Worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, Harte-Hanks – which is headquartered in North America – has just announced that it acquired Information Arts (UK) Limited yesterday, August 31.  

Information Arts, based in High Wycombe, is a provider of data-driven marketing insight to business-to-business marketers across Europe – and increasingly across the globe.  

It will operate as a business unit of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing under Information Arts’ current leadership of Simon Lawrence and Gary Selby, who jointly founded their company in 2000. Information Arts and Harte-Hanks’ other marketing offerings in Europe will be combined to deliver multichannel ‘Demand Center’ solutions – integrated lead generation and lead management programs.  

The two companies have been working together since 2007 and deliver marketing solutions to a number of clients. Information Arts already uses the Harte-Hanks Trillium Software System postal and geocode tables to facilitate high data quality and integrates the Harte-Hanks Ci Technology Database in some of its data offerings.    

Robert Howells, group managing director of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing international businesses, said: "We believe that Information Arts is one of the best data analytics and insight companies in Europe and we are delighted to have Simon and Gary on our team. All over the world we are committed to providing our customers with more and better insight on their marketing data and effectiveness, which will enable them to do true multichannel marketing. Information Arts will help us do that."

Simon Lawrence, CEO of Information Arts, said of the acquisition: "Harte-Hanks is an impressive multinational business with a prolific client list that spans a diverse range of industries and locations, so becoming a part of Harte-Hanks is a natural step forward.  Information Arts will continue to work from the position of providing the best quality independent marketing data and insight, and we expect to continue to see the business grow organically by attracting top name clients."

Gary Selby, managing director at Information Arts added: "Since founding Information Arts, we have been dedicated to providing the very best service for our clients. The increasingly international way we work means that working with the other businesses of Harte Hanks will be of huge benefit to new and existing clients and we are looking forward to a successful partnership in the future." 

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USA-style DRTV is becoming a success story in other parts of the world now, says Digby Orsmond (pictured), bringing an update on European Direct Response TV.

The European Union has been with us for more than 50 years and what started out as a treaty between six founding countries now includes 27 member states with a total population of circa 493 million. Together, these countries account for less than 22 per cent of the world’s population, however their combined economies produce an impressive 37 per cent of the global GDP and they own more than 32 per cent of the world’s telephone lines – making Europe the ideal target for DRTV and home shopping.

DRTV, of course, is not a new concept. It has been used successfully as an advertising medium in America since the mid-1950s. The real boost for DRTV came with the availability of freephone numbers and the advent of credit cards as the preferred means of payment.

According to Teledirect Magazine, 68 per cent of all US TV commercials now carry a telephone number or URL, and this figure rises to around 87 per cent after 10pm.

Western Europe only embraced DRTV in the mid-’80s, however it is estimated that television shopping revenues in the EU are likely to grow to around €6.4 billion by 2012.

Product categories

There are no DRTV sales data for all European countries, but the increasing availability of longform airtime at very low airtime rates in the UK has meant US marketers with  ready-made infomercials are now taking the major share of the ‘direct to consumer TV’ business there.

The best performing UK categories are cosmetics plus health and Fitness, with Guthy Renker and Thane being the most successful US companies right now in the UK.

Time-Life Europe shut down in 2009 and this has left a gap in the market for music-related products which for many years was the top DRTV category.

Many DRTV advertisers thought the expansion of the European Union to 27 countries  linked with the continued growth of cable and digital channels would open up new and profitable markets.

Consumers in Austria, Germany, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Spain and UK have populations that like using their televisions for all manner of home shopping. Interestingly, these west European countries have the most call centres per head of population.

Central European countries also want to buy innovative DRTV products, but the logistics (lack of call centres and credit card usage) in those countries will continue to throw up challenges, meaning that DRTV operations might take several years before they deliver acceptable sales and ROI.

An upside, however, is that advertisers can test DRTV for a much lower entry cost in these countries and DRTV sales are predicted to forge ahead of their less progressive neighbours.

