Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Elections Notice

SCPS has informed DIMA that we need to have all DIMA Officer and Student Council nominations to them by 3/23/2007. All elections (if necessary) are to be held by 4/1/2007.

If you are interested in any of the positions below please send an email to nyu.dima@gmail.com
All positions are open.

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Blogmaster

Student Council Representative

Don't let the commitment scare you...the University employs people using adult money to see that these student groups succeed. This means you're not on your own-people will help you.

Thanks for the read!

Matt Harris - President

Monday, January 29, 2007

ROFLMAO!

DM News has a great article about why the FTC is looking into negative option marketing and what the speculative outcome may be.

You'll find the story here.

Friday, January 26, 2007

KALTERgram

Dear Students,

Once again, the Direct Marketing Club of New York is offering our students the opportunity to attend its monthly luncheons as guests of the Club. These events consist of a networking cocktail reception followed by a presentation during lunch.

Two students can attend the next DMCNY luncheon event, which is Thursday, February 8th. The guest speaker is John Greco, President and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, so this will be a great networking session, since everyone will be there.

If you are interested, please e-mail Stephanie Tracy at set212@nyu.edu by Tuesday, January 30, with your NYU e-mail address and your local phone number.

If you are selected, you will receive a confirming e-mail from Stephanie. To be on the list for the next DMCNY luncheon, indicate that in your e-mail.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

In The News

Is SEO rocket science?

Direct Marketing is cyclical.

A non-techie MS Vista review.

Superbowl ads and more!

DIMA invites you to a Welcome Back Late Happy Hour!


When: Thurdsday, February 1st
Where: Windfall - 23 W. 39th St. (between Fifth & Sixth Ave.)
Time: 8:45 - Onwards
-

Friday, January 19, 2007

Expanding ECHO Brand Is Top of Mind for DMA 2007 ECHO Committee; Lieber, Feinstein Head Committee

January 19, 2007 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) announced yesterday that Mitchell Lieber, president of Lieber & Associates, and Neil Feinstein, director of creative strategy at True North, will serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the 2007 International ECHO Awards Committee.

DMA’s ECHO Award is the only international award that honors excellence in direct marketing creativity, marketing strategy, and response results – recognizing every type of media used in multichannel direct marketing campaigns.

“Because DMA’s ECHO Awards recognize strategy, creative, as well as results, they are the most relevant award in marketing today,” said Feinstein. “This potent combination allows the ECHOs to showcase how all marketing disciplines can be integrated and leveraged to deliver outstanding results, new customers, and increase profits for smart marketers.”

DMA’s 2007 International ECHO Award Ceremony will take place October 16 during DMA 07 in Chicago, IL.

ECHOs Embrace the Internet
This year sees campaigns submitted for the 2007 awards being uploaded from the Web, television, and other electronic campaigns, eliminating the need to produce CDs, DVDs or videotapes. Training for ECHO judges will also move to the Web.

“The ECHO team – composed of the Committee and DMA’s internal staff – is updating ECHOs’ view of direct marketing to more fully embrace the Internet,” said Lieber. “We’re going to see more entries using search, SMS, and other forms of emerging media, as well as an expansion of the ECHO’s already enormous base in integrated, mail, print, and broadcast channels applications using SMS and other forms of emerging media.”

Mitchell Lieber
President, Lieber & Associates
Chair, DMA International ECHO Award Committee


Lieber has developed, managed or advised on more than 200 contact center programs spanning operations involving inbound, outbound, blended (inbound and outbound), e-mail handling, and Web integration. He has recruited and trained hundreds of contact center reps and has developed effective ongoing training systems.

Lieber’s expertise is first-hand and front-line. Prior to devoting full-time to consulting and management training in 1989, he managed call centers’ handling programs for companies such as American Express, the American Medical Association, AT&T, Haworth, Hitachi, Hon, Interplak, Kemper, Nuveen Investments, Philips, and Zenith Data Systems. He also directed telecommunications and, very early in his career, served as a call center supervisor and as a telephone rep.

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Lieber pioneered the integration of telephone and direct marketing. In 1993 Lieber invented the open-closed switcher, telecommunications hardware that brings a digital function, the ability to send back a busy signal to excess calls to call centers using analog lines.

A contributing author on call centers to three books including the college textbook Readings and Cases in Integrated Marketing Communications, Lieber has been published or quoted by most major trade publications, including Advertising Age, Card Marketing, Catalog Success, Direct, DM News and TeleProfessional (now Customer Interface). He frequently speaks on contact center topics at the annual conferences of DMA and the American Teleservices Association (ATA).

Lieber is a voting member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants and is certified by Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality as a call center auditor. He is a past recipient of ATA’s TelPro - Teleprofessional of the Year Award, Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year, and Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s (CADM) Towards the 22nd Century Award.

