IDM Insights

Our contributors include some of the UK’s leading practitioners, as well as respected academies. We are always pleased to hear your ideas and to receive contributions for review and possible inclusion, please email us at marketing@theidm.com with your suggestions.

• 11 Mar 2010
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• Top 10 tips for improving the usability of your website
  B2B Council member, Lawrence Mitchell asks how well your website is working for you?
• 08 Dec 2009
• A 10-year retrospective by Dr Dave Chaffey F IDM (2000-2010)
  The transition from direct to interactive marketing has presented many challenges and many contributors have helped the IDM by suggesting how marketing practices should change. Dave Chaffey's review is a personal perspective on the significant changes in marketing concepts and practice over the last 10 years as reflected by contributions to the IDM Journal.
• 02 Dec 2009
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• B2B Council member Pitney Bowes’ Report into SME marketing
  What can small and independent operators do to get the most out of their marketing in the crunch and where should they be investing?
  
  
• 30 Nov 2009
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• Data governance - minimising people risks
  A DQM Group Report by, David Reed, Editor Data Strategy Magazine and Adrian Gregory, Chairman of the IDM Data Council and DMA Data Governance Working Party. Chief Executive DQM Group.
• 13 Nov 2009
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• Marketing without Money – How 20 Top Australian Entrepreneurs Crack Markets with their Minds
  A book review by IDM B2B Council Member, Andy Grant, Regional Marketing Leader, Northern Europe, Nortel
• 19 Oct 2009
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• The IDM Business-to-Business Council Best Practice Guide
  Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) - find the key metrics to influence the Board & Justify your budget. By Deborah Robertson, Marketing and Sales Director, Easynet Connect.
• 08 Oct 2009
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• The IDM Business-to-Business Marketing Council Book Review
  Professor Bryan Foss, CEO and Founder of Foss Initiatives reviews the book 'Business-to-Business-Marketing, Advanced Marketing Series (AMS)' by Ross Brennan, Louise Canning & Raymond McDowell.
• 24 Aug 2009
• Data Strategy IDM Data Council Comment
  Adrian Gregory, Chairman of the IDM Data Council, Chief Executive, DQM Group
• 24 Jun 2009
• Building Brands in Turbulent Times, Steve Sowerby M IDM - CEO XPotential
  In the daily chaos of the urgent, the hot issue or in the detail of departmental or personal objectives, there is an important fact often overlooked in business. Steve emphasises the importance of the brand as a company asset.
• 24 Jun 2009
• Delivering quality in e-communications, Nick Evans F IDM - Partner, Survey Digital
  Do you keep noticing that your competitors frequently get it wrong? Are you quick to spot the errors in direct marketing from other companies, or inconsistencies on their landing pages? On the other hand, do you ever worry that you just don’t seem to be spotting many errors on your own e-media? There’s a reason for that: the creator cannot also be the evaluator. Nick Evans F IDM, partner in SurveyDigital, gives us his tips on making sure that e-communications and websites are corporate, on time, reliable, relevant, error-free, compliant and tested.
• 22 Apr 2009
• The IDM Email Marketing Buyers’ Guide, Internet World 2009
  Internet World is a great place to start to find a partner for your email marketing, to catch up with your current provider, or to review what you are currently doing. Steve Kemish, Chair of the IDM Digital Council, and Strategy Director at Adestra, shares his thoughts on email marketing and keys areas to consider when selecting or reviewing providers.
• 25 Mar 2009
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• Free Unica White Paper; from Web Analytics to Customer Analytics: Making Web Data Personal
  Akin Arikan, author of Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success. If you’re like most marketers, you’re facing an enormous headwind. You need to increase marketing returns, but conventional marketing techniques are rapidly becoming ineffective.
  
• 23 Mar 2009
• The 3rd Annual IDM Data Summit, 5 March 2009
  The third Data Summit was held at Jury’s Hotel in central London on March 5. A capacity audience of 100 delegates heard eleven speakers address the theme of this year’s conference ‘Data Management Strategy: Evolution or revolution?’ from different perspectives. For those who missed it or who simply want an aide-memoire, here’s a summary of the day by the IDM’s own Peter Mouncey F IDM.
