EDR wins Best Prospect Data Provision award at Data Strategy 2008 - EDR continued their success on Thursday night by winning the Best Prospect Data Provision awards at Data Strategy 2008 - this was awarded for the best creation, enhancement and delivery of personal/business records captured with the appropriate permissions for marketing by third parties.  Once again, it was the work with Lovefilm on their lead generation strategy that clinched the winning entry.

After being shortlisted in two categories at Monday night’s Connect Awards 2008, EDR walked away with the Best New Data Technology award for Pure Lead, their online lead generation, management and conversion software.

Fighting off competition from The Software Bureau and Digital Marketing Group, EDR took the award for their work on the LOVEFiLM online lead generation campaign, a shining example of best practice and the successful implementation of technology in a cost effective and scalable new channel.

The Pure Lead technology is used to raise data quality through real-time validation and deduping across multiple sources of data.  It cuts the end-to-end process time for lead generation and ensures the swift delivery of data that is still fresh and responsive.  The combination of improved data quality and dramatically reduced time to contact creates the perfect conditions for converting prospects.

If you would like to learn more about how the Pure Lead technology can be used as part of your own online marketing strategy please contact Matt Bennathan on 020 7440 4380 or matt.bennathan@edragency.com

Declining ROI, green issues and search marketing’s rise have left data at a crossroads. Marketing Direct quizzes clients and practitioners for views on how the data sector will respond to these challenges in 2008 and continue to evolve.

Interview with Tom Morgan, Managing Director, EDR 
Marketing Direct 03 Jan 08

- What’s the biggest data challenge you face?
Communicating the benefits of email to existing and prospective clients, as many of them have had a negative experience of email marketing. We have to go through a re-education process with them.

- What new sources of data are there?
There are many new sources of email data. Facebook for example, has millions of users. The challenge is that a lot of these sites collect email addresses, but they don’t always have the correct permissions in place. They come to us with a large database and ask us if we can monetise it, and unfortunately, a lot of the time the answer is no.

- What changes will we see in the data market?
Email as a channel has gone through a lot of changes in the last 12-18 months and this will continue. Traditionally, it has been a ‘fire and forget’ channel, but issues of recency and quality and the challenges of deliverability have become important. The way email campaigns are planned will increasingly reflect that of direct mail.

- Your tip for integrating on and offline data?
Validate it.

- What external forces are affecting your ability to do your job?
ISPs and their attitude towards third-party marketing will have an impact on our business. It will also be interesting to see what effect the credit crunch has on financial services companies, who are big users of direct mail, given that online is such a cost-effective channel.

Taken From Marketing Direct 03 Jan 08