Another country where DRTV is growing fast is Poland, the only downside being that this country has not yet joined the euro and products have to be sold in zlotys.

The cost of both short and longform airtime is very competitive (when compared to the USA) and the British have always been inclined to buy products offered in US-style creatives. Another added advantage in the UK is that TV audience levels can be tracked using BARB (Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board) making media planning and buying TV airtime more accurate than any other country in Europe.

To highlight just how much the UK (population 59 million) has embraced tele-shopping, there are more than twice as many home shopping-styled TV channels in the UK than in Germany (population 84 million). So, Britain continues to be the best performing DRTV market in Europe.

Culture awareness

DRTV is primarily about generating maximum and immediate return on investment, ie, the product or sales message being seen more often in more places at the lowest airtime cost.

Direct marketers need to consider payment methods, as credit card usage in Europe varies significantly from country to country. In Britain, plastic money is the norm with around 96 per cent of orders being paid for by credit card, while in France the figure drops to 54 per cent. And in Germany, the biggest European economy, only around 32 per cent of buyers choose to use plastic – the purchase method of choice being Cash On Delivery.

Many US marketers still do not know that most of Europe now broadcasts using 16:9 PAL widescreen instead of 4:3 NTSC.  This means every US creative has to be converted into widescreen PAL format which can substantially change the supers and screen layout.

Taking inbound calls also requires very careful country-by-country planning as Europe does not have a national freephone (0800) service, so every country requires its own unique telephone number. Also, at present, there is no single pan-European telecoms operator covering all 27 EU member countries. This makes the call-to-action end tags on many pan-European DRTV ads or infomercials very complex – some carry as many as 15 different telephone numbers next to the flags for each country.

A DRTV advertiser, running a pan-European campaign on Eurosport, would be best advised to consider setting up inbound call handling facilities in each country. The number of facilities differs substantially from country to country, for example, both Britain and France have more telemarketing bureaux than Germany, even though their populations are smaller. In terms of the average cost-per-call in Europe, Britain is one of the least expensive, Spain the most costly.

Guidelines changes

Pan-European advertising will not have been affected by the USA’s FTC Guidelines, however it can be a nightmare scenario of incompatible regulations and consumer protection legislation. If a DRTV product has sold well in the USA, there are plenty of takers who will be keen to test the product in their own European countries. However, quite often they have to soften the sales message or considerably alter these USA spots and infomercials to get them approved by their local TV broadcast regulators.

Creative changes can often have a detrimental effect on the sales. For example, editing out or revising testimonials to comply with EU broadcast regulations because of unacceptable product claims means the sales message often loses it’s punch and, ultimately, generates lower sales. Another problem is that translating American colloquial expressions into non-English European languages is sometimes impossible. Imagine trying to translate Americanisms such as ’World’s best fat busting machine’ as used in one American exercise DRTV ad into German – almost impossible!

Sometimes, whole product categories are banned. For example, it is still not possible to use DRTV spots or Infomercials to sell weight-loss, dietary or vitamin supplement products in the UK. In Germany, it is not possible to use doctors, dentists or anyone else claiming to be in the medical profession to endorse your products and selling to children is still highly regulated.

Electronics must be adapted as the European standard is 220 volts (USA: 110 volts). Not only do manufacturers need to produce different product versions, they must get the product passed by local trading approval boards, such as the BEAB in the UK and TUV in Germany.

Uncontroversial product categories like fitness, housewares, collectibles, music and videos, plus cleaning products, tend to be the strongest sellers and least controversial with both broadcasters and viewers.

Monitoring and tracking results

My London-based media agency, ARM Direct, recognised several years ago that the best way to help DRTV clients enter the European market and keep ahead of their competitors was by investing more than US$500,000 in creating a bespoke media analysis software called Armada.

The rewards for our DRTV clients have been considerable as the software allows remote access to their data online (password protected) from wherever they are based in the world. This is essential as many DRTV companies are now

multi-national and it is important their executives can securely view TV sales data in a variety of ways – everything from daily orders by individual TV channel and telephone number to airtime and budget reconciliation per DRTV creative. The DRTV world is a global village and campaign tracking and analysis reports need to be shared with different management levels or locations on a regular basis.

