Columnist Ian Hughes rants about the latest issues affecting our industry. This time, he debates whether businesses should befriend social media and says: Elephants are not social, either!
Back in 2000, I remember giving lectures about the fact that businesses need to  get on to the Internet. ‘If you don’t, you will die,’ was my rough [...]

[Read more →]

At last, we have come of age, at last the DM industry can hold its head up and say: “We  have arrived!”. 
Why?  
Because we have been fined. Over the last few weeks, the biggest international direct marketing fine ever handed out by a regulator quietly surfaced and then disappeared.
The fine, $500,000,000, was not levied against [...]

[Read more →]

Columnist Ian Hughes discusses issues affecting our industry.
 
Nothing irritates me more than being ‘data raped’. You have a nice, cosy relationship with someone and before you know it they are using any information they have gleaned from you to stick it to you.
Imagine the scenario: I go in to buy a car, a used car. The [...]

[Read more →]

Columnist Ian Hughes regularly rants about issues affecting our industry. This time he discusses: Coming of age and going public during DM’s digital era.
Decades from now, people will look back and say: “2012 was the year when everything changed.” I say this with a very clear sense that I will be proved right.
Google is talking about issuing [...]

[Read more →]

Ian Hughes explains why he won’t be buying the Wall Street Journal any time soon.
A plain white envelope sits on my desk. The only copy on the front of it says PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL – TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY.  
What do you think when you see such a letter?  
Tax demand? 
Lawyer’s letter? 
Invoice?  
Something [...]

[Read more →]

Columnist Ian Hughes rants about the latest issues affecting our industry. This time, he asks: SEO what?
I have recently been looking at SEO, Search Engine Optimisation – a friend of mine has set up a website (www.Child-Nutrition.Us) and I have been trying to work out ways to improve its ranking.
As I go through the process, I [...]

[Read more →]

Ian Hughes checks out the latest location-based social networkers’ service, which allows members to see where friends are ‘checked in’.
If you want to sell your property you need to have the three Ls: Location. Location. Location.
It would now seem the same is true of direct marketing. Over the last few months there has been a [...]

[Read more →]

Columnist Ian Hughes rants about the latest issues affecting our industry. This time, his topic is: Facebook – friend, foe or flop?
There are few people who do not know about the existence of Facebook – and people are either sweet or sour about it. But Facebook can also be a place to do business as [...]

[Read more →]

Back from the iDi conference in the US, Ian Hughes reports that even big brands are having to learn to stop shouting and start listening.
At the recent iDi Marketers Forum in New York, I was lucky enough to hear a series of talks by a number of companies, that all pointed to the same issue.
The [...]

[Read more →]

Columnist Ian Hughes rants about the latest issues affecting our industry. This time, his topic is about ‘Changing the D’.
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about how much I hated that the M in DM still stands for Mail for so many people. Attending the recent DM Days in New York (DMDNY) I [...]

[Read more →]