact. “It’s important to be
more tactical as marketers,” says Bryanton.
“You have to identify the high-potential
lifestyle segments and then be very
tactical in building a relationship to create
demand within those groups.” And with
travelers increasingly using the internet
for destination planning, Bryanton knows
many of those relationships will be built
virtually with the help of new media
technologies.
Catherine Pearson is Vice President and
Practice Leader, in charge of the finance,
insurance, travel and telco sectors, at
Environics Analytics.
Features
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
Direct Marketing is Canada's leading
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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.
15
16
Column
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
inthemail
Scoring a thumbs up from
parents and teens
Bimm’s back-to-school campaign for TELUS
does double duty By Kim Hughes
Client: TELUS
Campaign: Your Status is Epic
Account/Creative Team:
Roehl Sanchez – Creative
Denika Angelone & Jennifer Cosgrove –
Account service
Scott Keeling – Production
M
ost direct response campaigns
are highly targeted with a
bull’s-eye touch point firmly
positioned in the marketer’s crosshairs.
But there are exceptions, especially
when the direct mail is acquisition-driven.
Those exceptions invariably lead to highly
creative pieces of mail, a recent example
of which included an iconic green and
orange frog and a universally recognizable
blue thumb.
Witness a 2010 back-to-school
campaign executed by Bimm Direct &
Digital on behalf of TELUS, their client
since 2004. At the heart of the pitch was
the new INQ Chat 3G mobile phone
offering enhanced access to social media
networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
While status-addicted teenagers
were the ones likely to covet the nifty
new devices, parents for the most part
would be the ones footing the bill for the
accompanying plan. So the challenge
for Bimm was to create one piece of mail
targeting two distinct audiences with
divergent agendas.
The solution? A piece of mail speaking
to students on one side and parents on
the other that arrived folded and with
the iconic Facebook ‘I like it’ thumbs-up
symbol thematically uniting them.
On the ‘Students will like this’ side,
targets were sold on the INQ’s techie
features, such as status updates, Tweets
and emails available on their home
screen and delivered in the hyperbolic
language common among social media
users. On the ‘Parents will like this’ side,
TELUS itemized the multiple talk and text
features included with the $40 monthly
plan, which also offered the phone free as
part of the deal.
The initial flip-sided direct mail was
followed up a few weeks later by another
piece recapping the selling features of
the INQ Chat 3G. In
addition, that second
mailer had a tear-away
door hanger specially
coated for use with
dry-erase markers and
emblazoned with the
phrase ‘Your status
is epic offline, too’
allowing students to
alert incoming parents
about what they were
doing on the other
side of the bedroom
door vis-à-vis a
scrawled message.
And yes, the
door hanger had a
picture of the way-cute smiling TELUS
frog to ensure the brand stayed top-ofmind, even if the rest of the mailer was
discarded.
“With direct mail pieces you want to
create something with a bit of longevity,”
explains Denise Bombier, Director of
Marketing Communications at TELUS. “So
having a piece with something you can
tear away and re-use, you hope the piece
will stick around a bit longer with people.
“Plus it’s fun and it plays upon the
whole ‘status’ aspect of the campaign—
you hang it on your door when you are in
the offline world and you are still part of
the whole status concept.”
Bombier continues: “With social media
of course, status is a big thing. So our
agency Taxi came up with the ‘create your
epic status’ concept and Bimm took the
creative essence of that and brought it to
our campaign for the direct response and
really created a piece that gave the flavour
of that epic status.
“And because it’s a DM piece and
not online, you need to adapt it a bit so
that people could still understand the
campaign but we could also still sell the
phone by appealing to both parents and
students.”
Having two target audiences for one
piece of mail wasn’t the only challenge
behind the Your Status Is Epic campaign.
For one thing, the INQ phone was brand
new in the North American marketplace
so, as Bombier explains, “we didn’t even
have the luxury of spillover from the
United States on that brand.
“The challenge was to make the phone
really cool and to make people understand
that it is a brand they would want. This
demo is very interested in brand affinity.”
Since the name of the game was
acquisition of new customers, there wasn’t
an existing database to draw from. So
households in neighbourhoods with an
increased proportion of 15­–18 year olds
that had chosen student plans in the past
or responded to previous back-to-school
campaigns received the initial 1.5 million
pieces mailed the week of August 9 and
the subsequent 1.5 million pieces mailed
the week of August 30.
