ICO gets power to up fines ‘a hundred fold’

Royal Mail continued its evolution last month with the launch of its first ever ‘DM Sale’ offering a 20% discount on new and additional Mailsort 3 and Sustainable Mail mailings between March and April this year. It says the move is designed to “help advertisers who use direct mail to try new campaign tactics and encourage those that don’t to discover its benefits”.
Jack Straw, the UK’s Secretary of State for Justice, has approved a bid from data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to increase penalties for data breaches a hundred fold, meaning the ICO can issue fines of up to £500,000 from 6th April for “deliberate or negligent” breaches of personal data.
Straw hopes the increased powers will act as a far more significant incentive to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, although only data breaches likely to cause damage or distress for the individuals involved, and that are the result of deliberate or negligent action by the data holder, will attract a financial penalty.
The move is seen by many as giving the watchdog the teeth it has long lacked. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham welcomed the new powers, saying: “These penalties are designed to act as a deterrent and to promote compliance with the Data Protection Act. I remain committed to working with voluntary, public and private bodies to help them stick to the rules and comply with the Act. But I will not hesitate to use these tough new sanctions for the most serious cases where organisations disregard the law.
“The monetary penalty must be sufficiently meaningful to act both as a sanction and also as a deterrent to prevent non-compliance of similar seriousness in the future by the contravening data controller and by other data controllers.”

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Royal Mail partnership to ‘safeguard future of DM’

Royal Mail has launched a new Strategic Mailing Partnership (SMP) with leading direct mail firms, chaired by industry stalwart and former Postwatch vice-chairwoman Judith Donovan CBE, to help “shape the future of the mailing house industry”.
The move has been welcomed by the DM industry as a reflection of the Royal Mail’s commitment to working closer with mailing houses and the wider DM industry.
Donovan has already described the SMP as “crucial both to mailing houses and the UK’s mail industry as a whole”.
Appropriately enough, the SMP was launched with a targeted mailing to 280 DM companies throughout the UK in an attempt to garner support from the industry for the new body which Royal Mail hopes will become a champion for the sector.
The SMP plans to hold a series of events around the country in order to establish a sustainable, meaningful two-way dialogue. These will include regional roadshows, a national annual conference and other networking opportunities allowing attendees to share best practice.
Board members include Lucy Edwards, Deputy MD of the Howard Hunt Group and John Wells, Group Commercial Director of Communisis.

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New CIM training directory

The Chartered Institute of Marketing has unveiled a complete directory of the training courses it has scheduled for 2010.
The new Learning and Development Directory of Courses outlines the full suite of workshops and short-courses that the Institute offers, totalling more than 120 across both marketing and sales professions. These range from foundation courses for non-marketing managers or those new to marketing, to masterclasses for experienced and senior professionals looking to gain a deeper understanding of a particular subject.
Built around core subject areas, courses are mapped to The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s professional marketing standards and more than 14 new course titles have been introduced to deliver breadth and depth of choice.
To get a copy, email traininginfo@cim.co.uk

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Infogroup unifies under single name

Consumer and business data provider InfoUK has been rebranded Infogroup/UK under a major brand unification project carried out by US parent company Infogroup, the leading provider of data driven and interactive resources for targeted sales, marketing and research solutions.
Under the unified rebranding, the US business’s other UK interests will be renamed in a similar format. Email marketing provider YesMail becomes Infogroup/YesMail, business information solutions provider OneSource becomes Infogroup/OneSource, and research business ORC International becomes Infogroup/ORC International.
Infogroup/UK Managing Director Richard Lloyd told Database Marketing: “Over the years we have grown by acquisition and now offer a range of complementary solutions. The rebranding move helps us communicate to our many customers that we are all part of the same group.
“Many marketers will know the various divisions of the company but awareness was perhaps low that we were all part of the same team, working towards the same ends. The new unification allows us to address that.”



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PCA named as NLPG Reseller

Land and property data specialist Intelligent Addressing has signed up two additional companies including addressing specialist Postcode Anywhere to act as resellers of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), the national address database for England and Wales.
The company says the move means more organisations, including housing associations, utilities and retail companies, will benefit from access to this valuable national asset.
The NLPG is created by local government and provides a unique property reference number or precise geographic location for every property in England and Wales, including multi-occupancy buildings and properties which do not have a postal address.
Postcode Anywhere’s NLPG Anywhere application allows Local Government Authorities and other bodies to maximise the use of their address data. As a centrally managed web service, NLPG Anywhere integrates quickly and easily with any application, combining the gazetteer data with an intuitive interface and mapping visualisations for efficient, joined-up service delivery.
Nick Turner, Business Development Manager at Intelligent Addressing, said: “PCA have the expertise, software and confidence to let them leverage new commercial opportunities in the market.”

