Posts filed under 'Miscellaneous'
Craig Blake, who was installed as President of the New England Direct Marketing Association at NEDMA ‘06, has just a few parting words about the conference before we put this blog to rest for at least a short summer hiatus. Here’s Craig…
Well, 10 months of planning and preparation have passed and NEDMA ‘06 is in the history books. After all of the countless hours of organization and STRESS, it is all over. It kind of reminds me of Christmas morning when I was a little boy. All of that anticipation, build-up and excitement, then it is over, just like that, in the blink of an eye. Poof!
On Thursday night (June 15) after the conference, I had a chance to enjoy a frosty pint with fellow NEDMA ‘06 volunteers Ben Borne, Bob Cargill and Doug Hamer to celebrate the success of the conference, and we all came to the same conclusion: It was truly a fantastic journey and seeing everyone so excited and enjoying themselves so much made it worth all of the hard work. So to all of you in attendance, thank you.
I would also like to express my appreciation for all of the speakers, lunchtime discussion leaders, exhibitors, sponsors and volunteers who made NEDMA’s 44th annual conference such a huge success. We broke attendance records across the board with over 375 total attendees. This is a testament to you, members of New England’s direct marketing community.
Look out world, here we come!
On a related topic, rumor has it that Gary Lubarsky, Vice President of NEDMA and chair of NEDMA ‘07, has already started planning next year’s conference. If you would like to join the excitement and help plan it with him, or if you would like to serve as a speaker, sponsor or exhibitor, please drop us a line at . Otherwise, don’t forget to check back here. I suspect the blog will continue, providing you with all of the behind-the-scenes coverage of next year’s event.
Signing off as NEDMA ‘06 co-chair, on behalf of Bob Cargill and myself…
…good night, New England direct marketers! We will see you again soon.
June 24th, 2006
With less than 72 hours to go before NEDMA ‘06 finally kicks into gear, Craig Blake (Vice President of Sales at W.A. Wilde, Vice President of the New England Direct Marketing Association and co-chair of the conference), has just a few final words to say.
Once again, here’s Craig…
Frequent readers of this conference blog have had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at what you’ll be learning about on June 14 and 15 at NEDMA ‘06. Over the course of the past several months, we’ve had a countless number of contributors to the conversation on this blog. To all of those individuals, I just want to say thank you.
Of course, behind the scenes, there has been an array of volunteers making sure NEDMA ‘06 will be the best conference ever. And I’d like to take this moment to recognize a few of them…
First of all, my hat goes off to Pat Farley — of Farley Creative — for all of your effort in writing all of the promotional materials for NEDMA’ 06.
Doug Hamer — of DS Hamer Design — for all of the many hours you’ve spent creating all of the communications for the conference.
Ben Borne — of Newport Creative Communications — has done a masterful job as our manager of speaker relations, arranging all the details surrounding the speakers.
Cyndy Bro Higgins — of ResponsiveConcepts — has created all of our online communications, including this very blog, the NEDMA ‘06 Web site and online registration.
To NEDMA’s managing directors, Beth Drysdale and Pat Lee — of Drysdale Lee & Associates — thank you for all of your energy, effort and willingness to let me break a few rules.
Bob Cargill — my partner in crime and co-chair of NEDMA ‘06 — thank you for all of your support, energy and effort, especially in keeping this conversation going.
To all of the other committee members who have contributed to make NEDMA ‘06 so successful, thank you for all of your energy, enthusiasm, ideas and effort.
After all of those thank you’s, you probably get a feeling of the amount of hard work and effort that went into organizing NEDMA ‘06.
If you haven’t registered for NEDMA ‘06, please do it now by clicking here. Time is running out for you to join us at New England’s premier gathering of direct marketing professionals.
I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday and Thursday at NEDMA ‘06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition.
And thank you, Craig. You have set the pace — and high standards — for all of us.