Target households were determined
by Forward Sortation Area data or FSAs,
the first three characters in postal codes.
In all, some 1,000 FSAs nationwide were
targeted.
“It’s not always perfect in the targeting,”
Bombier concedes, “but you usually do
pretty well. Canada Post helps a lot with
that.”
Adds Roehl Sanchez, Bimm’s VP
Chief Creative Officer, “When the idea
is acquisition, you’re talking about
getting new people on board. So
targeting by FSA is a fairly common
practice in this regard and you still
have a high hit-rate of the people
you hope to touch even though it’s
not addressed.”
A greater challenge for Bimm
was the tight turnaround
time: Sanchez reckons there
was only about four weeks
between client briefing and
being in-market, during
which time Bimm had to
secure the rights to use
the Facebook thumbs-up
icon.
“It’s crazy-quick now,” he says. “It has
hit a new level. Technology is evolving
at a quicker pace and the technology
that supports the technology is also
evolving. So when you have
technology evolving at
that pace, so must your
communications.”
Still, despite the fast
turnaround time and
relatively unscientific
distribution model, TELUS’s
Bombier confirms the direct
mailer—which was part of
a fully integrated campaign
that included bus shelter
advertising, online ads and the
like—was a hit.
“Our database team has a
very intricate way of measuring
success that I wouldn’t want to
try and explain but basically what
they do is take an incremental
response rate,” Bombier says. “They
do a baseline on what the sales
would be in the area we targeted
and then figure out what the sales
were based on us having the piece in
market while taking into consideration
other elements of the campaign that are
going on at the same time.
“It’s a complicated process but we feel
the results are pretty accurate. And this
was a very successful campaign. Our ROI
was very high. We had close to a three
percent incremental take rate which is
quite good.
“Plus,” she adds, “that frog is one of
TELUS’s most iconic, most recognizable
critters. When you see that frog, it helps
with brand recognition right away.”
News
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
WOrthKnoWinG
LiStWaTCH
SCENE expands partnership
with Milestones Grill + Bar
Official NASCAR Members
Club email database
SCENE, the entertainment loyalty
program from Cineplex Entertainment
and Scotiabank, has broadened their
partnership with Cara Foods. The
program's partnership with Cara's
Milestones Grill + Bar restaurant chain,
which has been effective in Ontario
since March 2010, is now expanding to
offer SCENE members in British Columbia
and Alberta the opportunity to earn and
redeem SCENE points while dining out.
"At SCENE, we are continually looking
for partnerships that bring exciting
entertainment rewards and experiences
to our members," said Shawn Bloom,
General Manager, SCENE.
"Our partnership with Milestones in
Ontario was extremely successful so
it makes perfect sense to expand this
benefit to SCENE members in British
Columbia and Alberta. Plus, we're very
excited to offer Bon Appétit e-Gift cards as
a new reward option for SCENE members.
Dining rewards are something our
members value and have told us they're
interested in, so we want them to know
that we're listening and responding!"
"Our guests recognize us as a place to
celebrate life's milestones - big and small,
and we have become the destination
for Wednesday Date Night in Canada.
We know that dinner and a movie is
a classic combination, so by inviting
SCENE members to redeem points at
our restaurants, guests can have the
opportunity to enhance their movie night
with a visit to Milestones - it is a natural fit,"
said Jeff Stipec, President of Milestones
restaurants.
"Ultimately we hope to share our
passion for food with new guests, and
offer even more reason for returning
guests to celebrate their life's milestones
with us."
Maponics announces
Neighbourhood Boundaries 1.11.1
Maponics, a leading provider of
location-based data, has announced
the release of the latest version (1.11.1)
of its market-leading Neighbourhood
Boundaries product, which now includes
over 120,000 neighbourhoods in the U.S.
and Canada. With the enhancements
in this release, Maponics continues to
expand coverage and respond quickly
to customer input to ensure its data
is as useful as possible. Here are some
highpoints:
Coverage of locally-sourced
neighbourhoods has increased by over
10,000 polygons with coverage expansion
in more than 70 new cities, including
Broomfield, CO, Rocklin, CA, Blue Springs,
MO and Prince George, BC. As of this
release, coverage in North America
includes over 120,400 neighbourhoods in
49 states, in the District of Columbia and
Canada.
