iDi New York

STB Direct Marketing attended the iDi Marketers Forum in New York. This is our review of the event.

This was the first event of its kind, and overall we thought that it was a valuable event to attend. The speakers all presented to a high standard and the content was very pertinent, relevant and on many occasions very thought provoking.

Morning Session

 

The day started with the “State of the Nations” Address, by Dr Diane Rinas of DHL Global where she discussed how to target groups efficiently on a worldwide scale. She spoke about:

  • the need to understand and address cultural differences between countries
  • research that is being done using eye tracking to see how people read and respond to direct mail pieces.
An interesting and thought provoking presentation.

This was followed by a Panel Discussion session on “Mailing Out Around the World... Without Busting Your Budget” which stimulated a lively discussion amongst the panel and the audience, particularly around rising postal costs.

“Marketing profitably as the world moves beyond Google and Yahoo” was the 2nd Panel discussion session of the day.

“Word of Mouse” – How to utilize social networking as a real medium for growth” by Mike Germano of Carrot Creative USA started off the afternoon session.

Many marketers know they need to be looking at social networking as a tool, but simply don’t know where to start. They are also keen to learn what sort of potential it has for their businesses.

Mike provided a very lively and forthright presentation on the topic and the content provided a huge amount of food for thought. I am sure most people came away with the thought that if they aren’t currently using social networking as part of their marketing strategy then they ought to be, particularly those who are marketing to consumers.

 

Afternoon Session

 

The afternoon continued with some round table debates on such topics as:

  • Cross-border privacy laws
  • Something old, something new: combining online and offline campaigns
  • How to build a website a foreign visitor won’t get lost in
  • Finding prospects in other countries – tip: start with the correct list!
  • Open an overseas office: source a successful global alliance
  • International payment methods
  • 'To better manage data or not to better manage data? That is no longer the question…

What have you done with your data? Presented by Mark Roy of the REaD Group focused firmly on the US data market and raised the issue of the lack of suppression files such as a complete mortality file and “Gone Away” files for US consumer data to utilize to clean their data.

‘The Cross Media Challenge – making the most of integrated campaigns’ was the last presentation for the day. This highlighted the fact that there are very few truly integrated marketing campaigns being executed and that this is an area that marketers need to focus on in order to maximise the potential from all media.

To end the day there was a cocktail party to which all delegates were invited. This provided an ideal opportunity to network with a whole range of people from Europe and the US.

Overall we thought it was a good event and we are looking forward to attending again in 2010.