For those of you who don’t know Craig, he’s an outstanding leader, a dedicated professional and a true team player. He’s driven to succeed, but he also has a great sense of humor and a positive, easygoing personality that brings out the very best in everyone around him. To say it’s been a pleasure to work with Craig – as co-chairs of the NEDMA ‘06 conference – would be an understatement. It’s been a blast!
June 11th, 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.
I recently had the opportunity to ask Marilyn Ewer, NEDMA’s 2005 Direct Marketer of the Year, a handful of questions about her career as a direct marketer and her experiences with NEDMA.
In yesterday’s post, Marilyn talked about what it meant to win such a prestigious award, how she got started in direct marketing and the mission of the NEDMA Foundation. Today, she tells us what it’s like to run her own business, how the industry has changed, what she would consider the “highlights” of her career, who the perfect client is and how college graduates can start a career in DM…
Bob: What does it take to succeed as the owner of a small DM business? What are your secrets?
Marilyn: No real secrets — for me every client and every job are important. There is no such thing as “sliding through a job.” Every campaign is a new opportunity to partner with a client to sell a product/service or raise money for a worthy charitable organization.
With each new client, I do my research—learning about their business, their goals, their customers, past campaigns that have succeeded or failed, and their competitors. I also try to keep up with any new aspects of the business, and I always network, network, network!
Bob: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry during the course of your career?
Marilyn: There have been MANY, but I think the way we handle data, and what we can do with the data in terms of one-to-one marketing has changed tremendously over the years. And of course, the Internet has become a major factor in all of our lives—from researching to fundraising, purchasing, communications, and on-line auctions. The Internet has also changed our concept of time. People want responses in a matter of hours or a day; a couple of weeks is unacceptable.
Bob: What are some of the highlights of your career so far?
Marilyn: Winning the Direct Marketer of the Year Award was certainly a major highlight of my career. Another is seeing the students who have won scholarships through our NEDMA Foundation have a tremendous learning experience through their summer-long internship, and then go on to careers in direct marketing.
There are other highlights that are not as visible, yet equally rewarding. When I think about some of the campaigns I’ve helped to create that raise money so that children do not go hungry or to help animals so that they are not abused — that to me is tremendously important. I know that the words I write are doing good and helping others.
Bob: How would you describe the perfect client?
Marilyn: Someone who really cares about the customers/clients the organization is serving…someone who’s willing to test new DM packages and take a risk from time to time…someone who shares all the relevant information they have or if they do not have sufficient information is willing to spend the time to do the research…and of course, someone who pays their bills on time!
Bob: What advice would you have for a recent college graduate just starting out in direct marketing?
Marilyn: Network, network, network. Join organizations such as NEDMA, the DMA, the DMFA, and others. Get involved, volunteer both at work and for the trade organization you join. Never stop learning — this industry is changing constantly!
Note: This is Part Two of An Intimate Conversation with Marilyn Ewer, NEDMA’s 2005 Direct Marketer of the Year. Part One was posted here yesterday.
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.
May 19th, 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.
May 18th, 2006
Believe it or not, just seven weeks from the time this post has gone live we’ll be smack, dab in the middle of NEDMA ’06. Imagine. After practically a whole year’s worth of planning and preparations, it’ll all be over before we know it.
But let’s not think about that now. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s savor every moment leading up to the big event. Which is precisely why we put up this blog in the first place. It’s here to keep us – and that means you – informed, enlightened and excited every single step of the way. It’s here to introduce you to the speakers, the sponsors, the exhibitors and the people behind the scenes who are working hard and feverishly to make sure NEDMA ’06 will be the one of the best conferences you’ve ever experienced.
Craig Blake is one of those people who have been spending countless hours over the course of the last year cobbling together the many different pieces that make up a conference of this size and significance. In fact, he’s more or less – okay, more – the one who’s been leading the charge. In addition to serving on the board as Vice President of NEDMA this year, he’s Co-Chair of NEDMA ’06. By day, he’s Vice President of Sales at W.A. Wilde, a single-source provider of direct marketing services and a company with which we’re all familiar. With over 10 years of direct marketing experience, he’s played an instrumental role in the successful launch of countless direct mail, fulfillment and variable digital print programs on behalf of many of Wilde’s clients. And right now he joins us for an update on NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition.