Neil Feinstein
Director of Creative Strategy, True North
Vice Chair, DMA International ECHO Awards


As the director of creative strategy at True North, Feinstein’s impressive client roster includes Pitney Bowes, Disney Visa, ThomasNet.com, Couristan Carpets, the Growing Family Club, and various divisions of the Disney Corporation.

Prior to his post at True North, Feinstein served as the vice president of creativity at the former Bigfoot Interactive where he designed e-mail marketing programs for Calvin Klein Fragrances, MCI, World Wildlife Fund, and Alitalia.

As partner and creative director at Bozell (now Lowe), he worked on multichannel campaigns for The New York Times, Datek Online (now Ameritrade), Merrill Lynch, and FEMA.

In addition to serving as vice chair of DMA’s International ECHO Awards committee and a member of DMA’s Ethics Operations Committee, Feinstein lectures around the country on multichannel marketing, integrated advertising, and creative strategy. He has written articles for DM News, Target Marketing, and Proof. He holds a Master Degree in direct and interactive marketing from New York University.

In The News

Google Tip: 1st Position Isn't Worth It

FCC Chairman: No Deal for XM, Sirius

Time fires 289 employees in cost-cutting measure

Fed Chief Warns That Entitlement Growth Could Harm Economy

Most viral video of all time

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Welcome Back!

On Behalf of DIMA,

Welcome Back and Best Wishes for the Spring 2007 Semester!

We’re Under New Management.
The above statement is something I usually see associated with bad restaurants, like Red Lobster, that have been flipped in order to encourage patrons to return. DIMA isn’t exactly Red Lobster and things were never badly managed. However, the statement is true. As many of you may be aware, DIMA President Pam Abastillas completed the program at the end of the fall semester. Congratulations Pam!

Pam’s graduation created an opening that needed to be filled. The majority of the current DIMA officers declined to be the poster child for the group. Since I was already part of the group (running the blog and listserv) I was asked by the rest of the officers to fill the opening and I accepted. However, SCPS required a democratic transition. To make a long story short, we called an election, nobody else ran – poster child.

What Now?
The semester is about 15 weeks long. Depending on how your semester turns out 15 weeks is either too long or too short. In any case, there is only so much a student group is able to do in that period of time. Last semester we ran a few social events and launched the DIMAblog. The blog is meant to connect students at different points in the program. Feedback about the blog has been extremely positive so look to it to keep you informed throughout the semester.

This semester we have two (2) big items on the agenda. The first (1) is filling all the DIMA officer posts. Julie Lee, Mandie Lee (no relation) and Michelle Hemerka are all in Capstone and will graduate at the end of the semester. I have capstone in the fall and would prefer to concentrate on that. Lastly, Ann Bilanski is on the 10-year plan…I won’t speak for Ann (nobody puts baby in the corner!) but most likely Ann will take a break after serving for a year.

There it is…we’re all pretty much done after this semester.

In order to keep DIMA going we’ll need to have some leaders step forward to pick up where we’re leaving off. How difficult is being an officer? Not difficult at all. You’ll put a little time into it about once a month but, for the most part, it’s simple. What do you get out of it? Other than that feeling that comes from altruism…you’ll add to your resume, meet alumni and students that you may never had the opportunity to meet, practice your leadership skills, get to know the administration, have industry leaders seek you out, and much more. In fact the whole enterprise is open to your creativity. If you’re interested please let us know. Depending on the response we may or may not need to have an election. Please give the idea some thought.

Second (2), were looking to have an alumni networking event. The gist of the event is to have a dozen or more alumni join current students for a casual town hall style Q&A session about life after the program, the job market, salaries, etc…This event has the potential to be really good. I sent a “feeler” email to some of the alumni recently and received a half dozen responses indicating they would take part in the event. I expect more responses as we begin to finalize everything. The event will be RSVP and we will get those details to you once they are available.

What Else?
So we have two big things to accomplish this semester – establishing next year’s leadership and putting on a first-class alumni networking event. In addition to these two big things we have a couple of smaller things planned.

DIMA will be hosting a “Welcome Back” event within the next few weeks. Details are in the works and will be sent once finalized. DIMA will also host an “End of Semester” event which may include an election. As with all events food will be provided. Plus depending on the budget, we may have a few random Friday night student/alumni happy hours….where maybe some of our filthy rich alumni could pick up a check or two (Abastillas?).

Lastly, were trying to capture information about our program to pass on to others. We’ve created an online PowerPoint with a few things some of us know and others don’t. You can view the PowerPoint here: Student Resources PPT

The idea here is to collect the tips, tricks, and other stuff that can make going through the program just a little bit easier. If you’d like to add something please send your comments to nyu.dima@gmail.com we’ll notify you of any updates.