Washington, D.C. and the Miami, FL
metros were a focus of existing coverage
expansion, with more than 1,000
neighbourhoods added in each of these
metro areas.
As is true for all Maponics
Neighbourhood Boundaries product
releases, U.S. Census files are included
at no additional charge. Starting with
the 1.11.1 product release, Canadian
Census files and accompanying product
documentation are also included at no
additional charge. The Canadian Census
files include Provinces, Divisions and
Subdivisions.
In addition to the update to North
American neighborhoods, Maponics
also released its latest version of
Neighborhood Boundaries in Europe,
adding over 1,000 new neighborhoods in
15 new cities.
Reach NASCAR fans with the email
database from the Official NASCAR
Members Club.
This database is made up of passionate
race car fans that have joined the NASCAR
members club, purchased race car
merchandise, attended races, purchased
their favourite race car driver memorabilia
and more.
These sport fans have an average age of
48 and income of $58K. They make great
prospects for all race car offers, sporting
merchandise and subscriptions, insurance,
travel, memberships and more.
Reach your target audience with
appended data including political
contributors, travel, preference, sports
interest, hobbies and much more. Multichannel campaign packages are available.
For more information please contact
Dave Boyd, 845-230-6300 x327;
[email protected]
Lifestyle Selector Canada
The Lifestyle Selector file has a wide
array of demographic, life stage, lifestyle
and behaviour selects available and its
prices are incredibly affordable. This is
an extremely popular list; continuation
mailer categories include publications,
fundraisers, educators, cataloguers and a
broad range of other consumer products
mailers.
Lifestyle Selector Canada is one of
the largest and most comprehensive
databases of self-reported consumer
information. Derived primarily from
responses to product registration cards
filled out voluntarily by consumers after
17
a product purchase, the database details
more than 500 response segments.
Lifestyle Selector's unique affinity lists
are also valuable demographic targeting
tools, covering critical categories such
as athletic, blue chip, charitable, cultural,
do-it-yourself, domestic, family, fitness,
good life, older and wiser, outdoors, pets
and technology.
For more information please contact
Lynda Robinson, 416-932-9555 x117;
[email protected]
IC2 Solutions Opportunity
Buyers
Individuals on the IC2 Solutions
Opportunity Buyers are all financially
motivated entrepreneurs looking to turn
their spare time into big money. A direct
mail solicitation from IC2 Solutions has
convinced them that this is the program
for them.
The IC2 system is set up to be as easy
to work as possible. A simple mailing
program designed to optimize the income
that these home business opportunity
buyers can make. They can be their own
boss, work their own hours, and see
the fruits of their labour in the form of
a healthy supplement to their existing
income if not the results of a brand new,
full time business venture.
For more information please contact
Paula Dazi, 845-230-6300 x349;
[email protected].
dM PeoPle
PEOPLE FROM
COSSETTE
Postmedia Integrated
Advertising
Caroline Morin
PEOPLE FROM COSSETTE is
pleased to introduce Caroline
Morin as the new Corporate
Communications Director for its
Montreal and Quebec offices.
In her role at Cossette, Caroline
will develop, recommend and
implement an innovative and
creative vision for internal and
external communications for
COSSETTE.
Jennifer Sage
Postmedia Integrated Advertising,
a division of Postmedia Network
Inc., has announced the
appointment of Jennifer Sage
to the position of vice president,
digital sales.
Ms. Sage brings more than 20
years of sales and marketing
experience, the past 11 years
focused on digital media sales.
Hewlett-Packard
(Canada) Co.
Mark Lehmann
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.
has announced the appointment
of Mark Lehmann as Manager of
Canada’s Designjet Business within
the Imaging and Printing Group
(IPG). In this role Lehmann will lead
the sales, channel, marketing and
business management teams.
Olive Media
Olive Media
Jeff Clark
With over 10 years of experience
in online performance
marketing, Jeff Clark will lead the
development and implementation
of Olive Media’s technology
strategy as Head of Technology.
Matt Weinstein
Coming from an extensive
background of sales and business
development, Matt Weinstein will
be responsible for developing
and executing the product
roadmap for Olive Media’s
mobile advertising solutions as
Head of Partnerships & Product
Development for Mobile.
