Email Experience Council Launches Email Performance Award

To Be Presented at Email Evolution Conference in San Diego on Feb. 13;

eec’s Award to Recognizes Superior Results in Email Marketing

New York, NY, November 14, 2007 — The Email Experience Council (eec), the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) email marketing arm, today announced its call for entries for the eec’s first award competition recognizing email marketing excellence. Chosen directly by eec members, the Email Performance Award will be presented to an individual or organization that has created an email marketing campaign that demonstrates the full power of the channel.

According to Jeanniey Mullen, eec founder and senior partner, executive director of Global Email and Digital Dialogue at OgilvyOne worldwide, “This award marks an exciting milestone for the Email Experience Council. Not only is it evidence of how our efforts have grown, but it’s a demonstration of the eec’s commitment to approaching every email effort with integrity and passion. We remain focused on ensuring that the email channel maintains its stronghold as a marketing and branding vehicle.”

“The winning campaign,” Mullen continued, “will provide further evidence of email’s unsurpassed return on investment and ability to build long-lasting and mutually-valuable consumer relationships.”

Commenting on the award, Michael Della Penna, eec executive co-chair and chief marketing officer at Epsilon, said, “our awards program offers email marketers a unique opportunity to showcase the best-in-class strategies, design, and tactics that make them successful. We look forward to recognizing the brands that lead by example, and hope they provide inspiration to others seeking to further leverage the power of the email channel in their marketing mix.”

Entries will be evaluated for their marketing strategy, creative components, and, most importantly, results. Permission-based email marketing campaigns from any industry vertical — including B-to-B, B-to-C, nonprofit, education, etc.— are eligible for entry into the award competition as long as results described have been achieved within the last 12 months.

Nominations close on Monday, December 10, 2007. For more details about submission guidelines and entry forms, click here.

The members of the eec will select the winner from among the Email Performance Award finalists, which will be determined by the eec’s leadership and announced in mid-January. The winner will receive free admission to the Email Evolution Conference at the Sheraton Hotel & Marina in San Diego, where the Email Performance Award will be officially presented on February 13, 2008.

The winner of the Email Performance Award will also be placed into the semi-finals of the Direct Marketing Association’s International ECHO Awards. Since 1929, the ECHO Awards, which are presented each October, have recognized the world’s outstanding multichannel direct marketing campaigns based on excellence in strategy, creativity, and results.

“Email has emerged as a powerful marketing channel,” said DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, Ph.D. “In addition to providing immediacy and being uniquely flexible to marketers’ changing needs, email is generating impressive results in terms of sales and charitable fundraising. In fact, according to recent DMA research, each marketing dollar spent on email this year is forecast to generate a return of $48.56, which is more than any other of the direct marketing channels that we measure. Given this overall level of performance, we anticipate that the eec’s Email Performance Award finalists and ultimate winner will have produced truly remarkable results.”

For additional information about eec membership or its new Email Performance Award, please contact Ali Swerdlow, eec’s Marketing & Sponsorship Manager, at ali@emailexperience.org or 888.804.4521, ext. 3.

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About the Email Experience Council (eec)

The Email Experience Council (eec) (www.emailexperience.org), the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) vertical working group that is focused on the email marketing industry, is a global professional organization striving to enhance the image of email marketing and communications, while celebrating and advocating its importance in business, and its ROI value. The eec is committed to regularly conducting a broad series of email initiatives for a variety of organizations that highlight the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle, and branding device. Additionally, eec members are setting the standards for email through Marketing Roundtables. The eec members are representatives of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients, and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents nearly 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2007, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — are forecast to spend $173.2 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures will generate approximately $2.025 trillion in incremental sales. In 2007, direct marketing will account for 10.2 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also, there are today 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US alone. Their collective sales efforts directly support nearly 9.0 million other jobs. That accounts for 10.6 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

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