Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing: Leading Experts Show How to Maximize Digital ROI with iDirect and iBranding Imperatives

Book excerpt: Attract New Customers and Exceed Revenue Goals with iDirect Marketing! “A simple concept ties this incredibly useful book together. Every marketer now is an iDirect marketer. You ignore this concept, and this book, at your own peril.” Al Ries, author of War in the Boardroom “How do you get your brand heard, trusted, and remembered? The answer is in the confluence of digital and direct to form a torrent of minimal cost/maximal result opportunities. Rapp’s vision of an iDirect future and the insights of the book’s contributors put marketing supremacy in your grasp.” Tim Suther, SVP, Acxiom Global Multichannel Marketing Services “The internet brings about the reinvention of everything. Now it is marketing’s turn. Rapp compiles the best thinking on a future with low-cost and no-cost connections between products and consumers. Essential reading for marketers.” Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail “Direct marketing is interactive, and interactive marketing is direct. With an ‘iDirect’ mindset, digital platforms and innovative analytics impact the data-driven, online, offline, lead-generating, customer-retaining, multichannel direct marketing process. Rapp’s vision for reinventing marketing is a wake-up call for CMOs to think and act differently in a profoundly changed world.” John Greco, President and CEO, Direct Marketing Association “It’s increasingly important to rely on an agency for accountable iDirect solutions. The advertising agency of the future must be adept at reinventing yesterday’s interactive, direct and branding. Rapp’s cohort of experts show the way in this book.” Michael McCathren, Chick-fil-A Conversation Catalyst About the Book Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing focuses on how to benefit from a fundamental truth about marketing in the digital era. Interactive Marketing is direct. Direct Marketing is interactive. What has been seen mistakenly as separate disciplines actually are one and the same. Every marketer now is an interactive direct marketer. To help you profit from this new reality, Stan Rapp introduces a new paradigm—iDirect—the 21st-century growth engine at the intersection of digital technologies and direct marketing practices. The gap between what you once took for granted and the iDirect Marketing future is so vast that a team of thought leaders is needed to deal with it. No one person has all the answers. In this book, Rapp brings together marketing luminaries with a variety of perspectives that will open your eyes to astonishing, new opportunities. It contains surprising insights from the top minds in direct marketing, including: John Greco, President of the Direct Marketing Association: How to Market Directly or Be Left Behind Professor Don Shultz, PhD, Northwestern University: Media Allocation for a Mass Networking Landscape Lucas Donat, President, Donat/Wald: ROIpositive Advertising via TV and Print for the iDirect Marketer Mike Caccavale, Founder and CEO, Pluris Marketing: Instant Delivery of Thousands of Individualized Messages Michael Becker, VP Mobile Strategies, iLoop Mobile: Hold the Consumer in the Palm of Your Hand with Mobile Melissa Read, PhD, Vice President of Research and Innovation, Engauge: The Psychology of Motivating Desired Behavior On- and Offline Tim Suther, Acxiom SVP Global Multichannel Marketing Services: Releasing the Full Power of iDirect Fundamentals