Proximity Canada
Vision7 International
Delvinia
ali Pulver
Ali Pulver joins Proximity Canada’s
Project Management Office as
Vice-President, Operations. In
addition to heading up the Project
Management office, Pulver has
an infrastructure and resourcing
mandate with a focus on elevating
processes and systems.
Melanie Dunn
Vision7 International is pleased
to announce the appointment of
Ms. Mélanie Dunn as Executive
Vice-President and Managing
Director of Cossette’s Montreal
office. As part of her new role, Ms.
Dunn will manage the operations
of the Montreal agency, now
fully integrated under one name:
Cossette.
andrew Kinnear
Andrew Kinnear has assumed the
role of Vice President of Customer
Experience at Delvinia, where he is
responsible for leading the firm’s
creative design and technology
initiatives with a focus on
customer experience. 18
Features
Smartphones continued from page 6
Despite the attention text-to-donate
receives from journalists, the strategy
hasn’t been an effective fundraising
channel for all charities. Small or mediumsize charities should carefully consider if
they are likely to gather enough individual
transactions to make the program
worthwhile.
Significant challenges for nonprofits
February 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
web team to consider an optimized
experience for visitors on smartphones.
If www.salvationarmy.ca is accessed
through a mobile browser, visitors can
view simplified content, images and
navigation options designed for the
smaller screen-space of iPhone, BlackBerry
and Android devices.
Optimizing an entire website for
mobile visitors can be expensive and
that not everyone is familiar with the
black and white squares, the print ads also
included simple instructions explaining
how to donate.
There’s an app for that cause
Smartphone users continue to be
enthusiastic consumers of mobile
apps. Apple users are especially fond of
downloading apps for gaming, social
Investing limited resources in projects or programs targeted
to mobile users can seem like a big risk – but those
organizations motivated to dip into the mobile space are
inspiring the sector with creativity and innovation
include the monthly cost of maintaining
a short code and the lack of donor
information that charities receive from cell
phone carriers after the gift is deducted
from the user’s phone bill.
In cases where a charity’s brand has
enough recognition to gain critical mass,
SMS can be a useful method for quickly
raising small amounts from many donors
over a short campaign period or during a
large-scale event.
Spinning in the mobile web
The improvements in smartphone
browsers over the last year have led to an
increase in consumers accessing the
mobile web. With ComScore reporting
that 28% of mobile users read email on
their phones, charities should consider
how their e-newsletters and email
appeals display on mobile devices. When
supporters are encouraged to click back
to the organization’s website or donation
form, what is the experience like for users
on smartphone browsers?
The Salvation Army of Canada’s
beautiful and functional web site (www.
salvationarmy.ca) is powered by the
Wordpress platform. A flexible framework
like Wordpress allows an organization’s
 Continued from Cover
time consuming depending on the
existing content management system. An
ideal place to start is with the donation
form—a link typically included in charity
e-communication pieces. Many thirdparty donation providers have already
built secure forms allowing their clients
to capture donations through the mobile
web.
Quick Response (QR) codes are
another cost-effective and creative way
for charities to reach out to supporters
wherever they are. Following trends set
by advertisers, more North American
nonprofits are using QR codes to add extra
value to direct marketing appeals and
print advertising.
It’s free to create a unique QR code to
send a smartphone’s browser to a charity’s
mobile-optimized content pages, online
videos or method of donation. Easy ways
to experiment with QR codes include
adding stickers to donation boxes at
grocery stores, fundraising events and
workplace campaigns.
Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission
added QR codes to bus shelter ads around
the city in 2010, allowing donors to give
directly to the mission through the Mobio
barcode scanner application. Recognizing
networking and news. Nielsen reports the
average iPhone user has 40 apps installed
on their smartphone, while the average
BlackBerry user has 14.
CUSO-VSO, an international
development nonprofit working with
volunteers around the world, has recently
launched an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
app available for download on iTunes.ca in
either English or French.
The CUSO-VSO app is designed as a
toolkit for program participants working
on development projects in over 40
countries. It includes frequently updated
videos, news stories, blog articles,
upcoming events and the CUSO-VSO
podcast.
In November, WWF-Canada announced
an exciting collaboration with Toronto’s
Polar Mobile and their SMART™ platform
to create an app that works across all
major smartphones.