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Entire and MDB merge to form Indicia

Bristol-based direct and digital agency Entire and Edinburgh-based marketing services provider Marketing Databasics (MDB) have merged and formally re-launched as a new breed of direct agency called Indicia.
With customer intelligence at its heart, Indicia will focus on four key areas to help connect people with brands: customer intelligence; customer-driven marketing; multi-channel implementation and dynamic database solutions.
Indicia will be headed up by Managing Director Ian Stockley, formely Entire’s MD, while MDB boss Mark Robinson assumes the role of Managing Partner.
Two new roles on the Indicia Board have been created with former Entire Managing Partner Julie Atherton appointed Planning Director and Liz Childerley joining the agency as Commercial Director. Childerley has been brought in to spearhead Indicia’s aggressive new strategy and brings with her a wealth of experience with over 15 years in agency life.

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Marketers to up social media spend

Some 66% of marketers will be investing in social media marketing in 2010, according to the seventh annual marketing survey by Alterian. Of those investing in social media marketing, 40% said they would be shifting more than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards this area. This supports other statistics from the survey which found that the majority of respondents (67%) feel social media is either ‘increasingly important’ or ‘critical to success’.
The survey sample covered 1068 marketing professionals worldwide and found more than a third (36%) are already investing in social media monitoring and analysis tools.
Alterian CEO, David Eldridge, said: “2010 marks the start of the digital decade for marketing. Untargeted and irrelevant marketing techniques are now redundant and the results of this survey show many in the industry recognise this. The one thing to remember, however, is that investment in Social Media Marketing is futile without adequate measurement.”
“36% already investing in tools is a significant percentage considering the maturity of the channel and reflects the growing understanding that a social media marketing strategy needs to be based on listening to customers and prospects and its ROI needs to be measured.”
The survey went further to explore the extent to which organisations integrate marketing technologies across their organisation. Almost half of respondents (42%) said they don’t incorporate clickstream and web analytics data into their customer and email database.

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People news

Richard Wright, Marketing Manager at Epsilon International EMEA and Abacus, has been promoted to Marketing Director with overall responsibility for marketing activity for both brands.
Equifax has appointed Rob Cormican as Marketing Director with responsibility for all areas of the UK business, apart from Equifax Personal Solutions. Rob takes over from former Head of Marketing, Chris Sherlock, who will now head up the Equifax Personal Solutions business.
Lead Generation specialist Clash-Media has appointed former dunnhumby MD Steve Gray as a new Non-Executive Chairman to the company’s advisory board.
Database Group has promoted Neil Evans to the new role of Sales Director after two years with the company.

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Increase in insolvency rates slows in 2009

The annual rate of business insolvencies increased at a slower rate in 2009 than in the previous year and the financial health of businesses in the UK saw a significant improvement over the same period, according to the latest Insolvency Index from Experian.
Under Experian’s scoring system, the average financial strength score for businesses in Great Britain improved steadily throughout 2009 – rising from 79.46 in January 2009 to 81.37 in December 2009. According to Experian, this has been helped by an overall improvement in the time it takes businesses to pay their suppliers.
Despite peaking in the year in the first half of 2009, the sharp fall in business failures during the second half of the year helped alleviate the final number of insolvencies in 2009. Total insolvencies increased by 12% during 2009, a marked improvement on the 29.3% of the previous year, bringing the annual insolvency rate for 2009 to 1.25%.
Rolf Hickmann, Managing Director of pH, an Experian company, said: “Last year, it became clear that the businesses most successful at avoiding insolvency were the very smallest and the very largest ones. The highest insolvency rates in 2009 were among mid range businesses. Many more businesses are taking steps to protect themselves from the risks of not getting paid, the impact on them if a key supplier or customer goes bust and indeed the risk of insolvency within their own businesses. With this in mind, businesses need to not only proceed with caution when it comes to both new and existing business clients, but also ensure that their own house in order, so that they themselves are appealing prospects for business.”
The East saw the highest levels of insolvencies while Scotland maintained the lowest rate in 2009. Perhaps surprisingly, the smallest of businesses – those with 1 to 2 employees– had the lowest annual rate of insolvencies.

