We were joined by a select band of marketing professionals and some fantastic industry speakers who delivered interesting, thought provoking and in some cases eye-opening content!

Mark Cruise, Head of Print Management at BSkyB presented the various campaigns that Sky have successfully implemented, and explained how paper offers Sky the opportunity to deliver tangible and creative messages to the right audience at the right time. He added that research proves that advertising in print is twice as effective as on television for retailers, while catalogues and customer magazines allow your brand to engage with your customer for up to 25 minutes per session.  Mark also pointed out that direct mail is in fact an eco friendly and sustainable medium.  His Irish accent made the following statistic all the more memorable…"for every tree logged in managed forests, at least tree trees…(or should that be three trees)…are replanted.”

John Kimbell, Managing Director at Navigate Digital explained how Kellogg’s used sampling to start a conversation in the social space.  As well as providing insight on how to drive customers online, John explained how Navigate used social media monitoring tools to track the online ‘buzz’ around the sampling activity.  He presented the Kellogg’s All Bran campaign as an innovative DM solution with an innovative tracking method. With an incredibly engaging pres, John managed to get the audience tweeting about Kellogg’s to continue the buzz, reinforcing the already impressive campaign results.

Ian Bates, Creative Director at Indicia presented two campaigns, showcasing award winning integrated marketing. In both cases, Indicia identified the customer challenge and came up with an integrated solution with their campaigns for Very.co.uk and Tourism Ireland. As well as using various social media platforms, the campaigns utilised print inserts and direct mail in order to drive customers to microsites and video content. The Very campaign won a DMA Grand Prix Award with the judges commenting that it was “...a great exemplar of how direct marketing is as relevant today as in any other decade.” 

Finally, Stephen Shaw, Opportunities Director at Blippar, was given the tricky task of the graveyard shift preceding the fizz and canapés.  He did an excellent job at engaging with the audience as he showcased Blippar’s bleeding-edge mobile augmented reality browser and how it can help conversion for DM.  With some eye-opening examples, Stephen showed how clients such as Renault, Sony and Tesco are all using Blippar to bring their direct mail to life.  The audience also got to meet a celebrity, as Stephen ‘blipped’ Justin Bieber’s album, resulting in the opportunity for Nick Wells, CEO of TNT Post to have a virtual photo taken with the singing sensation!  It was very exciting to see what this incredible technology is capable of, and how it can help conversion for Direct Marketing.

We’d like to thank our speakers and all that attended for a very successful evening and hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did!