Chief Marketer Staff

• Agencies

  Watch Out for the Little Guys

  Sure, many of the big players in direct response have embraced database marketing’s best practices. They’re extending analytic capabilities across all mediums and integrating marketing channels into a single file.

  But they’d better watch their backs: Small and mid-tier companies

• Agencies

  David Takes on the Goliaths

  Retailer Dave’s Soda and Pet City made its first move into the multichannel world last month with an e-commerce site to promote the national launch of Simply the Best dog food.

• Agencies

  Some Really Stupid PR Tricks

  Why are direct marketing firms so often so bad at press relations? No one is saying every DMer must have a PR rep, but if a professional communicator is part of a company’s marketing, is it too much to ask that they be at least competent?

• Agencies

  Sunny Days for Sale

  Maura Regan not only knows how to sell Sesame Street, she knows how not to sell it. Regan, Sesame Workshop’s vice president and general manager of global

• Agencies

  Time Out

  First, the Bad News: Spending on Event Marketing Fell in 2006. The average spent per company dropped to $685,598 from $795,147 in 2005, according to PROMO’s

• If You Believe That

  Planning to use a live check as a promotional hook? Think again. Chase Bank and Trilegiant Corp. got into hot water with 17 states over the use of this

• Agencies

  Look Back in Hunger

  Last month, The New York Times ran a list of 2006’s top ideas, one of which had interesting direct marketing ramifications: television commercials that hide special offers by making them viewable only through freeze-frame technology. The “top idea” here was marketers’ attempts to dissuade consumers from using digital video recorders, such as TiVo, to fast-forward through commercials.

• Agencies

  Hospital Scores With New Mail Package

  Sometimes it pays to take a risk. The San Antonio Hospital Foundation of Upland, CA sent out a 5,000-piece mailing last November to solicit donations

• Agencies

  CORRECTION

  In the feature Stay in Touch (Direct, Oct. 1), PTC’s senior director of worldwide channel marketing was incorrectly identified as Greg Norman. Greg James

• Agencies

  Hey, Lady!

  She was born between 1946 and 1964, and her purchases probably have ranged from Hula-Hoops to minivans. She’s the baby boomer woman, and for many marketers