But that doesn’t mean traditional channels are finished, says Stephan Merz.
When I attended the Digital Marketing Days event in New York, mid-June, most presentations seemed to be centred around online networking, blogs and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and the like. 
Some still consider the channels a passing trend and only watch them passively, [...]

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How did two French and German marketers succeed when given the brief to broaden the National Pen USA brand into Europe? Arnaud Le Lann and Stephan Merz tell the story. Hear more from Merz and Le Lann – together with their client Ron Childs of National Pen – at next month’s iDi Marketers Forum in [...]

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Reporting from Germany, Stephan Merz wonders if we will prosper with the season.
After a stressful 2009, a year dominated by the global recession, we endured a long and snowy winter. Now, we have left the cold behind us and can enjoy rising temperatures. But which economic climate can we expect for the year 2010? What [...]

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Stephan Merz brings an update on the new German privacy law.
In my last report (DMI July), the decision had been made about the new German privacy law – it was only a question of the details.
And it happened as predicted: In the final session of the last election period, the ‘old’ German Bundestag passed [...]

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Stephan Merz is aiming to keep us up-to-date with ever-changing regulations.
Over the past nine months, the German direct marketing industry has been monitoring the arguments concerning changes to our privacy law, and lobbying over potential increased enforcement of sanctions which are already in place for any violations of the rules.
When I last reported in this [...]

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Stephan Merz believes Germany is suffering from politicians’ double standards during this recession.
The financial press in Germany is full of articles on struggling companies – for example, model railway manufacturer Märklin, underwear producer Schiesser, the Schaeffler group being under financial pressure since their takeover of publicly-listed giant Continental AG, car manufacturer Opel – currently in [...]

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