Expanding ECHO Brand Is Top of Mind for DMA 2007 ECHO Committee; Lieber, Feinstein Head Committee

January 19, 2007 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) (www.the-dma.org) announced yesterday that Mitchell Lieber, president of Lieber & Associates, and Neil Feinstein, director of creative strategy at True North, will serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the 2007 International ECHO Awards Committee.

DMA’s ECHO Award is the only international award that honors excellence in direct marketing creativity, marketing strategy, and response results – recognizing every type of media used in multichannel direct marketing campaigns.

“Because DMA’s ECHO Awards recognize strategy, creative, as well as results, they are the most relevant award in marketing today,” said Feinstein. “This potent combination allows the ECHOs to showcase how all marketing disciplines can be integrated and leveraged to deliver outstanding results, new customers, and increase profits for smart marketers.”

DMA’s 2007 International ECHO Award Ceremony will take place October 16 during DMA 07 in Chicago, IL.

ECHOs Embrace the Internet

This year sees campaigns submitted for the 2007 awards being uploaded from the Web, television, and other electronic campaigns, eliminating the need to produce CDs, DVDs or videotapes. Training for ECHO judges will also move to the Web.

“The ECHO team – composed of the Committee and DMA’s internal staff – is updating ECHOs’ view of direct marketing to more fully embrace the Internet,” said Lieber. “We’re going to see more entries using search, SMS, and other forms of emerging media, as well as an expansion of the ECHO’s already enormous base in integrated, mail, print, and broadcast channels applications using SMS and other forms of emerging media.”

Mitchell Lieber

President, Lieber & Associates

Chair, DMA International ECHO Award Committee

Lieber has developed, managed or advised on more than 200 contact center programs spanning operations involving inbound, outbound, blended (inbound and outbound), e-mail handling, and Web integration. He has recruited and trained hundreds of contact center reps and has developed effective ongoing training systems.

Lieber’s expertise is first-hand and front-line. Prior to devoting full-time to consulting and management training in 1989, he managed call centers’ handling programs for companies such as American Express, the American Medical Association, AT&T, Haworth, Hitachi, Hon, Interplak, Kemper, Nuveen Investments, Philips, and Zenith Data Systems. He also directed telecommunications and, very early in his career, served as a call center supervisor and as a telephone rep.

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Lieber pioneered the integration of telephone and direct marketing. In 1993 Lieber invented the open-closed switcher, telecommunications hardware that brings a digital function, the ability to send back a busy signal to excess calls to call centers using analog lines.

A contributing author on call centers to three books including the college textbook Readings and Cases in Integrated Marketing Communications, Lieber has been published or quoted by most major trade publications, including Advertising Age, Card Marketing, Catalog Success, Direct, DM News and TeleProfessional (now Customer Interface). He frequently speaks on contact center topics at the annual conferences of DMA and the American Teleservices Association (ATA).

Lieber is a voting member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants and is certified by Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality as a call center auditor. He is a past recipient of ATA’s TelPro - Teleprofessional of the Year Award, Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year, and Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s (CADM) Towards the 22nd Century Award.

Neil Feinstein

Director of Creative Strategy, True North

Vice Chair, DMA International ECHO Awards

As the director of creative strategy at True North, Feinstein’s impressive client roster includes Pitney Bowes, Disney Visa, ThomasNet.com, Couristan Carpets, the Growing Family Club, and various divisions of the Disney Corporation.

Prior to his post at True North, Feinstein served as the vice president of creativity at the former Bigfoot Interactive where he designed e-mail marketing programs for Calvin Klein Fragrances, MCI, World Wildlife Fund, and Alitalia.

As partner and creative director at Bozell (now Lowe), he worked on multichannel campaigns for The New York Times, Datek Online (now Ameritrade), Merrill Lynch, and FEMA.

In addition to serving as vice chair of DMA’s International ECHO Awards committee and a member of DMA’s Ethics Operations Committee, Feinstein lectures around the country on multichannel marketing, integrated advertising, and creative strategy. He has written articles for DM News, Target Marketing, and Proof. He holds a Master Degree in direct and interactive marketing from New York University.

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