Brian Giese's Blog

Is Direct Mail Really Hurting the Evironment?

DM News released the results of a survey today that counted how the recipients of direct mail (you and me) see it's effect on the environment. It posts that nearly half of the 1,000 US adult respondents surveyed by DM News and  and Pitney Bowes guessed that advertising mail from US households counted for more than half of the country's municipal waste. More than one-third said it counted for slightly more than one-third of that waste.

DM News cited the Environmental Protection Agency as saying that advertising mail was responsible for just 2% of all municipal waste in the United States. Yet, more than two-thirds of respondents said they would have a higher opinion of direct mailers if they used recycled paper and cardboard. Another half said they would think more highly of unsolicited mail if they knew there was an agency seal of approval or "green mail" label awarded by the industry itself. I don't know but I think direct mail has some PR work to do here.

How to Really Upset a Business Prospect

How much SPAM did you eat today? I don't know about you but I've had enough already when it comes to e-mail marketing. According to a new study by research firm MarketingSherpa published in its “Business Technology Benchmark Guide 2006” , close to half of business users now define spam as “any e-mail from a company they do business with, but that is sent too frequently”. Forty-four percent of executives say they unsubscribe from e-mail newsletters they no longer want, while 34% still scan them briefly. Enough is enough.

Survey finds integrated marketing programs need improvement

A new article posted yesterday in B2B magazine called ANA Survey finds integrated marketing programs need improvement. For those of you who are not familiar with ANA, they are the Association of National Advertisers. This survey cliams that they found that 63% of marketing teams in companies surveyed rank "organizational issues" as the greatest challenge to successfully integrating their marketing efforts. They also said that 72% said that the creation of the "big idea" from their agency that crosses all the channels is their most important contribution.