by Antony Begley

14 Feb 2012: Technology for Marketing & Advertising, or TFMA as it’s more unversally known, is something of a phenomenon in the database marketing sector: it’s probably the only event that every database marketer at least considers going to each year. While there’s no question that the event is growing in various spaces only vaguely related to database marketing, there’s also no question that the event remains a very worthwhile use of a few hours out of the office for most database marketers.

Apart from anything else, you’ll get the chance to catch up with the team from Database Marketing magazine (at stand H50), which has got to be worth the trip in itself! But there will be plenty else of interest to catch up with, including a full seminar programme covering everything from CRM and multi-channel marketing to analytics, as well as a hosty of top quality exhibitors.We’ve picked out just a few to whet your appetitite.

ClickSquared – F34

A recognised innovator in terms of its products and services, ClickSquared is among these worth checking out at this year’s TFM&A. On its stand, the company is inviting marketers to visualise first-hand its cross-channel marketing hub with an interactive demo and videos. Technologically advanced yet very user-friendly, it’s certainly worth taking 10 minutes to have a nosy.

Capscan – G46

Visitors to Capscan’s stand will see the latest international address management solutions and data quality services, while Capscan reminds marketers of the consequences of poor data quality management and how finding the right solution is often simple, but highly effective.

Regional Sales Manager Laura Fovargue will also present at TFM&A this year, tackling ‘The dos and don’ts of domestics and international address and data quality management’, providing insightful advice for achieving optimal data quality, illustrated by real-life case studies.

Capscan will be showcasing its full range of solutions including its global address management solution Matchcode International which allows marketers to validate, correct, standardise, and format address data for over 240 territories worldwide. Online data cleansing, suppression and enhancement tool Capscan Integrity will also be on show, as will Capscan OnDemand, a ‘pay-per-search’ web-based ááá ááá addressing service that provides flexible and cost-effective access to UK and premium international addresses, as well as business-to-business, lifestyle and geographic information.

Eloqua – C10

For Eloqua, the biggest issues in database marketing this year will be ROI and data quality. These issues are inherently linked, of course, as Eloqua will be demonstrating to visitors to its stand: guarantee good quality data and better data segmentation and marketers will be able to target the most appropriate sales and marketing leads with the correct messages. Marketers looking to delve deeper into this space can visit Eloqua’s stand which it is sharing with partners CRM Technologies.

Eloqua will also feature heavily in McAfee’s talk on Wednesday, 29th at 12:30 in the Email, Mobility and Analytics Theatre. The talk focuses on how the company used Eloqua to create a lead scoring and lead nurturing programme using email marketing to accelerate sales and help build a team spirit between sales and marketing.

The alignment of sales and marketing is, in fact, Eloqua’s theme for this year’s show and in this, a leap year, the company is challenging marketers to take the initiative and propose a new way of working with their sales teams – a playful spin on the leap year tradition of women proposing to men.

Neolane - C5

Conversational marketing specialist Neolane sees 2012 as presenting five key strategic challenges for marketers, all hinging on taking advantage of ‘Big Data’ and the convergence of social, local and mobile (SoLoMo) to build an ever closer, more relevant and real-time/right time cross-channel relationship with customers.

The company is running a mini-theatre on its stand demonstrating how some of the world’s top brands are using Neolane’s marketing automation to take advantage of SoLoMo and of the Big Data opportunity. Seminars will show how these brands are moving from monologue, to ever-more personal, relevant, right time conversational marketing techniques and how they have transformed siloed messaging and content marketing to present real-time cross channel message consistency.

The results, of course, are improved loyalty, customer lifetime value and overall return on marketing investment.“When it comes to Big Data, much of the vendor noise is aimed at the IT department – how to capture it, access it and analyse it,” said Head of Marketing Martin Smith. “At Neolane, we’re about enabling marketers to take advantage of Big Data, to use such a wealth of data to heighten customer intelligence on every opt-in individual and then transform that data into information that can be used to create more relevant and rewarding customer relationships.” Having just closed a $27m financing round and reported 47% year-over-year growth in 2011 and with 21 of the Fortune Global 100 now rely on Neolane technology, it’s fair to say that the company is worth a visit at this year’s show.

Emailvision - E16

Henry Smith, Pre-Sales Director for Strategic Global Accounts at Emailvision, will be speaking at TFM&A on day one in the Data & Marketing Analytics Theatre, setting the tone for the company’s presence at the show. Keeping up with the pace of customer interactions with brands through multiple channels will be a key challenge for marketers this year, says Smith as well as ensuring timely and relevant communications are in context of that increasingly complex engagement.

At the show, Emailvision will be concentrating on its Campaign Commander Enterprise Edition, launched at the end of last year. The product is the first ever SaaS campaign management solution with fully integrated customer intelligence, and features several industry-firsts by providing SaaS customer intelligence integrated with email, mobile and social campaign management.

Bureau van Dijk – C28

Worth a visit this year will be Bureau van Dijk who will be demonstrating the latest version of its Mint database. First launched in 2004, Mint covers nearly 4 million companies in the UK – though the company also offers international versions. Mint is already widely-used in the B2B environment to create targeted lists, research prospects and new markets, and, increasingly, to seamlessly refresh and enrich in-house CRM content.

The new version includes more intelligent searching, a fresh contemporary interface and more options to customise your results. TFM&A will, in fact, be the first marketing exhibition where the company presents new Mint.

Mardevdm2 - G62

Social media will be a focus at this year’s show for Mardevdm2 which has noted both the enthusiasm for the new channel and the fear attached to it: how will marketers measure effectiveness? Is it just for branding and PR? How will they cope with negative feedback? Which social media channels should they focus on? Are Facebook and YouTube relevant in B2B? Could they generate sales and measure ROI on their investment?

At TFM&A the company will be focusing on its solution which is all about driving demand through the use of social media and the methods for measuring accountability for every pound spent on social media channels.

Mardevdm2 started out as a database marketing company and its business was built around driving response from direct marketing activity, measuring results and doing more of the things that worked. It intends to take these same skills into the digital age. It has embedded technologies including social listening tools and marketing automation platforms and uses them to drive innovative, predictable and better campaigns than ever before for its customers – find out how by dropping by the stand.

It looks like a great event – be there.