Online activity

Compared to the USA, online activity in Europe is catching up at high speed with the total amount of Internet users, estimated as being 425.7million – up 305 per cent 2000-2009. Compare this to North America with an estimated Internet user population of just 259.6 million.

To gain an appreciation of Internet penetration in Europe, it is important to consider each country on its own accord. There are significant differences between the countries in north, west and southern Europe, in terms of online access and online purchasing.

The massive variance of Internet usage in colder Scandinavia, when compared to warmer southern Europe, illustrates these differences.  The further south people live, the less they surf the ’net. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland have an average online connection of 86.9 per cent.

In stark contrast, in the sunnier southern countries of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, we find that only 52.8 per cent of the Internet population has been active online. Purchasing habits also reflect this limited Internet usage, with just 37.6 per cent having ever made a reservation or purchase online (compared with 64.8 per cent in Scandinavia).

Caught in the middle, both geographically and statistically, are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and the UK, where 77.4 per cent regularly surf the ’net.

While the Scandinavian online connection percentage is impressive, it is worth noting the UK and Germany are the most important online markets in Europe, accounting for more than 78.4 per cent of online sales.

It is estimated that the former east European countries will take a further two to four years to reach penetration levels found in the US.

The danger, however, for already successful US DRTV advertisers lies in assuming that what they can do on one side of the Atlantic can be automatically repeated on the other. The challenge is to learn from and then develop each individual market, finding ways to target the desired audience at a low cost per order.

Smaller audience numbers, as most advertisers in the USA are fully aware, are not necessarily a problem in the direct response arena. What matters is the equation between the cost of the airtime and the number of sales or leads generated.

An experienced DRTV media buyer with expert knowledge of the European market will be able to identify the type of audience demographics required for a particular product and book airtime accordingly to generate maximum response.

Pan-European DRTV is all about reaching the right number of target viewers in each country at the lowest cost-per-response and in airtime which will enable the multi-national response to be captured efficiently.

The UK and Germany have the most DRTV media avails in Europe – mainly driven by the sheer number of digital satellite and cable channels in those countries. The UK has the most Infomercial and home shopping airtime and my recommendation is to test in the UK first and then maybe consider Germany, Holland, Belgium and Spain – in that order.

Evolving shopping channels

Recent figures have showed that home shopping sales have grown fastest in the cosmetics and health and fitness sectors as these creatives have proven the most popular with consumers aged 25-45 years.

Infomercials have been a mainstay of advertising in the US for many years, however many European companies are still reluctant to fully exploit longform.

The continued success of traditional 24/7 ‘live’ home shopping channels – such as QVC, HSE24 and Ideal World Home Shopping, plus the many popular auction-style channels, proves that consumers are     not averse to purchasing off their TVs.

Recent UK media research by ITV confirms that more than 25 per cent of the 458 UK television channels now broadcast some Infomercial content every day during the ‘tele-shopping windows’ as currently allowed by Ofcom (UK’s broadcast regulator), making Britain the obvious first choice to test longform in Europe.

With regard to creative style, however, it is important for marketers to acknowledge that European consumers have very distinct tastes and that cultural or language differences must be tackled at the initial production stage. For example, British consumers are less impressed by US film and TV celebrities appearing in Infomercials, as these personalities are often viewed here as being ‘past their sell by date’ – whereas some have achieved almost cult status in Germany on YouTube.

There are many DRTV companies already successfully selling their products right across Europe. International DRTV companies such as Guthy Renker (short-form and Infomercials for a range of exercise equipment, DIY and cosmetics) are enjoying considerable pan-European success right now.

This is why it is so important to find the right partners from day one. Each European country presents its own set of challenges and it is therefore better for direct marketing companies to seek out the most successful DRTV media and creative agencies that already have a proven track record.