Ladies and gentleman, Craig Blake…
WOW….. I sit here typing at 9:15 PM on Wednesday, April 26, and NEDMA ‘06 is only 48 days, ten hours and 45 minutes away. Panic starts to set in….Deep breaths…..in….out….
It was only eight months ago that Bob Cargill, my fellow chair, and I had lunch at T.G.I. Friday’s in Framingham, MA, to kick off NEDMA ‘06. Actually, I was bribing Bob (a past NEDMA president) to join me in this great adventure as co-chair of NEDMA ‘06. And believe it or not, the event is almost here!
Over the past several months, Bob, our faithful committee and NEDMA’s managing directors (Beth Drysdale and Pat Lee) have worked tirelessly to organize NEDMA ’06. Major accomplishments include copywriting and design of all of the promotional materials and content, logo and ad design, launch of NEDMA’s first ever blog, a speaker RFP (which resulted in over 70 proposals from as far away as California to join us at NEDMA ‘06), online registration set-up, a conference web site, solicitation of exhibitors and sponsors as well as the launch of a few press releases. Phew… and that is only half of it.
With an overwhelming response from our speaker RFP, we were able to hand-pick a tremendous line up for NEDMA ’06. The event is jam-packed, including…
• Four all-day workshops
• Direct Marketer of the Year dinner with special guest and DM legend Denny Hatch
• Featured Keynoter Anne Holland, President of Marketing Sherpa, Inc.
• 12 concurrent sessions
• 10 lunch roundtables with the experts (Bob and I will be conducting one on running a conference!!)
• A closing keynote by Mac Macintosh
• Exhibitor raffles, giveaways and more.
You Are Invited to Register for NEDMA ‘06 Today
NEDMA ’06 promises to be a great event. See for yourself. In the upper left-hand corner of this blog — right above the sponsors (for whom we are very grateful) – you can download the full conference brochure and register to be there in person for all the excitement on June 14 and 15 at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. If you register by May 19, you can take advantage of our special Early Bird savings opportunity, so don’t delay – do it today.
And don’t forget to read the blog each week for the latest updates and news from a number of surprise guest bloggers. We have other NEDMA ’06 speakers on deck ready to give you their thoughts on the conference. Finally, if you’re reading the blog for the first time, scroll down and check out some of the older posts. Remember, as Bob Cargill said in this space several months ago, this is your conference. And this is your blog. So do stay tuned….
To download the full conference brochure for NEDMA ‘06, click here.
To register to attend NEDMA ‘06, click here.
April 26th, 2006
Congratulations to David Hazeltine, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yellowfin Direct Marketing, for winning a $10 Starbucks Card just for subscribing to the NEDMA ’06 Conference Blog and letting us know that he did so before the deadline (see last week’s post — below — for details).
We had planned to give away two Starbucks Cards, but David was — surprisingly — the only one to both subscribe and get back to us on time. So kudos to him for taking advantage of such a good opportunity!
Of course, we would still like to encourage you — and everyone else interested in NEDMA – to become a subscriber. To do so, just read what was written in this space last week, then click on one of the two links near the top of the sidebar to the right, either the one that says, “Receive email updates through FeedBlitz” or the other one, “Track updates through Bloglines.” Email or RSS, the choice is yours….
March 10th, 2006
In lieu of writing something about one of our speakers, sponsors or exhibitors, I thought I would take the time this week to encourage you to not just read, but subscribe to the NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World Conference Blog. As a subscriber, you’ll know whenever the blog has been updated with new information without ever having to actually go to it. It’ll come to you.