“Panda Fans” of WWF-Canada on
iPhones, BlackBerry, Windows 7 and
Android devices can use the WWF
News app to get the latest updates
on conservation from WWF-Canada’s
blogs and Twitter feeds. WWF-Canada’s
supporters are already extremely active
online; a mobile app is an excellent way
computer program called PCensus.
Since then versions of PCensus have been produced for 1986,
1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. In 2001 Tetrad released PCensus USA
with data from the 2000 census.
“The interesting thing about the U.S. census compared to
the Canadian census is the Americans have a thing that says any
information which is collected with public money belongs to the
people—what a weird concept!” jokes Wilson Baker, president
of Tetrad. “There are many people in Canada who like to use
demographics, use census data, but they just couldn’t afford it.
It was just too expensive.”
Originally released in June 2010, SiteWise is a location
profiler app that makes Canadian census data more
accessible than ever and that costs only $9.99. Versions are
now available for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.
“You’ve heard all the silly things, drinking beer and
making noises, and all the free silly apps they have on
there. This one is actually doing something serious, and
people who have seen this and reviewed it say this is
really awesome what you guys have done here,” says
Baker.
A specialized app for the iPad is the works and scheduled
for release later this spring.
“We are going to bring out a more specific version for the
iPad, taking advantage of the screen. On the phone you can only
see the information for one area, whereas on the iPad you can
compare where you’re standing right now with Scarborough,
with all of Scarborough and the GTA; say three areas all compared
to take advantage of that support on an
emerging channel.
Partnerships with technology
companies are often a low-risk, costeffective opportunity for charities to
enter the mobile space. One entry point
to mobile giving is the PayPal App for
Android, the first Canadian app from
PayPal to include a donate function
alongside the popular “Bump” tool.
PayPal users on Android devices can
quickly make a tax-receiptable donation
to a Canadian charity through the app, as
easily as transferring money to another
PayPal user. The list of charities featured
inside the app will continue to grow over
2011.
The CUSO-VSO, WWF-Canada and
PayPal apps are all free to download
through the appropriate device app
stores.
The wealth of mobile topics on
the session roster at charitable sector
conferences in the coming year
reflects a growing interest in the use of
smartphones for social good.
A “best bet” opportunity for learning
more about emerging trends for charities
will be the second annual Innovative
Giving Conference, March 16th in
Washington, DC. Innogive - Mobile Giving
Applied brings sector experts together
to examine how mobile strategies can
benefit social causes.
It’s been well-publicized that by the
end of 2011, global smartphone sales will
exceed personal computer sales. Now’s
the time for smart Canadian charities to
embrace smartphones.
Claire Kerr is a not-for-profit veteran who
has worked in the economic development,
education, arts community and fundraising
sectors. As Director of Digital Philanthropy at
Artez Interactive, Claire provides consulting
in best practices for online fundraising to
international charities and partner agencies
together.”
The GPS-capabilities of smartphones make it possible to not
only search addresses anywhere in Canada or the United States,
but to actually produce reports pertaining to your real-time
location, defined within a particular distance radius, drive time or
neighbourhood.
By focusing on 35 key variables, SiteWise generates reports
on smartphones within seconds and users can email themselves
By focusing on 35 key variables,
SiteWise generates reports on
smartphones within seconds
and users can email themselves
complete reports
complete reports along with a map showing the trade area in
PDF or Excel format.
“We’re really excited about it,” says Baker. “It’s bringing the
use of demographics to a whole new level of people who have
never used it before. Although we have thousands of people
using PCensus, it’s still underused for making decisions on finding
markets or where to locate a new outlet.”
Pro bono continued from page 9
Political and social change
That’s a heady proposition for marketing
professionals in the business of selling
products and services on a daily basis. You
can have the best marketing job in the
world, great clients and a wonderful place
to work, but when you create something
that creates change, it changes you. Carl
Jones, Executive Creative Director of Grey
Canada, says, “I feel pro bono is where we as
creatives get to use our talent to help others
and not just make money for corporations.”
When Jones was working in Mexico, he
worked on a pro bono campaign to raise
awareness of the 72,000 children who
are burnt in fires there each year due to
poverty, lack of fire safety standards and
poor fire services. He says “the creatives,
the producer and the photographer came
together to donate their services on nights
and weekends to create this campaign,
which is an image of a burnt child created
out of matches.”