How long has DRTV been around?

DRTV HISTORY – USA

• Started late 1950s, fronted by fast-talking salesmen.
• Cheap live commercials selling products of limited value mainly for the home.
• First specialist Direct Response agencies started in the USA in the 1960s.
• Growth in US DRTV maintained by these specialist agencies expanding into longform, ie. Infomercials in the early ‘90s.
• Today, 87 per cent of all US TV ads after 10pm are transmitted with response mechanism.
• More importantly, many major brands now use both DRTV spots as well as half-hour infomercials.
• These include: APPLE – AT&T – BRAUN – CLUB MED – COCA COLA – DISNEY – GM – HOOVER – KODAK – MCDONALD’S – NISSAN - PLAYBOY  – PROCTER & GAMBLE – TIME-LIFE – WEIGHT WATCHERS.  And a growing list of others.

Digby Orsmond is CEO & creative director, ARM Direct.

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I was reading about how moles survive underground, by being able to inhale the same air they exhale, and marvelling at how adaptable nature can be. You might find my analogy a bit of a stretch, but I found myself likening those moles to modern direct marketers . . . in terms of remarkable adaptability, rather than holes.

Yet, we have just climbed out (we are assured) of a truly enormous hole. Not one we dug for ourselves as shelter, but one into which we were hurled by the economic hurricane which overcame us.

As per moles, we have been blinded to a way out of that hole. We have had to sit and wait, hoping we could survive on (less than) fresh air! 

So, can we now sigh with relief? 

According to research from Pew (page 5), many Americans are still in shock following the ‘Great Recession’ and are keeping their heads down and their fingers crossed until the financial ‘light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel shines bright and clear overhead. Many fear a double-dip recession is still likely and say it could be a while yet before we emerge completely from the dark hole of recession (page 12).

But meanwhile, should we prepare for the worst while hoping for the best? Yes – and the most effective way to do that is to be out front in full view, shouting about our resilience and the value of our products and services (page 20), not hiding underground.

There was a whole lot of shouting going on in South Africa when it hosted this year’s World Cup. The country defied global expectation by putting on a truly successful spectacle with erstwhile unforeseen national pride (page 26). Advertising soared but more remarkable was the South Africans’ proud spirit, which is being encouraged even after the event (page 6) as they continue to wear their national colours on ‘Fly the Flag Fridays’. Whichever marketer at Brand South Africa came up with that idea, I salute you! 

The event was also a shot in the arm for winners Spain – a million people turned out to watch their team’s victory parade through Madrid, despite baking temperatures. Will their pride convert to a rise in consumer confidence in the fragile Spanish economy? Quite likely, as sales are actually affected by a country’s mood, says Jamie Riddell on page 30.

Now, advertisers and sponsors are lining up for the next major global event – the London Olympics 2012 (page 5) – and already the Brazilians are planning the next World Cup (page 14) and the Olympics 2016: News from Rio is that the Brazilian Government is set to spend almost $1 trillion on infrastructure projects leading up to those showpiece events. 

Surely then, the only way is up for mole-like marketers? See the light, come up for air. Join our club: The GMA – www.the-gma.com

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The digital remit of the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to be extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive consumer protection online.

The ASA’s present remit online includes ads in paid-for space and sales promotions wherever they appear. But from next year, the rules in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) will apply in full to marketing communications online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children.

The remit will apply to all sectors and all businesses and organisations, regardless of size.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body responsible for writing the CAP Code, has decided to extend the digital remit of the ASA in response to a formal recommendation from a wide cross-section of UK industry.

CAP has today published a document detailing the new remit and sanctions. In summary: The new remit will ensure the same high standards as in other media and will cover:

• Advertisers’ own marketing communications on their own websites;
• Marketing communications in other non-paid-for space under their control, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The remit is focused on ’selling’ messages in order to protect the right to freedom of speech online. For example, journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas – except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising – are excluded from the remit.

