THE 1997 DMA/ROYAL MAIL DIRECT MARKETING AWARDS: INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT - INNOVATION

WINNER

Client: Tesco Direct

Agency: Evans Hunt Scott

Copywriters: Rachel Stelling, Tony Brecher

Art directors: Phil Watson, David Crespo

SECOND

Client: Scotland Direct (Holdings)

Agency: In-house

Copywriters: Gillian and Arthur Bell

Art director: Catriona Bell

THIRD

Client: Siemens

Agency: FCA!

Copywriter: Shaun McIlrath

Art director: Ian Harding

WINNER

In this category, the judges were looking for a breakthrough that took

the whole direct marketing industry forward.

They found it in Tesco’s home shopping service, deploying telemarketing,

catalogue, Internet, CD-ROM and video.

Prospects were selected from lifestyle lists within a five-mile radius

of, initially, the Osterley store, and from the database of Clubcard

members who met the criteria of making large monthly shopping trips.

These were called or e-mailed and could receive the catalogue in print

or electronic formats.

A follow-up call ensured they were happy with their fulfilment pack and

ready to start ordering. A refinement was the collation of data on

customers’ home shopping habits, so that they could be sent personalised

shopping lists, enabling them to re-order without having to go through

the entire catalogue.

Within three months of the launch, customers were spending an average of

pounds 20 more per order than the average spend of comparable shoppers

on the Clubcard database. Conversion to sales from recruitment was 10%

on the Internet/CD-ROM and 8.7% for the outbound telemarketing. The

programme has since been rolled out to other stores.

’As it did with the start of its Clubcard, Tesco has moved ahead of the

rest of the field,’ said the judges. ’All of today’s and tomorrow’s

media are being used.’

SECOND

Student Survival Service sends monthly food parcels of quality,

value-for-money eating - with the bill going to the recipients’ family.

It was the brainchild of Gillian Bell, daughter of the family-run

company’s principals, while a student.

Within a marketing budget of pounds 200, in-house mailing lists were

employed together with limited ads in student papers. This was

supplemented by media coverage of the initiative. Enough business was

generated to pay Gillian’s first year salary.

THIRD

London cabbies are never short of opinions on anything from traffic

problems to world affairs. They were enlisted to talk about the new

Siemens S6 mobile phones and equipped with the units to offer their

fares a free call.

The media found this novel approach engaging, and there was more than

pounds 750,000 of free publicity. ’The idea allowed us to out-think

rather than outspend the competition,’ says the agency. ’It created a

completely new direct medium.’

This article was first published on Marketing