"Swiss direct marketers are undisputed specialists in their field"
Jörg Rindlisbacher, CEO, CCO Impiric, chaired the jury for the Swiss Direct Marketing Award 2001
Jörg Rindlisbacher, CEO, CCO Impiric, chaired the jury for the Swiss Direct Marketing Award 2001 "Swiss direct marketing people are undisputed specialists in their field"
On Friday, April 27, the Swiss Direct Marketing Award will be presented for the third time at an award night at TMC Glattbrugg. A jury of 16 specialists assessed over 240 entries. Jury President Jörg Rindlisbacher considers the competition to be of a high standard and would prefer to speak of dialog marketing rather than direct marketing in future.
What did you enjoy most about the jury's work and where were there discussions?
Jörg Rindlisbacher: It was actually a lot of fun. We had a lot of discussions, but they were very constructive. The jury was new and well put together. I am happy about the addition of creative people from communications. The jury was divided into two groups: Creatives and Direct Marketers. Both groups naturally had a different point of view, which made the discussions very dynamic.
Did the creative providers and the marketing people as representatives of the target audience always agree in the end?
Rindlisbacher: If you carefully analyze the distribution of points on the answer sheets marked with two colors, you can see that only a few awards did not quite match up. For example, twenty creative points and only five direct marketing points or vice versa. However, this was only the case two or three times. So there was more harmony than divergence. For me, the advertisers were able to bring good pragmatism to the assessment.
What are the most important criteria by which you have judged?
Rindlisbacher: Direct marketing is one of the few disciplines in the communications industry where you can measure the results very precisely. There are very clear mechanisms. You are subject to them, and a direct mail piece is also constructed on the basis of these mechanisms. If the piece does not have this legislation, it is not successful. However, these laws are not necessarily conducive to creation. The key to successful mail is to find the best combination of these laws and creativity. Whoever was able to bring this together well was successful in our competition.
How would you rate the standard of the 240 entries?
Rindlisbacher: There are ten different categories, and these have also produced different qualities. In classic direct marketing, where you are subject to these laws much more intensively, we have fewer creative influences because it simply doesn't allow it. Here I have the feeling that direct marketing works in a straitjacket. In other disciplines, such as integrated communication or the Internet, creativity is very high and was praised accordingly by the jury. The completely new disciplines such as direct-response TV have not yet shown many entries and quality this year. There is still work to be done. Overall, I can speak of high quality. Swiss direct marketing people are undisputed specialists in their field.
This year you had to judge 20 percent more entries than last year. Is there more going on in the DM area or has the prize become more popular?
Rindlisbacher: Both. The prize has certainly become more popular and well organized. On the other hand, dialog marketing has become an important further development of direct marketing. Dialog marketing has become an irresistible field of communication.
Does this also improve the positioning of this discipline - compared to traditional advertising?
Rindlisbacher: I don't want to get into that discussion. In future, I would just call it dialog marketing. The Internet in particular has significantly expanded the field. Dialog is therefore more than just direct.
What importance do you attach to the special SME prize?
Rindlisbacher: It is important that this special SME prize exists. We have been able to evaluate good work that was not done by agencies, but by smaller in-house companies. It is important that we also promote these activities and not just a mail piece with a budget of one million francs behind it.
Are there any visible new trends?
Rindlisbacher: One trend that can certainly be identified is that dialog tasks or overall campaigns are increasingly being carried out by dialog specialists as lead agencies. If dialog is at the heart of the strategy, the entire campaign comes from the direct marketing kitchen and not the other way around, as was previously the case when an advertising agency also designed a DM piece on the side.
What changes will the Internet bring in the future?
Rindlisbacher: The Internet will have an intensive influence on dialog marketing and will become an essential discipline. Where does it make sense for which company? This development is foreseeable. The Internet has not made direct marketing any easier. But thanks to the new technology, it has become much more precise in terms of data management. There used to be large centers for such tasks. Today, many are already working with their own databases.
Do you see any problems with data protection here?