That’s All Folk’s
I think we have a pretty ambitious agenda for Spring 2007. We’d like to have as much input from you as possible. You can leave your comments below or email them to us. Ann, Julie, Mandie, Michelle, and I are just volunteering to make the graduate experience more rewarding. We can put things together but it takes you to make them successful.

Thanks for the read! Best of luck!

Matt Harris – DIMA President

Friday, January 12, 2007

From DMNews

By Melissa Campanelli
January 12th, 2007

What’s the direct marketing spending priority for 2007?

According to Alterian’s fourth transatlantic annual survey of more than 500 direct marketers, marketing services providers and agencies, it’s online activities.

85 percent of respondents expect their online direct marketing expenditures to increase in 2007. The spending projection is the largest expected increase since the Alterian Annual Survey began in 2003. Alterian, Chicago, is a provider of analytics led integrated marketing software.

While online direct marketing will receive the largest investment increase, 51 percent of survey respondents also plan to boost their offline direct marketing spend in 2007. When asked about specific channel investments, 81 percent plan to increase spending on e-mail marketing, 50 percent say they will spend more on direct mail and 45 percent will increase their budgets for personalized landing pages.

Despite the strong spending indicators for both online and offline channels, 94 percent of respondents who said they will decrease offline spending said they will increase online spending.

The Alterian 2006 Survey polled a total of 540 marketing professionals. The annual survey was conducted in North America and the United Kingdom in October 2006 through a dedicated Web site landing page, a hardcopy form and in-person interviews at DMA06 in San Francisco.

The 2006 survey confirms the growing emphasis on the integration of e-mail marketing. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported that their e-mail activity was integrated with all other channels and 26 percent of respondents said their e-mail is at least integrated with other online channels. Only 18 percent reported that e-mail is still used as a standalone channel.

Despite progress on multichannel integration, an overwhelming 70 percent or respondents said they apply basic or no analysis to any of their e-mail campaigns. Only 29 percent claim they carry out full analysis. At the service provider level, marketing services providers reported the highest percentage, at 32 percent, of those carrying out full data analysis on e-mail campaigns.
Agencies have the lowest percentage of those carrying out full analysis, at 23 percent, but reported the highest percentage, at 57 percent, of those carrying out basic analysis.

The survey revealed a correlation between the level of channel integration and analytical activity. Those with the most advanced level of online and offline integration also indicated that they are performing the most advanced levels of analysis, with 45 percent of respondents topping both these segments.

Conversely, those not integrating e-mail fully with other online or offline channels are doing the least analysis, with only 12 percent of respondents using e-mail as a standalone channel completing full analysis of e-mail campaigns.

Respondents cited the challenges to improving integration. According to 36 percent, the top obstacle is that online and offline activities are managed by separate departments. Thirty-two percent reported difficulty integrating e-mail marketing activity with the customer database.

While e-mail campaigns are growing in sophistication and frequency, nearly half of marketers manage their e-mail activities in-house. Twenty-nine percent outsource e-mail marketing to e-mail service providers and 15 percent send the work to agencies. Only 11 percent tap marketing services providers.

Regarding e-mail volume, 71 percent send less than 1 million e-mails in an average month. The survey revealed that marketers are managing the largest percentage of small (less than 1 million e-mails monthly) and large (more than 10 million e-mails monthly) campaigns in-house, but tend to outsource mid-size campaigns (one to 10 million e-mails monthly), primarily to e-mail service providers, followed by agencies and then marketing services providers.

ADVERTISING AGE
Human Rights Commission Releases Agencies' Minority Hiring Goals
Numbers Include Percent of Hires for Management Positions

By Lisa Sanders Published: January 11, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The numbers are in. The New York City Commission on Human Rights today released the first set of goals submitted by the 15 advertising agencies that in September pledged to increase minority hiring and retention.

Presented as a percentage of total hires for 2007, the goals vary widely by agency. Each of the 15 companies set its own numbers, presumably based on what could reasonably be achieved. (Sixteen agencies originally signed deals, but Draft and FCB have since merged.) Some agencies presented detailed breakdowns of their plans -- Interpublic Group of Cos. agencies outlined the percent of minority employees it intends to recruit, promote and retain; others, such as Omnicom Group's BBDO, DDB, Merkley and PHD, presented goals for new minority hires in two categories: management and professional.

Lacking clear definition
And while the numbers have become clear, there is no single definition for what "minority" means; that has been left for the agencies to decide. One agency executive said the working definition is "non-white" (meaning that white women won't count toward the goal). But Interpublic has set what it calls aspirational goals for recruiting, promoting and retaining women.

The move comes as tensions around the already-touchy issue mount and threaten to become a matter of national debate -- as well as a public relations issue beyond agencies' control.

Earlier this week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking at a breakfast hosted by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/Wall Street Project, took up the issue of minority representation in the industry's senior-most ranks, with the comment, "We're saying to the ad industry, 'We're waiting for you.'"