Sanctions

In addition to the ASA’s present sanctions, which already achieve a high level of compliance, CAP member bodies have agreed new sanctions to apply to the extended remit such as:

• Removal of paid-for search advertising – ads that link to the page hosting the non-compliant marketing communication may be removed with the agreement of the search engines.
• ASA paid-for search advertisements – the ASA could place advertisements online highlighting an advertiser’s continued non-compliance.

Funding

The industry has agreed to apply the standard 0.1 per cent levy on paid-for advertisements appearing on Internet search engines through media and search agencies. This is an extension of the existing funding mechanism in other media that pays for the ASA and it will be supplemented initially with seed capital from Google.

Implementation

The remit will come into force on 1 March 2011 after a six-month period of grace to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code, particularly among those who may not previously have been subject to ASA regulation.

Website owners and agencies are urged to sign up to CAP Services at www.cap.org.uk to receive guidance and training to help ensure their sites comply with the new rules before 1 March 2011.

ASA chairman, Lord Chris Smith, said: "This significant extension of the ASA’s remit has the protection of children and consumers at its heart. We have received more than 4,500 complaints since 2008 about marketing communications on websites that we couldn’t deal with but, from March 1, anyone who has a concern about a marketing communication online will be able to turn to the ASA."

CAP chairman, Andrew Brown, added: "Extending the online remit of the ASA has been a top priority for UK industry over the last couple of years. Our aim has been to extend further in the online world the principles that are already well established in our system, namely those of effective consumer protection and fair competition."

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Spend on digital advertising soared 47 per cent in the first half of this year, a report from the Rubicon Project shows.

The Q2 2010 Online Advertising Market Report reveals that – despite growing concerns around privacy legislation and data risks – industry growth is being driven by audience buying, increase in spend from international markets and automation.

The Rubicon Project, the international advertising technology company, also shares insight into what’s next for the digital ad landscape, in the tenth instalment of its Online Advertising Market Report series. 

The Rubicon 20 Index gives a measure of performance across a number of factors (including CPM, revenue and traffic volume) on a roster of 20 of the Web’s most heavily-trafficked properties. At the beginning of Q2, CPMs across the Rubicon 20 Index have rose by an average of 25 per cent, compared to quarter one, 2010. Overall, the index has grown 47 per cent, on a trend line basis, from the start of 2010 to the midpoint of the year. 

Kara Weber, vice-president of marketing at the Rubicon Project, said: "Ad spend and revenue have both been strong and growing in 2010. Given the proliferation of solution providers and industry players to the market, all working to increase the overall flow of revenue from offline to online, this increase is no surprise.

"That said, it’s more important than ever for publishers to define their strategies to compete in a challenging market, taking advantage of new opportunities like real-time bidding while fighting to protect the value they’ve created with high-quality content, well developed audiences and a carefully cultivated advertiser base.” 

Key forecasts and trends addressed in the report include:

• Growing online audiences beyond US borders and the correlating increase in advertisers’ digital budgets, led by significant growth in China and the Middle East; 
• The evolving role of Google in the online display advertising market, from the perspective of publishers, agencies and demand-side platforms (DSPs); 
• Real-time bidding (RTB) and DSPs as means to increase efficiency of media spend and the growing share of inventory flowing through non-direct channels; 
• Privacy serving as a source of tension throughout the Internet ecosystem; 
• Yield optimisation as a result of data, science, network effect and automation. 

To access the full Q2 2010 Online Advertising Market Report, as well as past published reports, free, visit: www.rubiconproject.com/market-intelligence

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How can you effectively manage your company’s demand for quality leads, at low cost – and qualify, score, nurture and prepare them for conversion to sale?

Find out at a seminar to be held in London on the afternoon of September 30.

Hosted by B2B Marketing in association with Mardev-DM2, the event is an opportunity to pick the brains of speakers Adam Sharp (MD and founder of CleverTouch Marketing) Pete Jakob (IBM, marketing transformation leader) and Mardev-DM2’s director, Zina Manda.