• 20 Mar 2009
• Getting personal: Introducing 1on1DM
  Everyone says 'get closer to that audience'. We'd rather say 'get closer to that person'. Tim Davies, from IDM Corporate Members, elliotyoung, introduces the concept of 1on1DM.
• 12 Mar 2009
• Q&A: Don Tapscott
  Guest speaker at this year's Annual IDM Lunch is world leading business and technology strategist, Don Tapscott. Ranked in the top thirty of Accenture's seminal list of the world's Top Business Gurus, Don is a regular advisor to both governments and international corporations on the value and impact of technology in business. He is also the acclaimed author of the best-selling Growing Up Digital and Wikinomics.
  
• 02 Feb 2009
• 15 ways to beat the recession
  Yes we all know 2009 is going to be difficult – but with the right planning it needn’t mean long-term disaster. The IDM asked three seasoned marketers from each area of our profession, what, having experienced tough economic times before, are their top 5 tips for tackling recession.
• 13 Jan 2009
• Time to Deliver - Why marketing investment is a must during an economic downturn
  A Pitney Bowes White Paper: During tough economic times the temptation for many businesses is to sit tight, cut back and wait for the winds of change to blow favourably. In particular, marketing strategies come under intense scrutiny when the pressure to slash costs intensifies. (Free download)
• 22 Dec 2008
• The year ahead - An IDM view
  Companies and marketers should armour themselves against these tough times by investing in skills and technology to make direct marketing better targeted, timely, effective and measurable than ever before. (Free download)
• 01 Dec 2008
• Mapping the future
  Professor Melanie Howard Hon F IDM is a leading authority on trend and business strategies. In this interview with IDM Insights, she discusses some of the major trends affecting consumers, and looks at what they could mean for direct marketers. (Log in required)
• 14 Nov 2008
• Inclusion of a wider definition of 'stakeholders'
  Bryan Foss M IDM, Non-Executive Director, UK Department for Work and Pensions provides insights into the wider definition and beneficial inclusion of stakeholders by the boards and marketing leaders of major organisations in the commercial and public sectors. (Log in required)
• 04 Sep 2008
• Improving email deliverability to drive conversions
  Hollie Williams, client strategy consultant at leading Email Services Provider Adestra, provides some tips on how to get the most out of your email marketing. (Log in required)
• 04 Sep 2008
• Mobile -- the perfect direct medium?
  Robert Thurner M IDM, Commercial Director of mobile agency Incentivated, explores how mobiles could revolutionise direct marketing. The first mobile phones were nicknamed ‘bricks’ because they were huge and unwieldy, with big handsets attached to briefcase-sized battery packs.
  
  But now, the latest mobiles are barely bigger than a credit card, and the mobile has become the one item that the majority of us say we cannot do without – and the first item we would grab if our houses were on fire. (Log in required)
• 16 Jul 2008
• Case study: Cushman & Wakefield 'Knowledge Center' campaign
  International commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefiled commissioned email marketing experts Concep to develop an email marketing campaign and linked microsite to promote its newly-launched 'Knowledge Center.' The promotion was hugely successful, and won the award for Digital Acquisition at this year's IDM Business Performance Awards. (Log in required)
• 16 Jul 2008
• DM spend up 9.8 per cent to £18bn in 2007
  Direct marketing expenditure increased by 9.8 per cent to £18 billion in 2007, according to the Economic Impact of the Direct Marketing Industry 2008 study, which is published today.(Log in required)
• 16 Jul 2008
• What's my data worth?
  Data is an issue of fundamental importance to direct marketers.
  On the one hand, technology has provided them with the ability to communicate with their audiences and collect, collate and analyse information from them on a scale they have never had before.(Log in required)
• 11 Jun 2008
• BPA 2008 B2B Data winner: Blue Sheep's Pathway to Success for Rapid Racking
  Business-to-business marketing services provider Blue Sheep helped Rapid Racking, the UK’s leading supplier of shelving and other storage solutions for business use, increase sales by 11 per cent and grow profits by 30 per cent. (Log in required)
• 11 Jun 2008
• Transactional marketing is dead – long live relationship marketing?
