The DMEF Corporate Leadership Award honors a corporation that has made significant contributions to direct and interactive marketing education. This unique and significant award honors businesses that offer their own employees multiple opportunities for personal and professional improvement and are dedicated to continuing education, diversity, and inclusion.
2009 Goodman&Company
2008 Scholastic
2007 Draftfcb
2006 The Martin Agency
2005 ACXIOM Corporation
2004 Wunderman
2003 Experian
2002 Allstate Insurance Company
2001 R.R. Donnelley
2009 Goodman&Company
Goodman&Company (www.goodmancompany.com) creates unique value by bridging the gap between management consultants and marketing agencies. Their collaborative approach, informed by expertise spanning the major marketing disciplines and channels, successfully aligns marketing investments with the best opportunities for growth and increased profitability.
creates unique value by bridging the gap between management consultants and marketing agencies. Their collaborative approach, informed by expertise spanning the major marketing disciplines and channels, successfully aligns marketing investments with the best opportunities for growth and increased profitability.
Goodman&Company has built a track record of success with Global 2000 clients by partnering with senior marketers and line of business executives to create measurable return by optimizing customer-facing channels to drive acquisition and retention, leveraging the power of insights to increase customer lifetime value, and accelerating the marketing organization’s ability to innovate.
One of the company’s core values is to stay on the forefront of opportunities that contribute to the advancement of the direct/interactive marketing industry. Their role in DMEF’s Next Generation Leadership program, participation on DMEF’s Board of Trustees, and unwavering support in the creation of DMEF’s mission and strategy make Goodman&Company well deserving of this years’ award.
2008 – Scholastic
For more than 85 years, education has been at the center of Scholastic’s success. Today, the multichannel marketing company is a leader in children’s publishing, education, and entertainment, all of which are underscored by its corporate mission to install a love of reading and learning in all children. This same commitment to learning is carried into Scholastic’s workplace.
An important aspect of this award honors the work done through e-Scholastic, the division created to maximize the potential of the internet as a significant channel of distribution and e-Commerce and to expand the company’s core businesses. Scholastic.com has won numerous awards, including the Webby Award and the People’s Choice Award for Best Kids Site, and is one of the Top 50 online retailers in the Internet Retailer 500 survey.
Scholastic has been a steadfast backer of the DMEF under the leadership of Seth D. Radwell. Seth has served on the DMEF Board of Trustees and has been influential in creating the vision for the Foundation as a key member of the Marketing & Strategic Planning Committee. Scholastic was one of the founding companies in implementing the Direct Marketing Leadership Development Program (DMLDP), hiring young professionals to work at Scholastic and learn direct/interactive marketing on the job. Scholastic shows a commitment to learning and education in their business, workplace and in their partnership with the DMEF.
2007 – Draftfcb
“The DMEF’s Corporate Leadership Award honors the unique and significant actions of a corporation that demonstrates outstanding practices with the aim of contributing to direct marketing education. Draftfcb met — and exceeded — these requirements,” said Allen Dyon, chairman of DMEF.
“In our industry, our biggest asset is our people,” said Howard Draft, Chairman and CEO of Draftfcb. “That’s why it’s important for all agencies to foster the development of future employees at the college and university level. Draftfcb is a firm supporter of DMEF and its efforts to provide direct marketing education to students.”
Back in 2004 when it was known simply as “Draft,” this world-renowned direct marketing agency agreed to be DMEF’s second volunteer agency of record. Two years and a merger later, Draftfcb (www.draftfcb.com) remains a stalwart supporter of direct marketing education.
The company has handled projects such as the Foundation’s planned-giving campaign, renewal series, and fundraising mailings, and a curriculum module that illustrates the creative process in direct marketing through a dynamic, multimedia presentation. Even as Interpublic united Draft and FCB to create Draftfcb, the new company remained committed to enhancing direct marketing education at the collegiate level.
2006 – The Martin Agency
The Martin Agency has been a stalwart supporter of direct marketing education for many years. Since 1988, the company, in partnership with DMEF, has hosted an annual agency seminar at its Richmond, VA headquarters. For the first several years of its operation, the program focused on college undergraduate students. Now, in an effort to reach even more students, they have followed the lead of the DMEF by turning their attention to focus on professors teaching and research needs. The seminar, which uses client examples, offers professors exciting best practices to use in the classroom.
Twice a year, The Martin Agency sponsored The Student Workshop in which 15 students participated in an agency presentation and client project over a 10-day period, creating a fully integrated advertising campaign. The agency also participated in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Ad Center, and hosts interns and donates scholarships annually.