Hear their practical experiences of how best to deliver an effective strategy by making your website a successful lead generation tool, gain greater credibility within your business and create a programme that allows you continuous engagement with key prospects.

For more information about the event, visit this site. 

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Recent Changes Study: Changes in consumer behaviour clearly point to a need to be direct

by Paul Williamson and Sue Burden, Realia (both pictured below)

We all know that consumer confidence is still fragile, but what changes have UK residents been making to their lives and what potential impact does that have on marketers?

Understanding the extent and motivation for changes in consumers’ lives was the objective of the Recent Changes Study conducted by Realia. This study asked a representative sample of 1,006 UK consumers about any changes they had made recently and the motivations behind those changes.

On average, consumers mentioned 11.35 areas of recent change, across 40 categories. The most frequently mentioned area was increased Internet usage, cited by nearly half of all respondents from all ages. Online shopping was a big part of this – reflecting the fact that the UK population now has the highest level of online shopping in Europe.

The study highlighted price-comparing, convenience and even environmental reasons for increased online shopping – “I spend more time online”; “I do most of my shopping now online for food”; “I’ve started Twittering and exploring Youtube”; “I do more shopping online, use eBay and do my banking online”; “I use the Internet more for work than I used to – lots of online research”.

No-one will be surprised by the success of Internet shopping – it is a well publicised fact that it is on the rise; the challenge for many direct marketers remains – how do we generate the kind of actionable insight from data required to serve communications that are truly motivating, actionable and deliverable?

TV viewing, the second highest change, is another case where new technology has promoted behavioural development – most of the change related to respondents getting PVRs like Sky+.

Interestingly, people are also being much more discerning: “I used to watch comedy channels and a few soaps but now I hardly ever watch telly apart from sports.” This evidence points to the increasing importance of basing advertising schedules around specific types of programmes or interests rather than simply targeting certain times of day.

This change certainly suggests a growing trend in consumers making very active choices about how they spend their increasingly limited spare time; for example, Sky+ has enabled users to avoid advertising messages if they wish and view exactly what they want to watch. This change clearly points to a strong case for direct communications. In order to effectively reach time-starved consumers who are, it seems, being much more selective about the information they expose themselves to, an insight driven, intelligent relationship marketing model must be the cornerstone of future marketing activity.

Another high-change area was holidays – although 13 per cent said they were taking more holidays, 32 per cent were taking holidays in the UK or fewer holidays – the ‘staycation’ may be here to stay!

Changes in health and food were also in the Top Ten – the vast majority of food changes related to health, even if money-saving was also a motivation: “I’m now eating supermarket own brand weight-watcher foods and I’m eating less takeaways.” Health benefits: “I rarely have fizzy juice now and chocolate is saved for the weekend as a treat” and “I have a much healthier lifestyle now, which includes exercise” dominated the food changes.

Brands with ‘treat’ positioning may have to develop more affordable options or promote ‘justification’ for treating occasions. Of course, this trend may be an exaggeration compared to what happens in reality, but it shows the widespread desirability of the concept.

One surprise was the level of change around gardening – 36 per cent of the total sample had made a change in this area – nearly all doing more and many growing vegetables. The 18-29s were the largest single age group behind this trend – often involving children: “I have started growing vegetables with the children and doing more gardening in general.”

Even for brands not directly involved with tilling the soil, this provides a core concept for campaigns aimed at this age group.

Less popular changes were bank current account, insurance and energy suppliers with only 18-24 per cent citing changes in this area. Among those who did make a change in the financial area, there was evidence of ‘bundling’: “I changed insurance provider to the Co-op – our mortgage provider – to get a cheaper deal on moving house” and “I reviewed it and changed from many insurers to one insurer.” As consumers seek to streamline their lives, this is another case for strong relationship marketing.

Here, it’s even more important for brands to understand which groups to target with their reduced activity budgets.

Of course, a study this broad can never address every specific change, or indeed provide the golden bullet on how to address it. However, it is clear UK consumers have made some significant choices in Internet usage, TV viewing, health, environment, time with the family and cost-saving in the past 12 months.