Already frustrated by the commission's interest in their agencies' staffing matters, some executives earlier this week expressed frustration over Mr. Schumer's comment and the possibility of more pressure from political organizations. "When does this end? It's never enough," said one.

Welcoming the scrutiny
Other agency executives welcome increased attention to issues of diversity and hiring. "Why should advertising and marketing communications have a pass on addressing the same issues that other industries have had to tackle?" said Heide Gardner, VP-diversity management at Interpublic.

Agencies submitted these goals 30 days after signing the accord as the first part of a multipronged, three-year program hammered out between the commission and agencies. The program was the result of a long-running probe by the commission begun in 2003. It culminated with the agreements reached last summer.

Advertising Age contacted each of the 15 agencies earlier this week, asking what each has done and is doing to in the area of diversity recruitment, and what goals each submitted to the commission. Not one agency divulged its goals. Some executives expressed concern over the possibility of negative press, should they be unable to meet their goals.

Public accountability
"I don't want my accountability to be public," said Gunnar Wilmot, chairman-CEO, Gotham. "I have every intention of making the goals, but if I don't make them, I want to preclude your calling me [on it]," he said.

Specific goals, categorized by holding company and agency, are:

Omnicom: BBDO aims to achieve minority employment of 15% in management new hires and 28% in professional; DDB, 10% in management new hires and 20% in professional; Merkley, 10% in management new hires and 22% in professional; PHD, 10% in management new hires and 25% in professional.

Havas: Arnold Worldwide aims to achieve minority management and professional hires of 30% of all new hires; Euro RSCG is aiming for 5% of all new hires.

Publicis Groupe: Saatchi & Saatchi pledged 16% of total new hires will be minority officials and managers, and 23% will be minority professionals; Kaplan Thaler Group pledged 13% of total new hires will be minority officials and managers, and 15% will be minority professionals.

WPP Group: G2 Direct & Digital set goals to place 17% of its total hires as minority officials and managers, and 25% as professionals; G2 Interactive set goals of 16% as minority officials and managers, and 20% as professionals; Ogilvy & Mather, 16% as minority officials and managers, and 33% as professionals; Young & Rubicam, 18% as minority officials and managers, and 30% as professionals.

Interpublic Group of Cos.: Gotham set as its goals 10% of all new hires will be minority executive-officials and managers and 5% of all promotions will be minority executive-officials and managers; 10.5% of all new hires will be minority other officials and managers; 7.5% of promotions will be minority other officials and managers; 17% of all new hires will be minority professionals and 7% of all promotions will be minority professionals.

DraftFCB's goals include 10% of all executive-officials and mangers as minorities; 5% of all executive-officials and managers promotions will be minorities; 9% of all new hires will be other officials and managers; 5% of all other official and manager promotions will be minorities; 24% of all new high-level professionals will be minority and 9% of high-level professional promotions will be minority; 28% of all entry- and mid-level professionals will be minorities and 5% of all entry- and mid-level professional promotions will be minority.At Avrett, Free & Ginsberg, goals are for 5% of all new executive-officials and manager new hires to be minority; and 5% of all promotions will be minority executive-officials and managers; 9% of all other officials and manager new hires will be minorities; 3% of all other officials and managers promotions will be minority; 24% of all professional hires will be minority and 6% of all professional promotions will be minorities.Interpublic set separate goals for hiring and promoting women.

Changes to workplace
Some agencies or holding companies, such as Arnold, Ogilvy & Mather and Interpublic, have created and implemented significant programs to recruit and retain minorities as well as to foster a workplace that embraces diversity. Arnold's New York office holds quarterly agency seminars on multicultural marketing to provide information and help build awareness among staff on creating an inclusive body of work; participants of another program, dubbed AMEN, for Arnold Multicultural Employee Network, meet regularly to provide each other with support and advice. "At the end of the day, it's not just about hiring, but getting people to stay," said Tiffany Warren, Arnold's director of multicultural programs and community outreach. At the end of this year, agencies must submit report cards to the commission with details on, among other things, numbers of hires, with salary range and title, and a set of new hiring goals for 2008. The process will continue for three years, and if agencies do not meet their goals, they must hire outside consultants to help them do so.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

NYU Reynolds Program to Hold Information Session on Post-Graduate Fellowship Opportunity

The Acumen Fund Fellows Program is Focused on Entrepreneurial Approaches to Issues of Global Poverty

On Thursday, January 18, 2007, from Noon to 1:30 p.m., New York University's Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship (www.nyu.edu/reynolds) is sponsoring a university-wide information session about a new post-graduate fellowship opportunity, The Acumen Fund Fellows Program.

All NYU students are invited to learn more about this program at NYU Wagner, The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St., 2nd Floor, Mulberry Conference Room. No RSVP is required.The Acumen Fund is a non-profit social venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve problems of global poverty (http://www.acumenfund.org).