On Thursday 3rd November we held our 'Innovation in Direct Marketing' event at The Studio in Manchester. It was a high-level invitation only session for thought leaders from various agencies and our clients, featuring keynote speakers from the direct marketing community.

We had an excellent afternoon of presentations from our key note speakers. They shared a great insight into the latest developments within Direct Marketing which we'd like to share with you;

Speaker: Julian Gratton, MD & Creative Director, Red C agency

Topic: How direct mail is relevant in the digital age

Julian discussed the relevance of direct mail and that, as the world moves on there is always temptation to do away with the old and focus on the new. He stated that with email, all you have to do is stand out with copy (if images are turned off) but with direct mail you can really achieve stand-out on the doormat or in the in-tray.

Presenting examples from brands such as Google, Arial and John West, Julian stressed that Direct Marketing is the original interactive marketing tool that you can get your hands on and there's no other form of communication that can leave a lasting impact or benefit to you.

Speaker: Nick Rawlings, Head of Marketing, Lands' End

Topic: Generating incremental profit from multi-channel data

Nick discussed how businesses can generate incremental profit from adopting a multi-channel data strategy. He advised to avoid the "one fits all" illusion and the importance of analysing each data communication stream with customers to find out which is the most effective in terms of customer acquisition and retention.

We'd like to thank our keynote speakers for a very successful evening and hope everyone who attended enjoyed it as much as we did!