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Accenture targets ‘C’ level execs

Accenture, one of the world’s leading consultancy, technology and outsourcing organisations, has engaged eCRM specialist CreatorMail to market its ideas and messages to over 750 ‘C’ level executives – the world’s most influential corporate decision makers – operating across 32 markets.
The programme is designed to influence key decision makers using electronic means to keep its members up to date with new stories, round table events and seminars held at venues across the globe including Singapore, Moscow and London. This has created an influential B2B virtual community of senior business experts representing diverse business responsibilities including global purchasing heads and CEO’s. CreatorMail has been retained throughout Europe to support Accenture’s global consultancy solutions delivery.
Mark Brennan, managing director, CreatorMail, said: “Our service has introduced an automated, fast and securely managed process, allowing swift coordination of activities and content delivery. This ensures that senior decision makers are able to discuss their viewpoints with others and share vital information.”
Using precision marketing and dynamic content techniques, CreatorMail corresponds to community members on behalf of the client on a daily basis, promoting forthcoming opportunities and communicating appropriate information. Round table events have been organised through this forum to discuss issues such as purchasing decisions, future planning and the impact of the global credit crunch. CreatorMail’s services are used successfully across a broad range of service and retail sectors including automotive, financial services, pharmaceutical, retail, legal, FMCG and travel. Founded in 2005, CreatorMail, which is the fastest growing digital agency in London, has picked up 18 marketing industry awards in three years for its real world, cutting edge, digital marketing.
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Business Wins

Fast growing fish and seafood dining chain Loch Fyne Restaurants has chosen the Communicator enterprise email-management platform from Communicator Corp to manage its customer contact data management and email marketing campaigns.
Waterstone’s has signed a contract with conversion management expert Maxymiser to drive a significant improvement in onsite conversion rates and online revenues using Maxymiser’s conversion management solution.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has chosen StrongMail to provide the company with the platform to deliver its marketing and transactional emails for its brands which include Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.
Leading Brazilian database marketing firm youDb has chosen Alterian’s marketing technologies to help drive effective campaigns for its clients, having purchased Alterian’s Selection Planner, Analytical Reporting, Campaign Manager and Data Discovery and Visualisation products.
Omniture has revealed that Toyota Motor Corporation Japan has selected Omniture SiteCatalyst as its online analytics platform to analyse and optimise online marketing to better contribute to purchases, enhance brand initiatives and foster customer loyalty.

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New public sector database available

WyvernDM has announced the availability of a new public sector database running to almost 37,000 postal addresses and telephone numbers. The database also includes almost 27,000 email addresses. Unveiling the new database, the company says that it believes there has never been a better time to target the public sector for a better ROI on B2B campaigns.
Gaining contracts with the public sector over the last two years of economic upheaval has been vitally important to private businesses. Renowned for surviving and spending during even the toughest of times, the public sector offers access to budgets which have often remain untrimmed while those of private businesses dwindle.
Historically, the public sector has also been very responsive to campaigns. WyvernDM believes the new source of data is ideal for providers of a wide array of products and services.
The files covers: the fire service; HMRC; hospitals, clinics and PCT Trusts; Housing Associations; Job Centres; Local Education Authorities; Local Government; Police Service; Prison Service; and Schools. Job functions include Chief Executive, Estates / Facilities Management, Finance, IT, Marketing, HR and Health & Safety.

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Dunnhumby buys KSS

Market research specialist Dunnhumby, majority owned by Tesco and the creator of the Tesco Clubcard, has bought US-based shopper behaviour tracking firm KSS Retail.
The acquisition comes in the wake of a partnership between the two firms. KSS Retail predicts and analyses shopper behaviour to provide optimised pricing and promotion models using in-store and online price-change tracking data.

Experian big in Japan

Experian has expanded its global reach with the acquisition of an 88.5% stake in A-Care Systems, a leading email marketing company in Japan.
The business will be folded into CheetahMail, Experian’s permission-based email marketing and customer intelligence services division.

New Abacus site

Transactional database specialist Abacus has launched a new interactive website offering a fresh take on the data co-operative proposition. The site provides exclusive content for Alliance members.
Marketing Executive, Claire Maiwald said: “Over the past couple of years, our range of data solutions has increased and we needed a website that reflects this.
“As we move through 2010, a number of ground-breaking initiatives will be posted on the site to allow our members to further improve their returns from direct mail that makes use of transactional data.”

UK Mail growing

Royal Mail rival UK Mail has reported a 4% rise in revenues for the last three months of 2009, driven in part by the Royal Mail strikes and in part by a rise in marketing direct mail volumes.
Chief Executive Guy Boswell said strike action by Royal Mail workers during that period had a mixed impact on his business as the company relies on Royal Mail delivery staff for door-to-door deliveries. Profits for the year are now expected to be ahead of previous expectations.

New append service

CCR data has launched a new service that appends verified, opted-in email addresses to customer data, using the company’s 20 million-strong email address database.
The data is clean, accurately matched and fully permissioned with only receptive customers appended, with matched customers sent a client-branded email offering them the opportunity to opt-out from further communications.