Join the club!
World-first scheme launches to connect marketers globally
“The GMA is a social club, connecting marketers and sharing news, views, dates and venues, not a bid to create a global direct marketing association.” Matt Edgar.
A scheme has been formed to enable business associates around the world to meet up, communicate and share news via one real-world social group.
The GMA – the Global Marketing Alliance – will link those who market across borders, informing them about social events, shows and opportunities to get together, while keeping them abreast of relevant news and views from industry experts via DMI publications.
Direct Marketing International (www.dmionline.net) is the only global magazine for direct and interactive marketers and was the first to be published for the industry out of the UK. Now it has a brand new sister – a tabloid newspaper, DMI News Extra!
This new newspaper has been launched for a very good reason – it is being printed especially for GMA club members.
DMI offers readers the full spectrum of viewing platforms, from print to screen. Publisher Matt Edgar believes the GMA will be an umbrella group for readers, bringing together the international marketing community through both the sharing of valuable DMI content and also enabling better and more personal communication between them.
He said: “The GMA members will receive free issues of all our products – but it is not just about DMI subscription. There are now all sorts of ways business associates can contact each other – through social network sites, conference calling via facilities such as Skype and by using the mobile Internet to remain up-to-date with breaking news – our various gadgets keep us all most definitely ‘always on’.
“However, actually physically getting together with colleagues and would-be contacts takes a little more thought and a whole lot of organisation, to say nothing of the fight over the expenses!
“So, it occurred to me that what we need is one club to link those contacts made during various real-world social events and to help us all to remain in touch, as well as providing a quality news service, as DMI has for many years.
“A few years ago, DMI began organising events with like-minded individuals wherein a group of us would get together for a drink on the eve of major events, such as the annual USA DMA show in the States in October (last year’s party was called ‘Direct Margarita International’ and was great fun!), or the TFM&A in London in the spring. There are so many great shows and exhibitions to attend that it makes sense to have a GMA members’ party arranged at certain times of the year and in different countries around those events,” Edgar explained.
Membership of the GMA is free for a trial period of three months; members can then choose from three registration levels: associate member, corporate or ambassador. Associate membership gives free DMI publications and listings in the members’ online directory while upper levels allow agreed amounts of free advertising in DMI publications and broadcasts.
Edgar stressed the GMA club was not an attempt to start a global direct marketing association: “The GMA will not be arranging teaching courses, awarding diplomas or lobbying parliaments.
“It is a news and information sharing social club, which will also arrange top-level gatherings and then make sure members are contacted and made aware of what is on offer for them.
“I like to think it will become an invaluable business tool and a social connection, allowing members to engage and connect with colleagues easily and without having to be ’always on’.
“Good business is all about the successful formation of beneficial relationships – and the GMA will do exactly that.”
1st June 2010
Care about customers? Head for New York
Sally Hooton previews this year’s iDi Marketers Forum (June 15-16, 2010; New York Hilton hotel)
Care about customers? Head for New York
Last year, the headline on my iDi preview article was: ‘Who dares, wins.’ With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps that should have read: ‘Who cares, wins.’
As it turns out, in the teeth of Recession 2009, it wasn’t about who dared to go out and do business – everyone who could afford the expenses was doing that! But it seems businesses which remain in contention are those that demonstrated how much they care about their customers and thus nurtured ever-closer relationships.
Of course, traditional direct marketers have been banging that particular drum for eons, flying the flag high and proud in favour of personal one-to-one service, despite being reviled as privacy invaders for their efforts!
But, as the recession recedes, something quite extraordinary has resulted: bruised but wiser, more cash-conscious consumers have realised that direct marketing is actually akin to digital marketing . . . and they ‘get’ digital; they even like it! Halleluia!
So, as the first decade of the 21st century closes and we pick up the pieces of our shattered economies, all marketers have to do is harness that bonus goodwill and ensure onward-and-upward digital marketing techniques deploy all the very best of direct.
To quote the main character from a current and very popular ad campaign here in the UK (a meercat called Aleksandr Orlov: www.comparethemeerkat.com): “Simples!”
It isn’t simple, of course. Direct marketers have spent years honing their skills and keeping abreast of all the latest and greatest ways to approach prospects and convert them into long-term customers.
But there is a simple way for them to check they are on the right path to success: by asking the experts. And that’s where the iDi comes in . . .
How do you deploy search engine marketing?
How do you operate a US mail order company across 16 countries?
How do you improve on simple communications to make them relevant interactions?
How do you develop ‘guanxi’ (a relationship with key business and government officials) in order to succeed in China?
How do you put social networking to work in your business?
How do you maximise mobile campaigns?
All of this and so much more will be discussed at length by no less than 26 top-level marketing gurus during the annual iDi Marketers Forum in New York next month. This major event is co-locating with the USA?DMA’s Digital Marketing Days exhibition and conference and promises myriad ideas and practical tips on how to garner business strength into 2011 and the next decade.
But this event is not just about learning. The iDi is a great way to make new contacts and meet up to ‘press the flesh’ of business associates: the old adage that ‘people do business with people they know’ has never been more true than it is now, in the wake of the global recession.
It’s been a long hard road, so the iDi also offers a party to enjoy!
The forum has some very generous sponsors – go along and meet the experts (both during the conference and at the bar later!) from Brokers Worldwide, Capscan, Ceros, Data Services Inc, Direct Media Millard, Global-Z, Mardev and World Innovators.
All the above does rather beg the question: can you afford to miss this event? Well, if you care about customers – finding them and keeping them – you’d better book your iDi ticket now: www.idiforum.com.
1st June 2010