  If the 20th century was the age of mass marketing and of transactional marketing, the 21st century is going to be the age of relationship marketing. (Log in required)
• 15 May 2008
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
  Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds was a book written in 1841 by a journalist called Charles Mackay. It analysed something which should be very close to our hearts at the moment, which is various economic bubbles and collapses. (Contributed by Drayton Bird Hon F IDM, Drayton Bird Associates)(Log in required)
• 15 May 2008
• New customer acquisition: five ways to make it work again
  Customer acquisition is recognised by most clients as the biggest hurdle they face over the next 12 months. John Watson Hon F IDM puts forward five different ways to tackle the problem. (Log in required)
• 10 Apr 2008
• Case study: mobile rings up response rates for Pedigree Petfoods
  Using mobile marketing as part of a money-off mailer, Mars Petcare achieved response and coupon redemption rates five times higher than direct mail alone. (Log in required)
• 10 Apr 2008
• Mobile marketing is booming
  With over 2.6 billion mobile devices world-wide, mobile is poised to overtake television, PCs and cinema to become the “first screen,” according to industry body the Mobile Marketing Association. Not too many years ago, it was the fourth screen. (Log in required)
• 10 Apr 2008
• Online ads hit £2.8bn - overtakingTV by 2009?
  Online advertising spend in the UK hit £2.8 billion in 2007, an increase of 38 per cent over 2006. By comparison, direct mail spend was £2.16 billion. Online advertising is now the third biggest medium in the UK, after television on £4 billion and press display advertising on £3.7 billion. (Log in required)
• 12 Mar 2008
• A glass half-full – and rising!
  Marketers – and direct marketers in particular – should have little to fear from the current economic downturn, according to leading financial commentator Anthony Hilton. If anything, a recession should mean even greater opportunities, he added. (Log in required)
• 12 Mar 2008
• B2B marketing to hit £17.5 billion by 2012
  Business-to-Business marketing is growing in importance – and in budgets, too. The latest estimates show that UK companies spent £11.3 billion on Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing in 2007: and over the next five years, that amount will increase by more than 50% to hit £17.5 billion by 2012. (Log in required)
• 12 Mar 2008
• Smart mailing for SMEs
  Carol Wright M IDM, direct marketing manager for Pitney Bowes and a member of the Institute of Direct Marketing B2B Council, highlights how SME marketers can capitalise on the brand-influencing powers of direct mail. (Log in required)
• 13 Feb 2008
• Case study: RetailChoice.com
  RetailChoice.com is part of the Totaljobs Group, and is the leading specialist recruitment website in the UK retail market. In order to overcome that lack of awareness, RetailChoice.com’s marketing team and Clockwork IMC came up with the idea of offering recruiters a free trial to the site so they could see for themselves that RetailChoice.com can offer a wide and relevant selection of retail professionals for their vacancies. (Log in required)
• 13 Feb 2008
• Don Peppers: in his own words
  Don Peppers is one of the world’s leading authorities on one-to-one relationship marketing. He will be appearing as the keynote speaker at the IDM’s Fifth Annual B2B Marketing Conference on 8 April 2008. (Free download)
• 13 Feb 2008
• The state of B2B marketing training
  At least £10 billion is spent on business-to-business marketing in the UK every year, and nearly half a million people have B2B marketing responsibilities – yet the majority of them were never formally trained as marketers, nor do their companies provide any budget for training. (Log in required)
• 16 Jan 2008
• Case Study: LV=
  CACI was brought in to help provide LV= (formerly known as Liverpool Victoria) with the capability to generate optimised annual marketing plans through the analysis of its customer and prospect database. These plans would allow sales targets to be met in the most efficient manner possible, maximising the value gained whilst minimising costs and meeting any real world constraints that may exist. (Log in required)
• 16 Jan 2008
• Interview: Phil Jones, head of the ICO’s data protection practice
  Phil Jones, assistant commissioner in the Information Commissioner’s Office and head of the ICO’s data protection practice, would like to congratulate the marketing profession. (Log in required)
• 16 Jan 2008
• What's the matter with data?
