Two US holidays awarded to top IDM Diploma students
Released 13 November 2006: Two students who gained the highest marks in their IDM qualifications this summer were each awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to the United States on Friday night. The prizes were provided by qualification sponsors Acxiom and Google, and were presented at the graduation ceremony preceding a special "Graduates Reunited" party which celebrated the Institute's 20th anniversary.
Top student for the IDM Diploma in Direct and Interactive Marketing was Vanessa Sanford, Media Executive at Carat. Courtesy of Acxiom, she wins a 3-day trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, home of Acxiom's corporate HQ and famous for its links with ex-US president Bill Clinton. Vanessa will be able to explore the state and spend a further three days at a major city on the flight transfer - Chicago, Dallas and Memphis are en route.
Google awarded a two-night stay for two in San Francisco to Marie Myles, Principal Customer Intelligence Consultant at ClarityBlue Ltd. and top student of the IDM Diploma in Digital Marketing. Marie will stay at a luxury San Francisco hotel and will have the chance, during her stay, to tour the Googleplex in Mountain View.
Vanessa said of her win: ”I feel proud to have won the top student award and I’m extremely grateful to Carat for sponsoring and supporting me during the IDM Diploma. I admit that the course was hard work at times, but it was enormously valuable and I found that most of what I learned could be put into practice on a daily basis. The award has also made all the hard work feel worthwhile. I am very excited about visiting Acxiom’s headquarters in the US."
And of her new IDM qualification, Marie added: The hours of research and studying have certainly paid off. I now have an appreciation of the value and role of digital in the media mix and how so many of the principles, that I am very familiar with in traditional offline channels, are applied in digital media. My new found knowledge will be put to great use in the development of ClarityBlue’s interactive strategy and new propositions. I would recommend the IDM Diploma in Digital Marketing to anyone in a senior marketing role who appreciates the potential of digital media and needs that powerful industry insight to make it happen.”
Joining all the 2006 graduates after the prizegiving were two decades of past IDM Graduates – direct marketers who have gained an IDM qualification in the 20 years since the Institute launched. The "Graduates Reunited" party was thrown by the IDM as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations and allowed graduates to catch up with ex-classmates as well as forge valuable new contacts. To date over 7,000 marketing professionals hold an internationally respected IDM qualification – either the IDM Certificate or IDM Diploma in Direct and Interactive Marketing; the IDM Certificate or Diploma in Digital Marketing; or the IDM Certificate in Applied Analytics. IDM graduates include many high profile marketers such as Mike Tildesley, Director of PR & Marketing at Direct Line, Stuart Archibald, Partner at Archibald, Ingall Stretton and Julian Brewer, Head of Online Marketing & Content at Barclays Bank plc.
For more information about IDM qualifications and forthcoming start dates, visit www.theidm.com/qualifications.
Notes to Editors
For more information contact Juliet Hilditch at juliethilditch@theidm.com.