You Can Subscribe by Email…
There are two ways to subscribe. If you would like to be notified by email, all you need to do is click on the link near the top of the sidebar to the right that says, “Receive email updates through FeedBlitz.” You’ll be taken to the FeedBlitz site, where you’ll be asked for your email address. Subscribe this way to the NEDMA ’06 Conference Blog and every time we post something new, you’ll get an email from FeedBlitz containing a portion of the new content – you’ll have to click through to the blog itself to read the post in its entirety.
…Or You Can Subscribe by RSS
Then there’s RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. This is a way for you to subscribe to this blog – and as many others as you like – through an instantaneous feed brought to you by a feed reader (or aggregator) such as Bloglines.
At first, RSS may sound confusing, but it’s really not. And many online marketing experts say it’s the wave of the future, so it makes a lot of sense to at least become familiar with it.
RSS means both the sender and receiver don’t have to worry about the filters that can inadvertently block legitimate emails from reaching their destination.
RSS makes it possible for you to receive all – and only – the content you want, when you want it, where you want it.
Bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change, Seth Godin, explains RSS in his own inimitable way on his blog, which you’ll find by clicking here.
Or to learn even more about RSS, you might want to click here and read Backbone Media’s Corporate Blogging Survey, which contains an excellent definition of the term in addition to everything else you would want to know about this revolutionary, self-publishing platform called a blog.
All that said, the aforementioned Bloglines is the feed reader I’d like to recommend (although there are many other good ones, of course). To subscribe to this blog using Bloglines, just click on the link near the top of the sidebar to the right that says, “Track updates through Bloglines.” This will take to you the Bloglines site, where you’ll first register for a free account, then subscribe to the feed for the NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World Conference Blog, among as many other blogs as you’d like to monitor. It’s that easy.
Your Chance to Win a $10 Starbucks Card
As an incentive for you to become a subscriber to this blog sooner rather than later, we’re going to give away two $10 Starbucks Cards – one to a reader who subscribes through FeedBlitz and the other to someone who subscribes through Bloglines between the time of this post and 5 PM EST on Monday, March 6.
To qualify for this drawing, however, you must let us know before the deadline that you’ve subscribed for the first time by sending an email to that includes the day and time you became a subscriber and whether you used FeedBlitz or Bloglines as well as your name, company name, mailing address and phone number. We’ll announce the two winners here next week. Good luck! And thanks for reading – or better yet, subscribing to – the NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World Conference Blog.
March 3rd, 2006
On behalf of the planning committee for NEDMA ‘06, It’s a Brave New World - including NEDMA VP and my fellow Conference Co-Chair, Craig Blake, along with NEDMA Managing Directors Beth Drysdale and Pat Lee - it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our new conference blog.
I’m Bob Cargill, Co-Chair of NEDMA ‘06 and the humble moderator of this space.
Here is where you’ll be able to find all the news and information that’s fit to, well, blog about our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and more. Over the course of the next few months, we plan to post regularly about NEDMA ‘06. We’ll preview the educational sessions that you’ll be attending at the conference - and introduce you to your instructors. We’ll give you an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how NEDMA prepares for such a big event. And, most important of all, we’ll give you the opportunity to tell us how we’re doing every step of the way.
Yes, this is your conference. And this is your blog. As much as we’d like you to be a frequent visitor here (you can subscribe by entering your email address in the FeedBlitz box below), we also hope you’ll contribute to the conversation by giving us your honest feedback every now and then on everything conference-related. To do so, simply click on the comment link underneath the post of your choice and write to your heart’s content. It’s easy to do and will take just a few minutes of your time. By talking back to us in such a manner, you’ll be playing a significant role in helping us develop this blog into a community of like-minded direct marketers, people who not only enjoy what they do for a living, but who enjoy doing it with each other.
As written in the groundbreaking book, The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual: “Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.”
Consider this blog one of those new ways.
The fact is, it’s a brave new world out there, fraught with both possibilities and peril. The least we can do is take it on together as brave new marketers.
One way or another, we hope you’ll join us!
January 19th, 2006
