FEEDING THE BEAST
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Ruth P. Stevens
Salespeople need leads to make them more productive, and tried-and-true techniques of targeting, media selection, offer development, message platforms, response management and campaign analysis can help them out. ...

Good News and Sad News
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, RAY SCHULTZ
Coverage from New Orleans and two special friends have departed from the scene. ...

Springboard Advertising
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, KATIE MULDOON
In a recent class I attended on international advertising, the professor questioned why anyone would spend an average of $2.5 million (or $83,333 a second) ...

Laying Out One of the Great Lies
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Alexander Graham Bell bequeathed to future generations an instrument that quickly evolved from miracle to necessity. Unconsciously or deliberately, too ...

Recovery, Cajun Style
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY RICHARD H. LEVEY AND JONATHAN BOORSTEIN
More than six months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area, the importance of direct marketing to the area's recovery is big, if not easy. Enterprises ...

Protector or Profiteer?
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY KEN MAGILL
UNSPAM IS BEHIND THE TWO LAWS ENACTED LAST summer in Michigan and Utah that allow parents to register children's e-mail addresses and other contact points ...

The Oldest Direct Mail Scam
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Ray Schultz
It's not clear who invented the We've got a package waiting for you scam. But one early proponent was a cherubic 15-year-old legal clerk known to us only ...

Metrics? DMers Don't Get 'Em
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Ray Schultz
Most marketing execs pay lip service to accountability. But a staggering 84% say their firms' capacity to measure Web marketing is limited at best. More ...

Many Apply, Few Are Accepted
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY KEN MAGILL
GOODMAIL HAS REJECTED more than three-quarters of the companies that have applied for its Certified Email program, according to chief executive Richard ...

Judge Strikes Down California Fax Law
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY LARRY RIGGS
A FEDERAL COURT HAS thrown out parts of California's Fax Ban Law, those prohibiting the sending of commercial faxes interstate, because they're pre-empted ...

Beautiful Bob
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY RAY SCHULTZ
Bob Castle, who will be remembered as much for his generosity of spirit as his formidable marketing skills, died March 8. He was 69. The list veteran ...

A Friend of the Truth
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY RAY SCHULTZ
Jerrold Ballinger, who covered everything from espionage to direct marketing during a long and distinguished reporting career, died Feb. 28 of cancer ...

Prudential Blends TV and Search
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY BRIAN QUINTON
Prudential Financial scored a marketing touchdown during Super Bowl weekend with a branding effort combining television ads and search. A TV spot that ...

Two-Way Effort for Four-Way Trucks
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY LARRY RIGGS
Atlet Inc., a distributor of material-handling equipment such as forklifts, has begun an e-mail and postcard effort to promote two product lines. The ...

Lights, Camera, WAAAAH!
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BETH NEGUS VIVEIROS
IT WAS QUITE A SIGHT. As John Williams' theme to Star Wars trumpeted through the air, a majestic fleet marched forward. The Imperial Guard? Think even ...

We're All Deviants
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, RICHARD H. LEVEY
Meet Robert Burns. Burns is a building maintenance supervisor at Windham Tech, a state vocational high school in Windham, CT. He's 53 years old and married. ...

This Little Piggy Went to Utah
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, KEN MAGILL
AND THE AWARD FOR THE most parasitic, calculated, industry-killing company that cynically plays on parents' fears to get business goes todrum roll, pleaseUnspam! ...

Ears Open
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Eda Galeno
CANCER AND MARKETING. They don't exactly go together like peanut butter and jelly, do they? People may have good reason to be skeptical of a cancer treatment ...

Military Coup
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM
Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore received the Maxwell Sackheim Best in Show Award last month at the 28th annual John Caples International Awards. The consumer ...

Greenie Points
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Dick Goldsmith and Meta Brophy
Several years ago, McDonald's started serving Big Macs in paper containers instead of Styrofoam holders. The reason? Environmental groups took issue with ...

Back in the Bayou
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM
The week of Mardi Gras, Direct senior writer Richard H. Levey and contributing writer Jonathan Boorstein traveled to New Orleans to see firsthand the ...

A DM Laboratory
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Richard H. Levey
Keating Magee's headquarters occupies a full floor in the Jackson Brewery building. One side of the suite overlooks the Mississippi River. Occasionally ...

A Familiar Face in a Familiar Place
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Richard H. Levey
While in New Orleans, Direct chatted with Direct Media founder and chairman Dave Florence at the Caf du Monde. I'm a type A sort, he says. This city slows ...

Delivery Drama
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Richard H. Levey
LOUISIANA ENTHUSIASTS doubtless understood if their fall issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas came a little late last year: The quarterly magazine's fall ...

Not Missing a Beat
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Richard H. Levey
FEBRUARY SHOULD HAVE marked the start of a fantastic year for Jazzology, the nation's oldest extant independent jazz label. The 56-year-old company had ...

Displays of Perseverance
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Jonathan Boorstein
THE BUILDINGS AND EXHIBITS of the National World War II Museum and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art survived Hurricane Katrina. But with the tourist trade ...

The Right One for the Job
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY STEVE SCHULTZ
OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS, the campaign management tool market has changed dramatically. A list of more than 50 boutique vendors has gone through aggressive ...

Customers Have a Right to Expect More
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY ERNAN ROMAN
IF THE EXPERIENCE MOST OF US have had is any indication, there's something terribly wrong with most customer service in this country. If you live and ...

A Real Page-Turner
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY JIM EMERSON
WHAT'S THE BUZZ IN ALTERNATIVE media? Look in your mailbox. Much of the recent growth seems to be coming from catalogers looking to make money from both ...

Want Service? It'll Cost You
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BRIAN QUINTON
I hate the Lexus lanes the toll strips more and more states are transforming their under-used carpool lanes into. For a premium price, solo motorists ...

Gold Mine
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY BRIAN QUINTON
MANY MARKETERS ARE treading gingerly around the notion of adding a blog to their Web site. Some are worried about the time and effort required to keep ...

Three Paths to Purification
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, THOMAS L. COLLINS
Sometimes I am 99% certain that my makeovers will produce a better return on investment than the original ads. But not always. Occasionally what I have blocked out is merely a creative hypothesis that deserves to be tested. ...

No Value Added
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, GENE A. DEL POLITO
Not long ago, the U.S. Postal Service created quite a fury in the business mailing community by proposing to charge marketers a premium if they wanted ...