  Jeremy Clarkson didn't think the loss of personal data was important: and to prove it, he happily disclosed his bank account details in a recent column in The Sun newspaper. (Log in required)
• 06 Dec 2007
• Allan Leighton, plural man
  Allan Leighton, who is to speak at the IDM’s Annual Lunch in February, has, as chairman of Royal Mail Group for the past six years, orchestrated the turn-around of what are arguably two of the UK’s most famous brands – Royal Mail itself, and the Post Office. (Log in required)
• 06 Dec 2007
• Is there a best time to send emails?
  We’re all aware that segmentation, list hygiene, the creative and offer are all important to the success of any DM campaign, but Email Service Providers are constantly being asked whether a ‘best time’ to send e-mail marketing messages actually exists. (Log in required)
• 06 Dec 2007
• Opt-In – will anyone make the effort?
  Iain Lovatt M IDM, executive chairman, Blue Sheep and chair of the IDM’s Data Council, questions the thinking behind proposed moves towards making all direct marketing opt-in. (Log in required)
• 08 Nov 2007
• Case study: Monarch Airlines - natural search campaign
  Monarch Airlines is one of the UK’s major providers of low-cost scheduled flights. Online search marketing has become an increasingly powerful tool for marketers operating in the travel sector, and Monarch had invested significant sums in its Pay Per Click paid search advertising. However, it found that it was getting no visibility at all for any of its routes on natural search listings, mainly because it was competing in a fiercely competitive sector against other travel operators, aggregators and affiliates, all of whom were vying for the top few positions on the first page of natural search results. (Log in required)
• 08 Nov 2007
• Fight for the right to market
  A new campaign group, headed by the Advertising Association (AA), has been formed to defend direct marketing, as part of a larger program aimed at resisting the threat of further restrictions on advertising and marketing freedoms. (Log in required)
• 08 Nov 2007
• Power of direct marketing
  The US Direct Marketing Association’s latest annual Power of Direct Marketing report predicts that while US marketers will spend $167.2 billion on non-direct advertising channels in 2007, they will spend $173.2 billion on direct advertising and marketing. (Log in required)
• 04 Oct 2007
• Logitech ‘Working Late’ viral video
  Computer peripherals company Logitech asked Kitcatt Nohr to develop a campaign to promote its webcam product. Kitcatt Nohr’s solution was to create a viral film which demonstrated what the product could do in a fun way. (Log in required)
• 04 Oct 2007
• Online ad spend overtakes direct mail
  UK marketers spent £1.3 billion on online advertising in the first six months of 2007, an increase of 41.3% on the £917.2 million for the same period in 2006. The figures mean online advertising now accounts for just under 15% of all UK advertising spend – taking it well past direct mail, which took 11.8% of total media spend. (Log in required)
• 04 Oct 2007
• The accountability gap
  Accountability is becoming an increasingly important issue in the marketing profession. In recent years, large numbers of companies have begun to introduce formal marketing accountability programs and to extend the procurement process to cover marketing services. (Log in required)
• 13 Sep 2007
• Campaign case study: the launch of the Innocent Village Fete programme
  This month’s case study looks at Innocent Drinks’ Innocent Village Fete programme. The inaugural event, held in London’s Hyde Park in August, attracted a capacity crowd of 60,000 and raised £150,000 for charity – not to mention getting the innocent message across to the company’s core target market, families who are concerned about what their children eat and drink and who have an interest in environmental and countryside issues. (Log in required)
• 13 Sep 2007
• Grabbing attention in the new marketing environment
  The internet offers the possibility of almost instant dialogue with customers, and has fundamentally changed how business functions. Newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters and the marketers who work for the companies the media services must adapt – and rapidly -- or die, says social media expert Antony Mayfield, head of content and media at digital agency Spannerworks. (Log in required)
• 13 Sep 2007
• Integrating experiential and direct marketing
  Experiential marketing faces a major hurdle: convincing marketers that it is more than just a new, fancy name for field marketing. The best way to do that is to make sure that any experiential activity is fully integrated with other marketing disciplines, in particular direct marketing, in order to build proof of its effectiveness. (Log in required)
• 13 Sep 2007
• Making friends and influencing people
  Social networking sites offer marketers enormous potential. Recent media coverage, however, has demonstrated that marketers must be careful about what social networks they appear on and what content they are allowing their brands to be associated with. Events have shown how easy it is for branded advertising to appear alongside potentially damaging content. (Log in required)
• 08 Aug 2007
• Campaign case study: repositioning of Which?