The real question is, of course, how to translate this raw data into clear and actionable insight; and a vision into reality. 

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The percentage of women accessing the web on their mobile phones has risen 575 per cent in two years, according to web browser Opera’s latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report. 

South Africa leads the world’s push for gender equality on the mobile web, with women accounting for nearly 44 per cent of mobile web users (up from 24.7 per cent in May 2008). 

The report provides regular information on the top global trends affecting the mobile web and finds that, after South Africa, the highest percentage of female users are in the US – increased from 19.4 per cent in May 2008 to 35.6 per cent, followed by Russia with 32.4 per cent (up from 12.5 per cent) and the UK, 31.5 per cent (up from 16.6 per cent). 

India has the fewest female users – four per cent, followed by Nigeria with 5.4 per cent, China with 11.6 per cent and Vietnam with 17.9 per cent.  

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US-based T-shirt company Threadless  has announced it increased revenue from its email marketing efforts by 120 per cent, year-on-year, with targeted content and promotions to segments of its international online community.  

Powered by global marketing solutions provider ExactTarget and promoted on the Threadless website, the retailer posted the gain following a 2009 revision of its email marketing effort that expanded the programme to include more targeted campaigns driven by user-defined content and preferences.

Cam Balzer, vice-president of marketing, Threadless, said: "Threadless is about fostering our community of users, supporting their creativity and delivering the most unique, high-quality products selected by our community. By increasing the customisation and functionality of our communications program, we’re able to better serve our community members, learn from each user, improve the overall Threadless experience and ultimately drive sales."

As part of its email revamp, Threadless launched a ‘Welcome Email’ program which introduces users to an optimised online preference centre that allows consumers to control and personalise the information they receive from Threadless. The company also sends targeted coupons to new buyers to encourage repeat purchases and collects customer insights through ExactTarget-powered email customer satisfaction surveys.

In addition to email alerts, promotional messages and surveys, Threadless also posts daily Twitter updates and Facebook status updates to stay engaged with its community of designers, bloggers and buyers. The company currently has more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter from its corporate Twitter handle: @Threadless.

Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer, said: "Threadless is great example of how targeted online communications can increase customer satisfaction and generate new sales. Using ExactTarget’s interactive marketing platform, Threadless is among our growing community of sophisticated online marketers powering millions of messages a day that are mission critical to creating authentic conversations with customers that drive engagement and deliver sales in markets around the globe."

Celebrating its tenth year, Threadless has an ongoing open-call for T-shirt design submissions from its worldwide community of more than 80,000 artists and designers. The Threadless community of more than 1.3 million members vote regularly on their favourite design submissions with the best and coolest designs selected for printing and sale by the Threadless online retail store.

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International SEO agency, OBAN Multilingual, has launched GlobalMaxer, which it describes as ‘the first cultural multivariate testing tool available on the market’. 

The tool allows marketers to test combinations of web design elements, such as colours, fonts, graphics placement and page size, in order to pinpoint which elements provide the best conversion rates in different cultural markets.

GlobalMaxer uses elements from OBAN’s Cultural Database, which contains cultural norms in web design and conversion behaviour from all 26 countries that OBAN currently covers. The company then advises which elements are best to test in each region so that businesses will only trial the variations most likely to succeed in the target market. Currently, more than 25,000 combinations are being tested.

The tool is currently testing one of OBAN’s client sites and has already thrown up some interesting results. For example, different website versions were preferred across the Spanish, French and Italian markets. The product image placement which saw the best results in France actually saw the worst conversion results in Spain. The experiment is bringing in an estimated €15,000 extra per month on the product line and will give the company information on how to market their product successfully to international audiences.

Greig Holbrook (pictured), MD of OBAN Multilingual, said: "The key to a successful international marketing strategy is to understand how your target market uses the Internet. The GlobalMaxer tool provides marketers with a simple and efficient way of gaining this information." 

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