Wednesday, 21 December 2011

You’re a card

Ever wonder whether traditional direct mail still has a place in today’s online insta-world? Consider Christmas cards for a minute.

Millions of us become direct marketers at this time of year, dispatching about 70 million cards throughout Australia.

And when you think about it, the humble Christmas card between friends is a neat example of business principles like relationship management and brand image. How many friends haven’t seen each other for decades but faithfully maintain a connection via an annual piece of cardstock printed with snow and evergreen trees? And what is the dreaded family newsletter insert, if not a slightly dodgy press release cranked out on the home inkjet?

Sure, faster and cheaper media are available today. And e-cards can do all sorts of things you can’t in print. But there’s nothing quite as personal as opening an envelope and reading your friend’s handwritten news. Christmas cards have been around since 1843 and just quietly, I think they’re looking good for a bit longer.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start making this year’s list.

Prue Oxford

Senior Copywriter

THE DM GROUP

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Friday, 2 December 2011

Let me tell you a story

I have a friend named Pete. Basically everyone has one in their crew. Closing in on 30, overly outgoing, tries hard to be a bit loud and goofy (his gangly frame helps him achieve the goofy part), holds a pretty boring job and you can find him in his board shorts, t-shirt and sandals on most days. You know who I’m talking about.

Well Pete happens to find it necessary to tell stories…a lot of them…horrible ones. I don’t mind stories but these couldn’t be any more uninteresting.

It’s not like the material is unimportant because, in truth, we can all relate to the stories he tells. The problem is we don’t care about the people in Pete’s stories. To make a good story work is to get your audience involved and emotionally invested into what happens to your characters.

Take Pete, perhaps you are still reading now because you feel as though you could relate to Pete from the description I gave. If you are going to care about my story, you have to first care about the person or people in it.

Always think about how you will portray your characters to the audience. This seems simple, but is usually overlooked and then you’ll end up telling a story like Pete.

John ‘Pete’ Brunckhorst
Account Manager
trademarkDM

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Thursday, 1 December 2011

That’s why they choose HOSTPLUS.

Ever had one of those months where it all just seems to come together?

Our buddies at HOSTPLUS just did, and what a month it was!  November 2011 will be a month that the entire team will remember with a very deserving sense of pride for some time to come.

From the very successful launch of their brand new website (assisted by our very own clickDM team), to a swag of industry awards (6 in total), the team, led by Wayne Sullivan have had a cracker end to a very big year.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) had their night of nights in November, and there’s no doubt that HOSTPLUS came out on top, picking up four awards.

Cook for your Career, a competition designed to engage young and aspiring chefs providing grass roots support for one of HOSTPLUS’ key industries picked up 2 awards, Innovation of the Year, and Best use of Public Relations got the night off to a great start, but it was only going to get better…

The Quality Campaign, developed in conjunction with THE DM GROUP, picked up Brand Campaign of the Year and then went on to win the Grand Prize, The inaugural Comms Award – Campaign of the Year.

Add to that two more gongs from the Australian Institute of Super Trustees (AIST) and it is certainly a month worth remembering.  The Marketing team picked up the Super Member Services Award for Excellence, and Cook for Your Career picked up Gold in the Communication Awards for Excellence.

So to Wayne, Michelle, Jen, Jane, Gary, Nick, Aneta, Matt, Shelley & Andrea and all at HOSTPLUS, a big congratulations from all of us at THE DM GROUP, and here’s to another big year in 2012.

Well Done guys.

Craig Hockley
Digital Planning Director.

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