2005 – ACXIOM Corporation
Acxiom Corporation is a world leader in customer and information management solutions and the trusted partner of leading global companies. Customer information is one of the most important assets a company owns. Many customer relationship solutions fail because companies do not fully capitalize on their customer data. Acxiom shows businesses how to maximize the value of the information they have in order to build strong, lasting relationships with customers.
Customer data expertise, superb systems management, operational excellence, technological innovation and creative problem solving are all Acxiom hallmarks. Honored in 2005 with the prestigious 21st Century Achievement Award from the Computerworld Honors Program, ACXIOM was saluted for its “positive contributions to the global information technology revolution.”
Acxiom is a longtime supporter of the DMEF and its programs. Even in today’s challenging times, their corporate excellence makes Acxiom a particularly notable and worthy recipient of this award.
2004 – Wunderman
Wunderman is one of the most experienced customer-focused marketing communications agencies. With a rich heritage spanning over 40 years, Wunderman was ranked among the top three worldwide marketing services agencies by Advertising Age in 2002.
Offering powerful data solutions — both in-house and through KnowledgeBase Marketing, a wholly owned subsidiary — and of course, best-in-class creative services, Wunderman combines broad-ranging capabilities in strategy and insights, customer dialogue and teleservices, media, interactive and promotions to deliver holistic, seamless client solutions. It creates customer experiences that build brands, initiate true dialogues and drive action — consistently and successfully, in 78 offices worldwide.
Boldly stepping into the future, combining data and strategic thought to develop insights, fusing those insights into daring creative work to redefine the customer experience and making an impact in the marketplace: these are the ongoing challenges at Wunderman, and they’re what help make the Wunderman approach unique.
Since its inception, Wunderman has promoted direct marketing education, both internally and externally, around the world.
2003 – Experian
Experian avidly supports direct marketing education. Through “The Heart of Experian,” its community involvement program, the company fosters lasting relationships with organizations such as DMEF by funding program initiatives, and by providing further support through employee participation.
Starting in 1983 with a Metromail program led by Bill Howe, Experian sponsored 15 DMEF Collegiate Institutes ― intensive five-day seminars for the “best and brightest” college seniors majoring in marketing, advertising and database/information systems. During the program, Experian staff members devoted one full day to teach students direct/interactive marketing best practices. To date, Experian has shared its expertise and career knowledge with more than 750 college students.
2002 – Allstate Insurance Company
Allstate was selected to receive the 2002 DMEF Corporate Leadership Award in recognition of its many years of contributions to direct marketing education and its long history in direct marketing insurance products. Allstate has an extensive history of involvement with DMEF, going back more than 30 years, to the first association-sponsored Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM) Collegiate Institutes. Allstate helped underwrite and conduct the first Institutes at a then company-owned hotel in Northbrook. That seeding has resulted in years of Institutes and hundreds of students gaining very solid background in direct, many of whom have chosen careers in our field.
Allstate also played a visionary role in DM education, recognizing that more students could be reached by focusing on professors’ teaching and research needs. Allstate co-sponsored, again with CADM, the first DMEF Professors’ Institute, designed to give educators the knowledge and resources needed to teach direct/interactive marketing. As a result, the Midwest leads the country in the number of available complete courses in direct/interactive marketing. Allstate also played a crucial and decisive role in successfully raising $250,000 needed to fund a master’s degree program at Northwestern University.
This outstanding background in promoting DM education, and its far-reaching efforts to use the Internet and alternate media to provide product choice to the consumer, make Allstate the 2002 honoree.
2001 – R.R. Donnelley
Throughout its history, R.R. Donnelley has demonstrated corporate leadership and citizenship by supporting community and national organizations including the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation. Over the years, R.R. Donnelley has actively supported the DMEF by hosting and funding the former Collegiate Institute for juniors and seniors. More than 300 students have benefited from R.R. Donnelley’s strong commitment.
In addition to its community outreach, R.R. Donnelley offers its own employees multiple opportunities for personal and professional improvement. The company believes that when employees have the right tools, training and technology, breakthrough improvements in quality, productivity and speed are the result.
A company dedicated to diversity, inclusion and continuing education, R.R. Donnelley ranked #1 in the printing industry on this year’s Fortune’s List of Most Admired Companies; it made Next Step magazine’s list of America’s 100 most diverse corporations, and Latina Style magazine named R.R. Donnelley one of the “Top 50 Companies for Hispanic Women to Work in the United States.”
R. R. Donnelley enriches the lives of millions by connecting people with the power of words and images. In 2000, alone, R.R. Donnelley produced 5 billion magazines, 520 million books and 6 billion catalogs, directories, direct-mail promotions and web pages.