On May 24-25 at the International Business Forum «Direct Marketing Days in Ukraine»-2007» the leading experts of profile companies and business leaders will discuss the most topical questions related to the direct marketing development and efficiency growth. As of today the event of such format is unique on the territory of the CIS and Eastern Europe. Traditionally the organizer of the Business Forum is “OS-Direct” Marketing Group.

Every year the Business Forum “DM Days in Ukraine” gathers more and more guests from different countries. Its participants represent more than 10 countries – Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Greece, France, Finland, Croatia, Estonia, Belgium and the USA. Within the framework of «DM Days in Ukraine» there is a contest for the best DM project “Direct Hit” where the international and Ukrainian Jury judge the works presented by different companies-participants from Ukraine and Russia. Last year the members of the Jury were: Vladimir Spivakovskiy (Brand of the Year), Vesta Bondar (Personal-rost), Dmitriy Kostyuk (UMC), Irina Kuznetsova (АМК DIALLA), Alina Frolova (R.A.M), Jorgen Andreassen (FEDMA), Mark Runakus (Hicklin Slade & Partners) and other renowned specialists.

This year the President of the Jury at this contest is Drayton Bird – the worldwide direct marketing guru, named one of the 25 best world specialists in this branch.

The international open contest for the best DM-Project is held annually within the framework of the Business Forum. At this contest both leading and start-up companies present their advertising projects, reveal their secrets of success and share their experience. It is an excellent opportunity to master new technologies and DM tools and to find out what your partners are doing in this sphere. Besides, participation in the Business Forum is also a unique opportunity to find reliable partners for starting a new business project, to draw attention of potential clients and to take a prize. The organizers consider the number of works submitted to the contest “Direct Hit” to be one of the main achievements of 2006. In total there were more than 60 cases submitted, among them there were works of agencies not only from Ukraine, but also from Russia, Belarus, Croatia and other countries. A novelty of the last year was a special nomination for journalists «DM: from the journalist’s point of view». All these innovations will be continued and developed at the Business Forum of 2007.

According to Elena Levchenko, Commercial Director of “Beeper” Company: “The Business Forum “DM Days in Ukraine” has become the most resonant DM event which gathers marketing experts from different companies for discussing DM technologies and practical achievements as well as for exchanging experience. The contest «Direct Hit» presents real business cases and at that it precisely reflects the tendencies of market development. In spite of similarity of nominations from year to year, we can observe obvious qualitative changes in marketing approaches when carrying out various activities».

This Business Forum is a unique event which was named by many participants «a consolidator» of DM industry in Ukraine. Considerable changes in qualitative structure of the audience take place every year and it is confirmed by the words of the last year's Jury members:

Elena Tsegelya, Deputy Head for Marketing of the Direction «General Marketing and Advertising» of PrivatBank:

«Several years ago the audience mostly consisted of representatives of marketing and advertising companies and DM agencies which were ready to share the secrets of their success, but recently то we can observe an active part of business audience which do not have marketing specialization but are interested in effective use of DM technologies in their own business or in search of subcontractors for the purpose of implementing outsourcing projects. It’s quite natural that nowadays due to competitive recovery and IT market development direct marketing with use of interactive channels (web, sms, e-mail, iVR, DRTV), distance trade and CRM technologies are becoming more urgent. Direct mail in its pure form is less urgent in B2B segment as well as in B2C segment.

At the last Business Forum the reports of Grigoriy Shershnev “The best mailings of Europe and the world during the last years”, Sergey Gayday “DM in politics. Practical solutions. Analysis of real campaigns in Ukraine” and Andrzej Yasenetski “Mobile marketing and loyalty in terms of 40 cases of Polish companies” were the most remarkable. Such contest works of “Direct Hit” as “Lunapak” with its ticket to the Moon, and the Croatian Agency “Imago” with its project “Employ me! I will make you coffee!” pleased the audience with their creativity.

Elena Levchenko, Commercial Director of “Beeper” Company:

«It is worth noting the expansion of participants’ geography, involvement of new fields of activity in the work of this forum. Today, marketing experts are broad specialists who are constantly mastering new technologies. For example, mobile marketing is actively ousting the use of usual communication channels with a consumer. Companies are delegating more and more authorities to contact-centers, since this structure is the "front-office" for a consumer. The forum gives an opportunity to see and assess practical implementation of new achievements into business processes of the companies, as well as to define major factors influencing them. Giving the branch of distance trade a separate conference «Mail Order in Ukraine» within the framework of the Forum speaks for itself. In other countries telemarketing has become an everyday occurrence. In Ukraine it is also worth noting the readiness of telemarketing services for this process and at the same time the unreadiness of consumers to use this service. In 2006 the market took active steps towards the development of loyalty programs and creation of client clubs ».

Nataliya Yatsenko, Director of DM «Goryachaya pressa» (Russia):

«I am very much pleased with an opportunity to get acquainted with a lot of already implemented DM Projects (cases) at the Forum “DM Days in Ukraine”. Public presentations give me an opportunity of useful and valuable communications with colleagues, exchange of information on achievements and difficulties in concrete situations. For us the Ukrainian Business Forum is an example of correct and competent work of people wedded to their business and who get enormous pleasure from it and charge others with this feeling».

We’d like to remind that the organizers issued a unique book on the basis of reports and cases of the contests “Direct Hit” of the past years. This book comprises more than 40 reports and 40 cases of 2004-2005.

We’d also like to tell about the awarding ceremony in brief. The atmosphere of it is almost family-like. No wonder, because a lot of participants of “DM Days” perfectly know each other as they come to Kiev not for the first time. We have true direct marketing enthusiasts from a distant city of Krasnoyarsk, they attend “DM Days” on a regular basis and they have never missed a single conference. And they are not lonely in their preferences.

P.S. There are several months before the opening of the International Business Forum DM Days in Ukraine – 2007” but the organizers can be proud of the impressive list of partners. The members of the Jury – the authorities in their profession – are considering the Business Forum as a unique opportunity to share their experience and get acquainted with the state-of-the-art practical developments, reflected and implemented in DM projects. Once again it confirms a vivid interest of business community to DM.

The International Business Forum «Direct Marketing Days in Ukraine» will be held on May 24-25, 2007 for the seventh time.

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