  An exclusive in-depth case study of the award-winning Which? campaign. Watson Phillips Norman and Mike Colling & Co helped Which? radically reposition itself and shake off the baggage of its decades-long prize draw promotion. The campaign improved return on investment by 250% in 12 months and helped Which? add new subscribers for the first time in 10 years. (Log in required)
• 08 Aug 2007
• Integrated Marketing Communications Metrics
  Marketers are realising that their communications must be integrated. They increasingly understand that all the different parts of an organisation must pool all the data they collect about customers from all the different contact points that exist – marketing, sales, accounts, service etc. (Log in required)
• 08 Aug 2007
• Prize Problems
  Direct marketers who hoped the new Gambling Act, which becomes law next month, would make running prize draws easier are going to be disappointed -- at least, until a couple of significant areas of confusion are cleared up. (Log in required)
• 19 Jul 2007
• 2007 BPA Diamond Award Winner
  An exclusive in-depth case study of the award-winning BBC Licensing campaign. Proximity London's integrated campaign changed behaviour among a notoriously fickle and changing audience - the UK’s student population. The campaign achieved a staggering 24% increase in sales and created a new mindset among students where buying a TV licence suddenly became the norm! (Log in required)
• 19 Jul 2007
• Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
  IMC is fundamental to creating dialogue with consumers - but 80% of client marketers and their agencies admit they must learn more about how to put IMC into practice. Plus an exclusive interview with the acknowledged father of the discipline, Professor Don Schultz. (Log in required)
• 19 Jul 2007
• Marketers' biggest opportunities
  Delegates at this May’s IDM Symposium - sponsored by Oracle - were challenged to identify the issues they saw as offering the biggest threats and the biggest opportunities to them as marketers. Amongst the top three trends identified was the optimisation of data. But, as we report, exactly what people mean by data optimisation varies enormously from organisation to organisation and even individual to individual. (Log in required)
• 21 Jun 2007
• Web 2.0: What's the big attraction?
  Just what is all the fuss about Web 2.0? The latest in a long line of new technologies, soon to be outdated? Or does it have farther-reaching implications? With visits to Web 2.0 sites increasing by 668% in two years and 68% of marketers of the opinion that it’s the single biggest factor changing the ways their company interacts with customers, Martin Croft investigates. (Log in required)
• 20 Apr 2007
• Online ad spend will overtake direct mail in 2007
  The latest IAB/PwC online advertising study reveals the detailed figures behind the medium's continued phenomenal growth throughout 2006. Via our privileged access, we put the essential elements in context. (Log in required)
• 06 Mar 2007
• How Good is your Google Marketing Strategy?
  This briefing on Search Engine Marketing takes you through the key steps in developing a strategy to market your business effectively in Google. (Log in required)
• 13 Nov 2006
• Implications of Mail market Liberalisation for Direct Marketers
  This is a brief paper considering the initial and potential implications of the early stages of mail market liberalisation. It is not intended to be a definitive analysis but serves to highlight key aspects of this important market development from the view point of marketers specifically involved in direct mail. (Log in required)
• 20 Sep 2006
• Using brain triggers to get attention
  Will enough potential customers notice your ad? Will enough sit enthralled through to the end? Will there be enough response? Does it matter? It’s only an ad. (Log in required)

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