Controversy
One of the defining moments of my
professional career was the day I saw
the famous Dumb Animals’ anti-fur TV
commercial directed by David Bailey in the
1980s. The spot showed models draped in
fur, strutting down the catwalk as blood
trailed behind their fur coats and splattered
onto the people in the front row. If you can
get past the Dynasty hair and quarter-inch
makeup, that commercial remains as one
of the most shocking and sensational
spots in TV history. It kick-started my pro
bono involvement and I now have an
entire pro bono portfolio. And while many
agencies feel more comfortable with less
controversial pro bono clients, we creatives
gravitate toward controversy. We feed off it.
Case in point, I¹d love to see the Lynx charity
run this ad again today to counter the FCC’s
absurd Fur is Green campaign. You can still
view Dumb Animals spot at http://wn.com/
anti_fur_commercial.
Because we can
Seriously, do we need another reason?
I don’t support agency spec work and
I certainly don’t suggest that agencies
should just give away free work. But these
ARE life or death issues with real human,
animal welfare, environmental and political
repercussions. So when it comes to pro
bono, I say, give it away. You will never
regret it. Your company will never regret it.
And it may be one of the most important
things you ever do.
Brenda McNeilly is V.P. Creative Director for
FUSE Marketing Group. With over 15 years
experience in marketing, she has more than
30 gold CMA awards to her name, as well as
Caples, Mobius, Advertising and Design Club,
Echo, Bessie, Promo, Globe Awards, DMA and
Communication Arts honours for her work.
In 2010 Brenda represented Canada on the
Direct Lions jury at Cannes and she has judged
for Applied Arts, the CMAs and numerous
other awards shows.
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
19
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20
Resource
Directory
LIST SERVICES
CANADIAN MAILING MACHINES INC.qxd
MAILING EQUIPMENT
11/05/2007
2:07 PM
Page 1
30 Mural Street, Unit #6&7
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4B 1B5
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]
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Contact: Fred De Civita or Frank De Civita
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Email: [email protected]
540 Hodge, St. Laurent, Qc H4N 2A4
E-Mail: [email protected]
WE SPECIALIZE IN PROVIDING QUALITY REFURBISHED MAILING EQUIPMENT
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dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
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News
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ February 2011
dMlanDsCaPes
eVentS
CalenDar
The gift of chocolate
'Tis the month of St. Valentine’s Day,
when hearts turn to romance and, let’s
get real, chocolate. More than 28 percent
of Canadians buy boxed chocolate each
year, according to Environics Analytics
(EA) and PMB, and reportedly a tenth of all
chocolate is purchased during this holiday
alone. Although there’s no record that St.
Valentine was history’s first chocoholic,
historians claim the ancient Mayan Indians
who lived at the same time believed hot
chocolate was an aphrodisiac. Aztec ruler
Montezuma reportedly downed 50 cups
of liquid chocolate every day, and in 1502
he shared the beverage with Spanish
conqueror Hernando Cortez, who returned
to Europe with the cacao bean. The rest,
as they say, is marketing history. Cortez
and his Aztec recipes made chocolate
the hit of the Old World, with famous
lothario Casanova and courtesan Madame
Dubarry consuming chocolate rather than
champagne to kindle romance. More
recently, scientists have found that
eating chocolate can cause
the same affects on the
brain as falling in
love.
Despite today’s tough economic times,
Canadian romantics from all walks of
life will rely on the power of chocolate
this Valentine’s Day. Geographically, the
highest concentration of boxed chocolate
buyers live in the nation’s big cities and
suburban communities, especially in
major metros like Toronto, Vancouver,
Calgary and Winnipeg where customers
have abundant access to gourmet candy
at retail outlets. In terms of lifestyle, EA’s
PRIZMC2 segmentation system shows
that boxed chocolate fans are a mixed bag.
They’re found disproportionately in Big
City Blues (young and low-income
recent immigrants), Furs &
Philanthropy (upscale,
middle-aged and
older families),
Suburban
Gentry (wealthy, middle-aged suburban
families) and Grey Pride (lower-middleclass, suburban apartment-dwelling
seniors). Surveys offer good news that
chocolate-eaters lead active lives. Many
are culture buffs who have high rates for
attending live theatre, opera, museums,
art galleries and jazz concerts. They like to
exercise regularly, engaging in aerobics,
Pilates, swimming, jogging and skiing.