Rindlisbacher: There are no problems with data protection if you behave according to its rules. But if you don't comply with data protection, you will very quickly run into problems. But it's not in our interests as dialog communicators to circumvent the Data Protection Act. Interview: Andreas Panzeri
The ten categories of the DM Prize 2001
On Friday, April 27, the Swiss Direct Marketing Award will be presented for the third time at an award night at TMC Glattbrugg. A jury of 16 specialists assessed over 240 entries. Jury President Jörg Rindlisbacher considers the competition to be of a high standard and would prefer to speak of dialog marketing rather than direct marketing in future.
What did you enjoy most about the jury's work and where were there discussions?
Jörg Rindlisbacher: It was actually a lot of fun. We had a lot of discussions, but they were very constructive. The jury was new and well put together. I am happy about the addition of creative people from communications. The jury was divided into two groups: Creatives and Direct Marketers. Both groups naturally had a different point of view, which made the discussions very dynamic.
Did the creative providers and the marketing people as representatives of the target audience always agree in the end?
Rindlisbacher: If you carefully analyze the distribution of points on the answer sheets marked with two colors, you can see that only a few awards did not quite match up. For example, twenty creative points and only five direct marketing points or vice versa. However, this was only the case two or three times. So there was more harmony than divergence. For me, the advertisers were able to bring good pragmatism to the assessment.
What are the most important criteria by which you have judged?
Rindlisbacher: Direct marketing is one of the few disciplines in the communications industry where you can measure the results very precisely. There are very clear mechanisms. You are subject to them, and a direct mail piece is also constructed on the basis of these mechanisms. If the piece does not have this legislation, it is not successful. However, these laws are not necessarily conducive to creation. The key to successful mail is to find the best combination of these laws and creativity. Whoever was able to bring this together well was successful in our competition.
How would you rate the standard of the 240 entries?
Rindlisbacher: There are ten different categories, and these have also produced different qualities. In classic direct marketing, where you are subject to these laws much more intensively, we have fewer creative influences because it simply doesn't allow it. Here I have the feeling that direct marketing works in a straitjacket. In other disciplines, such as integrated communication or the Internet, creativity is very high and was praised accordingly by the jury. The completely new disciplines such as direct-response TV have not yet shown many entries and quality this year. There is still work to be done. Overall, I can speak of high quality. Swiss direct marketing people are undisputed specialists in their field.
This year you had to judge 20 percent more entries than last year. Is there more going on in the DM area or has the prize become more popular?
Rindlisbacher: Both. The prize has certainly become more popular and well organized. On the other hand, dialog marketing has become an important further development of direct marketing. Dialog marketing has become an irresistible field of communication.
Does this also improve the positioning of this discipline - compared to traditional advertising?
Rindlisbacher: I don't want to get into that discussion. In future, I would just call it dialog marketing. The Internet in particular has significantly expanded the field. Dialog is therefore more than just direct.
What importance do you attach to the special SME prize?
Rindlisbacher: It is important that this special SME prize exists. We have been able to evaluate good work that was not done by agencies, but by smaller in-house companies. It is important that we also promote these activities and not just a mail piece with a budget of one million francs behind it.
Are there any visible new trends?
Rindlisbacher: One trend that can certainly be identified is that dialog tasks or overall campaigns are increasingly being carried out by dialog specialists as lead agencies. If dialog is at the heart of the strategy, the entire campaign comes from the direct marketing kitchen and not the other way around, as was previously the case when an advertising agency also designed a DM piece on the side.
What changes will the Internet bring in the future?
Rindlisbacher: The Internet will have an intensive influence on dialog marketing and will become an essential discipline. Where does it make sense for which company? This development is foreseeable. The Internet has not made direct marketing any easier. But thanks to the new technology, it has become much more precise in terms of data management. There used to be large centers for such tasks. Today, many are already working with their own databases.
Do you see any problems with data protection here?
Rindlisbacher: There are no problems with data protection if you behave according to its rules. But if you don't comply with data protection, you will very quickly run into problems. But it's not in our interests as dialog communicators to circumvent the Data Protection Act. Interview: Andreas Panzeri
The ten categories of the DM Prize 2001
- Business-to-consumer mailings
- Business-to-Business mailings
- Scatter advertising/inserts/take-ones
- Display
- Direct response TV spots
- Interactive Media
- Integrated campaigns - use of at least three media
- International campaigns
- Agency self-promotion
- SME Special Award Direct Marketing Services (SMEs with a maximum of 250 employees)
