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We can sell anything but ourselves: Australia Post respond to 'Open Up To Mail' critique

In the August '08 issue of Marketing magazine, Andy Pontin, CEO of Clemenger Proximity, argues that Australia Post's recent print campaign 'Open Up To Mail' spends too much time apologising for the industry and not enough time encouraging. To read Andy's article from the August issue, click the icon below: In ...

  • Permission to Personalise

  • As I write this entry, I'm travelling at 831kph at 12,002m above sea level, balancing my oversized laptop on my legs while trapped between two armrests that obviously weren't designed to let people use computers on planes. OK, its a Virgin Blue flight, so I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. But what did surprise ...

  • Business Card DM

  • Business cards are an annoyance to many of us. We feel under obligation to take these little cards in exchange for ours. But we don't know what to do with them. They collect themselves into little untidy piles on the corner of our desks that are eventually filed or thrown away. Many of us regard business cards ...

  • Uni fails to make the grade

  • I picked up a story in the SMH recently that reported how Sydney Uni had failed to make the grade with their latest DM campaign. The mail piece targeted alumni with realistic transcripts of academic records marked 'Fail'. The campaign also invited the unlucky graduates to a mock banquet of tap water, white bread ...

  • Fenders, fruit flies and pickled onions: the power of catalogues

  • It's official. I think I’m turning into a 55yr+ female. It's not just the grey hair - but last week I purchased a fruit bowl with matching fly screen and a tea bag squeezer from the Home Care catalogue. What's weird is I don't have a particular problem with fruit flies or tea bags. I just love catalogues. Always ...

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RIP direct mail

I love to collect direct mail, like a bizarre obsession. Over the years I've built up a personal collection of the good, bad and very ugly DM pieces worthy of a home in my office drawer. One of my prize pieces is exactly that; a prize letter. It wasn't sent to me but addressed to the previous occupant of our unit, ...

We know where you live - mashing up direct mail

While digital printing delivers the ability for every impression (or page) to be different, it also unlocks conventional boundaries and enables other digital technologies to be integrated with print. If you can put it on paper, then you can print it, digitally. Take mashups, for example. While the term usually refers ...

Drumming up support for innovative DM

I came home tonight to find my three year old drumming furiously to Coldplay’s 'Fix You'. “Who gave you the drumsticks?” – “HONDA” came the reply; “Does he live in heaven?” A quick rummage through the mail revealed an oversized mail piece bearing silhouettes where drumsticks had once been. Like most males of the ...

Very Able: Setting Sail

Welcome to Very Able; a blog that’s focused on applications, innovation and information related to variable-data printing in direct marketing. For those of you who don’t know me, I have a healthy interest in variable-data publishing (VDP). In my copious free time I spend far too much time exploring the wonderful ...

Using Market Research to strengthen DM efforts

Not enough understanding exists of how and when market research can be used to minimise risk and optimise sales and profitability, contends Brian Fine. Here, he looks at some of the tools available to put you on the path to DM glory. Are your campaigns minimising wasted creative and reducing your cost of sales? Good ...

Direct marketing and channel communication

DM is often overlooked in the context of channel planning. But, as Mike Chunter points out, it’s not above or below the line that really matters, it’s the bottom line. So why is a pointy-headed, number crunching ‘direct guy’ talking about channel planning in the one-to-one section of Marketing? Well, the first ...

Return of CRM in marketing

Jacqueline Burns explores why the new breed of CRM solutions is finding favour with marketers. Customer Relationship Management is back. Though CRM had not disappeared per se, until recently it had diminished in priority and profile since the turn of the millennium. The initial hype did not live up to expectations ...

Effective wireless marketing

It’s evident that as an increasing number of brands shift their marketing spend from traditional to digital methods of communication the allure of mobile marketing continues to grow. Interest in mobile marketing is driven by the fusion of pinpoint targeting ability and the very personal nature of wireless devices. ...

Principles of direct marketing: Tried and true?

Direct marketing is an important communication tool for marketers. Andy Pontin explores how marketing principles are guides for developing DM, not definitive rules that guarantee success. There I was, sat staring at my blank PC screen, wondering what to write for this column. So, like everyone nowadays, rather than ...

Direct Mail as an effective communication channel for FMCGs

A growing number of FMCG brands are discovering direct mail as a way to cut through the media clutter, writes Jane Hogan. While direct mail has seldom been used within the FMCG sector in the past, evidence shows that it can be an effective channel for FMCG brands, particularly in the current environment. More and ...

Effectively utilising data to achieve marketing objectives

It’s easy to get bogged down in data in the current climate of accountability. But there’s no point biting off more than you can chew, says Tessa Court. In today’s increasingly data-driven world, insights and information on your own business, competition and customers are everywhere; with marketing departments rapidly ...

Acquiring new customers through telecommunication

Most of the sales staff I have worked with could use the telephone more effectively. I guarantee you there are hundreds of prospects in your territory who may never have heard from you and could quite easily have a need for your product or service. Alternatively they may have heard from you or your company a long ...

Mobile marketing

SMS has finally found itself a firm foothold in the mobile marketing landscape, but are consumers ready for what’s beyond? At the IAB Engage conference in London last year, global Yahoo! chief Terry Semel forecast that by 2010 most people accessing the internet will not use a PC but a mobile phone. A bold prediction? ...

Effective e-mail

Firing off a barrage of misguided emails is simply a waste of your marketing resources, says Paula O’Connell. As all email marketers understand, deliverability continues to be one of the biggest challenges faced today. That being said, it is also the one area where marketers are still in control. Email deliverability ...

Capitalising on christmas

Planning your marketing strategy for Christmas? Just because it’s the silly season it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go silly with your in-store promotions, writes Norrelle Goldring. Ah, Christmas promotions. So much fanfare, so much cardboard, so much waste. It’s the marketer’s Catch-22 – damned if you do, ...

Going direct: digital as a communication channel

Andy Pontin explores digital direct marketing as a discipline and as a communication channel I know what you’re thinking – another article on how digital is going to gobble up all other marketing channels, destroy your business model and hand over marketing control to bloggers. Now that may all be true, but that’s ...

One 2 one bloggers

Our team of dedicated bloggers will be posting regularly about anything and everything that makes them smile, drives them mad, or generally gets them going.

Malcolm Treanor

Malcolm's posts

As Data Products Manager, Australia and New Zealand, Malcolm oversees the development of Acxiom’s range of premier data products. With a wealth of experience in maximising the potential of data, Malcolm is focused on meeting and surpassing the rapidly evolving data needs of marketers.

Eliot Harper

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Eliot is a marketing guy at Fuji Xerox. Prior to his current day job, he worked in the US for Adobe. Eliot holds a couple of degrees in printing and enjoys spending far too much time exploring the world of variable-data printing. In his copious free time Eliot enjoys kayaking, writing, blogging, eating and sleeping.

Jane Hogan

Jane's posts
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Jane Hogan is principal of Indigo Dingo Communications, a Melbourne based marketing consultancy specialising in direct marketing.

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