'Coalition' Christmas managed by MIG

Thursday, 27 October 2011 14:24

This year, more than ever, customer recruitment and re-activation budgets are tight and the prospect of making money from existing customer data is impossible due to restrictive permissions or policy perceptions.

Here's an idea MIG initially tested last year, that will be rolled out to millions of UK consumers this year which will change the way marketing is done during these dark days of depressed consumer spending. It is called Coalition Marketing. MIG are already engaged on a long term project to use it to add value to the DFS business but it is perhaps more clearly demonstrated using MIG's Coalition Christmas card.

The card (an ecard) is branded by the Data Controller and sent to consumers containing introductory offers from a range of coalition partners who have themselves submitted data and who are also sending their own ecard via MIG. The click thru from the card takes the consumer into a pre-populated web form which requests the consumer’s permission to pass their details on to the retailer they have selected the deal from.

The recipient retailer only receives new customers they don't know, as the clever bit, managed by MIG, is the de-duping of customers they already have prior to the initial sends. The wider range of Christmas gifts results in a more attractive offer being sent to lapsed or dormant customers of the 'Data Controller' which both helps clean or check their data and create a more positive perception in the eyes of the consumer which in turn, helps to re-activate them as the star offer on each card is that of the Data Controller themselves.

Daniel Haine, who has recently joined MIG as Sales Director and previously helped found off-line data pools at Abacus and Transactis, said "MIG has all of the components needed to carry out this sophisticated but simple marketing solution. For most it will be self funded re-activation as they are able to derive a lead generation income from their own data, previously denied them due to lack of 3rd party permissions which will mean they are able to gain revenue from lapsed or dormant data."

MIG claims to do three things for its clients - grow customer numbers and revenue; reduce marketing costs; derive an incremental revenue from existing data equivalent to £1 per record per annum. For those looking for that extra special gift this Christmas, especially with significant databases might be well advised to ask Dan to be Santa's little helper this year.

For more information please contact Gemma Duggleby on 01565 653000 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Spam, it's not as simplistic as the naysayers make it out to be

Thursday, 11 August 2011 10:57

Hands up, who amongst us has ever said something we genuinely and consciously believed to be true that turned out to be a complete contradiction of what we actually did or really felt; any Liberal Democrat voters amongst us?

Open any marketing publication in any media and it is no surprise to find industry commentators offering what seems to be valuable, if fairly obvious, advice on the importance of avoiding sending spam; one simple definition of which is unwanted communication.

Another definition of spam is communication the receiver has not solicited. Another is communication that has no consideration or care for the recipient. But go to Google and you will see that no accepted definition of spam actually exists. The concept of spam is so personal that even allowing for the perceived ubiquitous presence of it we are unable to agree what it actually is.

The reality for marketers, or anyone else that needs to do business is that most of what we do on a daily basis in any medium is spam because to communicate with the few that want to do business with we must communicate with many that don't.

So far this month we have sent over 3 million emails on behalf of various customers to various databases and we have seen one complaint from a person who had forgotten that they had opted in. 1 person out of 3 million?! The rest of the emails have encouraged a degree of reinforcement and recognition, generated business or slipped quietly off into obscurity.

Email marketing is not something to be scared of and if you are a professional neither is "spam". Those companies that embark on email marketing as part of an integrated marketing strategy will even enjoy the experience of some people thanking them for getting in touch? In summary, there is no need here for that old newsletter staple "10 great reasons or rules to build your email marketing on". Just one, be professional. The future has always been data led, step back and reflect and we can all see that the big winners in the economy gather and "farm" data. They all communicate on an ongoing basis in various media. Data led marketing is ubiquitous not spam. What is spam to one person is gratefully received by the next and that response is as fluid as a mood swing. Non-solicited communication is a commercial imperative. At some point in any fulfilment process there has to be an unsolicited communication and it doesn't matter if the product is diamonds or detergent.

For further information please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

MIG provides Support for Insolvency Practitioners

Tuesday, 02 August 2011 13:39

The Information Commissioner, the UK body responsible for policing the Data Protection Act (DPA), regards the 'owners' of a business as the responsible entity against whom criminal charges can be brought and fines of up to £500,000 can be levied if a serious breach of consumer data protection occurs. In the case of a business failure and an administration, this responsibility becomes that of the Insolvency Practitioner.

MIG has launched a data processing service for Insolvency Practitioners (IPs) providing a trusted and ICO-approved process to help IPs mitigate against the serious risk of breaching the DPA during an administration and also to help improve the value of the data to third parties.

For more information, visit www.ipsupport.uk.com.

Oz Clarke relaxes on the Havana set by Oceans

Wednesday, 25 May 2011 10:42

Oceans, the UK's leading outdoor furniture business was launched recently to the 'Cheshire set' at 'The event of the year' featuring Oz Clarke, Stacey Solomon, the IT girls and a host of especially selected guests at the Bentley showroom here in Knutsford. This was the first of what is planned to be many similar events devised by MIG and partners to target the high net worth members of the UK population.

There are 274,000 people who earn £150k or more per annum and 13,000 who earn £1m or more and they represent perhaps the most lucrative segment of the UK population for the majority of luxury brands and yet the majority of those brands know only a fraction of their potential market.

MIG is now working with a coalition of luxury brands to introduce what is mainly an online luxury offering to prospective consumers in future throughout the UK as part of a high quality lead generation programme. "Having built a high net worth database to promote what would have been the inaugural Liverpool boat show in May, we felt that we should put the ground work we had done, to good use and so devised a strategy to work with luxury brands across a wide range of products and services. Having worked in luxury retail myself I was very aware that a relatively small number of people can make a very big difference and in time of recession there are always opportunities somewhere and this was a natural extension to the databases we have built in recent years," said Rob Bielby CEO at MIG.

Around 1,000 people were invited to this event and the registration page was closed when the 500th RSVP was received and on the night over 450 people turned up for what was a very enjoyable evening. Oz Clarke and Charlie Womersley entertained and educated the crowd on some of the finer points of the evening's selected wines following the Champagne reception, followed by a catwalk fashion show and Stacey Solomon singing prior to her big event at Wembley before the FA cup final. Guests wandered and socialised amongst the exhibition items, watched film and video 'fly through' presentations and experienced a selection of the exclusive Oceans outdoor collections before being chauffeured home many as a courtesy of Bentley who hosted the evening.