And they tell researchers that, after a
workout or a work victory, they like to
reward themselves with a snack, typically
involving some form of chocolate. PMB
data show that they have high rates
for buying chocolate in a variety of
shapes and sizes: king-sized bars,
snack boxes and mini-sized M&Ms.
In fact, chocolate is the most
popular flavour in North America,
though some PRIZMC2 segments
remain unconquered. Large numbers
of upscale exurbanites (Fast-Track
23
Families), mature Quebecers (Les Seniors)
and older farm couples (Down on the
Farm) are unmoved by chocolate’s
charms. And at pro sporting events and
amusement parks, chocolate takes a
backseat to other snacks, like popcorn
and peanuts, that are not traditionally
associated with romance. But for
confectionery marketers seeking to
grow their audience, they’ll find that
chocolate buyers like to read newspapers
and entertainment magazines, listen
to fine arts radio stations, watch TV talk
shows, sitcoms and news programs, and
shop online. With cities already glutted
with coffee shops, a new franchise of
“chocolate houses” or online chocolate
emporiums could be the next big thing.
And on Valentine’s Day, they’d make a
killing with the Montezuma-size mug of
hot chocolate.
Share of Canadians who used cold remedies in
the past month, compared to the national average
of 18.8 percent (index=100)
 Chocolate Lovers (high index: >110)
 Casual Chocolate Givers (above-average index: 100-110)
 Occasional Samplers (below-average index: 90-100)
 Dentists (low index <90)
Sources: Environics Analytics 2011, based on PRIZMC2 and PMB.
March 2, 2011
toronto, Ontario
2011 CMa Business of Ideas Forum
Take a trip to the edge and back with
some of the leading minds in business.
Push the boundaries of your thinking,
and gain valuable insights from leaders
who’ve found success where few dared
to venture, including: Bonnie Brooks,
President and CEO of the Bay on the
reinvention of an icon; David Mondragon,
President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
of Canada; Lisa Lisson, President, FedEx
Express Canada on how FedEx created
an industry that changed the world;
Rogers Media President Keith Pelley on
building a winning team; and Tom Wright,
Director of Canadian Operations for the
UFC on building a brand that bucked the
establishment. For details, visit http://
www.the-cma.org/ideas/.
March 9, 2011
toronto, Ontario
advanced e-mail Marketing Workshop
This course will explain how the industry’s
greatest practitioners use e-mail to
achieve their marketing objectives;
and how they can execute successful
campaigns themselves. Review e-mail as
a marketing medium and understand the
common factors underlying the success
of e-leaders. Find-out how to assemble
the building blocks of successful e-mail
marketing campaigns by visiting http://
www.the-cma.org.
March 16, 2011
Halifax, nova Scotia
CMa atlantic Marketing Conference
Are you a marketer that is aware of the
shifting balance of power of marketers
to consumers? Are you starting to feel
like you’re on the outside looking in? It
is a new moment of truth in marketing:
push messaging is out, and two-way
pull messaging is in. Digital channels
and traditional formats have blended
to produce a dizzying amount of ad
messaging and an increasingly apathetic
consumer. The reality is, if you do nothing,
you will lose relevance and trust, and
therefore lose control. So the time is now
to get on board.
Join marketing and communication
professionals as they gather to hear
insights from the country’s leading
marketing experts.
DIRECT MARKETING
Vol. 23 | No. 10 | February 2011
PUBLISHer
Mark Henry - [email protected]
eDItOr
Sarah O'Connor - [email protected]
DeSIGn / PrODUCtIOn
MedeGroup - [email protected]
SenIOr aCCOUnt ManaGer
Michael Braun - [email protected]
PreSIDent
Steve Lloyd - [email protected]
COntrIBUtInG WrIterS
Jason Chesebrough
Rhit Dadwal
Kim Hughes
Anita Kapadia
Claire Kerr
Brenda McNeily
Catherine Pearson
Billy Sharma
Steven SyczewskiRapaport
Les Tapolczai
LLOYDMeDIa, InC.
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PRIZM’s Gone Postal!
Introducing segmentation
at the postal code level,
with PRIZMD and DELTA.
You know the power of PRIZMC2—our
popular segmentation system that
helps you deliver the right message,
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For more information:
www.environicsanalytics.ca
416.969.2733