Direct: Briefs

Zalpha, the WWAV Rapp Collins Group’s newly formed strategic

consultancy, has appointed Tod Norman as strategic partner. Norman joins

from BHWG, where he was planning director. Trish Fairless has also been

promoted to strategic partner, after her work on the Club Carling

scheme. Tim Banks has joined Zalpha as a consultant after four years

working in database building and analysis for Claritas.

The Halifax has begun work on its new call centre in Belfast. The

centre, with pounds 45m investment, is one of the largest in Northern

Ireland and is central to the group’s strategy to be the leading player

in new banking channels, especially internet and telephone banking. The

development is projected to create up to 1200 jobs. The main site will

open in 2001, with a start-up site operational from this summer.

Company Barclaycard, the business-to-business division of Barclaycard,

has appointed Craik Jones to develop its acquisition activity outside

the Barclays Bank base. The programme will consist of building a major

prospect database, with a range of different communications programmes

based on a contact strategy of phone and mailings. Craik Jones has

worked with Company Barclaycard for three years.

The Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) has promoted Neil Morris from

director to deputy managing director. The role has evolved with the

institute’s need for a senior level manager to oversee the IDM’s

strategic implementation of e-commerce in its own systems.

Alcone Marketing Group, the Omnicom-owned firm, has appointed Karen

Jones as its first new business director. Jones was previously account

director for the company, before which she worked for SMC Marketing

Group. Her responsibilities will include heading a new business team to

broaden Alcone’s client portfolio, emphasising FMCG, drink and retail

sectors.

HLB, the UK’s largest consumer list broker and manager, is expanding

into the French market with the launch of HLB France. It will be headed

by Nicolas Soulier, who moves from HLB’s London operation. The French

venture will be overseen by HLB’s newly appointed chairman, Annette

Kelley.

Based in Versailles, the operation is a joint venture with sister

company AID, the leading French statistical analysis and database

company acquired by HLB parent company WWAV Rapp Collins Group in

1998.

Brann Data has launched a new service to develop tailor-made

segmentations using a combination of clients’ own data and external

data. The company believes segmentation is vital to develop creative

work, position products, improve targeting and provide appropriate

service. Brann Data, part of Brann Worldwide, has a client list

including Royal Mail, Microsoft, Peugeot and Guinness.

The IDM’s education department has launched an Academic Standby

Programme to enhance direct marketing education in further and higher

education throughout the UK. The programme offers all of the institute’s

education contacts free spaces on the direct marketing courses of their

choice.

More than 900 academics have been contacted by mail so far.

Alto, the rebranded management division of Swetenhams, has appointed

Geoff Downer as director of its new consultancy, Alto-consult. He will

be responsible for the development and management of the company, acting

as strategic consultant to key clients on their CRM integration

requirements.

Downer was previously general manager for Alto.

Promise, the internet and telephone-based re-mortgage provider, is to

build on recent growth with a new integrated national direct response

campaign. Two main executions by Black Cat, ’Toucan’ and ’Switch’, will

appear in the national daily and Sunday press. They will be supported by

a door drop to 1.5 million households, to people who have held a

mortgage for a year or more. Direct mail activity is planned for late

February and the web site, at www.ipromise.co.uk, will continue the

theme.

TDA has recruited Roger Lipscombe, who joins from Third-Wave in

Birmingham to become art director. He has also worked in East Asia and

the Caribbean.

This article was first published on Marketing