An Intimate Conversation with Marilyn Ewer, NEDMA’s 2005 Direct Marketer of the Year, Part One

May 18th, 2006

The New England Direct Marketing Association’s Direct Marketer of the Year Award is given annually to honor an outstanding individual who is involved in some aspect of direct marketing here in New England and has made a significant contribution to the advancement of our industry.

This year’s recipient of this prestigious award will be announced at an evening banquet celebration – at which Denny Hatch will be delivering a keynote presentation – on June 14 at NEDMA ’06. Tickets to attend this event can be purchased here.

Recent NEDMA Direct Marketers of the Year have included such industry icons as Nancy Harhut, Donna Baier Stein, Tom Gaffny, Jim Hackett, David Wetherell, Lee W. Robbins, Steven R. Tharler, Alan Rosenspan, Tracy Emerick, Mike Slosberg, James A. Soltesz and John Bell, George Wojtkiewicz, Barry Silverstein and Michael Bronner.

And, of course, last year this award was presented to Marilyn Ewer.

To know Marilyn is to have the utmost admiration and respect for Marilyn. She’s not just a terrifically talented copywriter and successful president of her own small business, MKE Enterprises. She’s a tireless volunteer, having given tons of her time to NEDMA over the years in a number of different capacities (which explains why she was honored by NEDMA with another big award back in 1995, the Service Award).

In 1984, Marilyn helped start the first NEDMA newsletter, Rollout (which you now know as NEDMA News). She also served as the association’s event photographer for more than 15 years as well as a judge for many a sister club’s awards entries. But perhaps her most significant contribution as a NEDMA volunteer has been as Chair — for many years — of both the Education Committee and the NEDMA Foundation.

Indeed, Marilyn is a selfless contributor to all things NEDMA-related. She’s a wonderfully warm and generous individual who would do almost anything to help anyone in need. She’s a good egg and a kind soul, a true friend and a trusted ally to me and countless others in business and in, well, life itself.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Marilyn a handful of questions about her career as a direct marketer and her experiences with NEDMA. What follows is the text – verbatim – of our email exchange…

Bob: What does winning NEDMA’s 2005 DM of the Year award mean to you?

Marilyn: Winning the DM of the Year Award was one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my career. The Award recognizes significant contributions to the DM industry, and I am thrilled that my colleagues and other leaders of the industry thought me worthy of this honor. It is also a tribute to the NEDMA Foundation that I helped create and have headed for more than 14 years.

Bob: How did you get started in direct marketing?

Marilyn: My mother ordered me out of a catalog, and then found she couldn’t return me. And from that time on, she made sure I knew the good catalogs from the bad…

Seriously though, before getting into DM, I worked for Dealerscope magazine in both the editorial and advertising sales departments. I had an exceptional mentor named Manny Rosen who had been in sales all his life. He had a tremendous amount of business and personal wisdom that he generously shared with me. I think the face-to-face direct sales experience and the magazine writing skills I learned help me create direct response strategies and campaigns. At Dealerscope, we also did a lot of innovative direct marketing to generate ad sales. We mailed pot holders, sections of carpet, and even apples—it was great fun and got a lot of good response.

After several years with the firm, I helped start a second magazine for the company that became successful. That job gave me lots of experience in market research and business planning.

After eight years with Dealerscope, I wanted a new challenge, and I started MKE Enterprises. I really loved the direct marketing we did, and wanted to help other organizations create excellent DM campaigns. Shortly after I started the business, I met Katharine Barr who said I must join NEDMA, and I did. I met other wonderful people like George Wojtkiewicz, Doug Hamer, Brian Turley, Pam Sullivan, and you, Bob Cargill — and my DM career was launched. This year, I am celebrating my 24th year in business.

Bob: What can you tell us about the NEDMA Foundation?

Marilyn: The NEDMA Foundation grew out of the Education Committee. In the early 1990s the NEDMA Board asked the committee to research the possibility of starting a scholarship program. We founded a non-profit organization, the NEDMA Foundation, Inc., to help students learn more about the opportunities in Direct Marketing. At that time, there were many entry-level jobs, but employers couldn’t take the time to educate someone who didn’t even know what DM was. We talked with many people and spent a long time structuring an opportunity that offered a monetary award and had educational value.

We developed a four-part Scholarship Opportunity for undergraduate students in New England who are interested in careers in DM. It includes:

1) A monetary award for the student’s tuition.
2) Attendance at the NEDMA Conference (that is generously donated by NEDMA).
3) Attendance at the three-day DMA Basic Institute (that is generously donated by the DMA).
4) A summer-long internship program, arranged by our committee, in an agency or client so the students can get hands-on experience in DM.

This year we will be presenting our 25th and 26th scholarships. Our 2006 winners are Shaquanna Philip, who is attending Emerson College, and Amanda Rubin from Stonehill College. They will receive their awards at the NEDMA Conference in June. We are also awarding the Professor Award for Excellence in Direct Marketing to Professor Thomas J. Rossi of Johnson & Wales University.

And we have a fabulous, hardworking Foundation Board that includes: Linda Bistany, Marcie Judges, Mark Linse, Chad Lucier, Bob Rotchford, and Pam Sullivan.

Note: This is Part One of An Intimate Conversation with Marilyn Ewer, NEDMA’s 2005 Direct Marketer of the Year. Part Two will be posted here tomorrow.

Marilyn Ewer is President of MKE Enterprises, a direct marketing agency based in North Reading, MA. The firm works with both nonprofit and for-profit clients, and offers a complete range of services including strategy, campaign creative and production, analysis, and e-marketing. In the 24 years it’s been in business, MKE Enterprises has helped sell millions of dollars of products/services, bring new products to market, create brand awareness, acquire new donors, and raise millions of dollars for its nonprofit clients.

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