Emer Timmons (pictured) reports from the recent Retailtopia event in London.
When you look down on the shoppers from nearly 400 feet, Oxford Street looks like the beating heart of British retail. I saw that heart beating as strong as ever earlier last month when I joined Professor Patrick Barwise, chairman of Which?, at the top [...]

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The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing has a new addition to its body of professional advisory councils. The IDM Marketing Capabilities Council held its inaugural meeting earlier this month and today announces its mission and objectives.
The new council of senior practitioners from brands including Callcredit, Heineken, Microsoft, Nokia and Telefonica, (details at theidm.com/mcc) has [...]

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Digital marketing in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is experiencing tremendous growth, according to an Econsultancy report, which has found that 58 per cent of marketers are increasing their digital marketing budgets in 2012.
Econsultancy’s second annual State of Digital Marketing in MENA report looks in detail at the use of different online and [...]

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Mark Francis says the traditional channel has weathered the recession better than any other.
First published: DMI April/May 2010.
Some predicted the stigma of spam would be direct mail’s death knell. But, by forcing marketers out of their single-channel mindset, it’s proving a loyal ally in the fight for return on investment (ROI).
2009 was the year that marketing [...]

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The current multichannel approach to sales and service must be mirrored by a multichannel approach to communication, says Claire Sporton (pictured), who has advice for the chief customer officer.
There can be no doubt that demand for customer insight is high on the corporate agenda. The number of C-level roles concentrating on understanding the customer experience [...]

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Valentine’s Day has long passed, but we should still embrace the postman, says Philip Ricketts (pictured): because there’s gold not ‘junk’ in the mail!
FACT FILE:

Ninety-two per cent of direct mail is opened
21.9 million adults have taken action, prompted by direct mail
Of these, 14.2 million bought something
Direct mail delivers £27 billion to the UK economy
There are [...]

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David Cole (pictured) reveals the results of the newly-published Involve Millennium Report on age-related marketing.
The over-50s are the biggest market for luxury cars, expensive holidays and top-of-the-range cosmetics, yet too often marketers and brands overlook them and focus on younger targets.
Which is why Involve Millennium, acknowledged expert on marketing to the over-50s, commissioned fast.MAP to [...]

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Donors are getting used to hearing from charities by mail, new research shows. David Cole (pictured) examines the evidence.
Though most people still prefer to hear from charities by mail, email is now only one per cent behind in popularity, according to the latest research.
Since 2005, mail has been the favoured fundraising communication route, although back [...]

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Professional social networking has a big role to play in helping Russian media and western European advertisers and marketers realise new opportunities, reports Peter Crosby (pictured).
According to research from Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), Russian media is set to dominate Europe in terms of market share and turnover in the next few years. 
In 2010 alone, the [...]

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Uptake and usage of social media services remains very high among the British public, but people are now demanding more from these kinds of services – and social media’s potential as a marketing tool has room for improvement. In fact, fresh research from YouGov’s Media Consulting team reveals that, in fact, two in five (41%) of [...]

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