As reported in the Breaking News section on ARGI's home page today, Acuity has been selected by Business Valuation Resources (BVR) as their new audience management system. BVR is a fast growing publisher of newsletters, guides, books and websites for financial and consulting professionals involved in determining the value of companies. Both CEO David Foster and President Lucretia Lyons were highly laudatory in the comments regarding ARGI in general and Acuity in particular. In the words of one industry executive who reacted to the press release, "you should put these comments on the side of buses!" Great suggestion!

All the best,

Ray

On November 17th ARGI hosted a symposium for consultants who serve the publishing industry. This informative seminar, which was held at ARGI's New York offices, focused on the changes sweeping the publishing industry and ARGI's response to those forces. The session brought together consultants that specialize in circulation, subscription fulfillment, marketing and on-line content monetization.

The agenda included presentations by both me and Geoff Scott, ARGI Chief Technology Officer. The highlight of the day was a detailed demonstration of Acuity by Idania Hernandez, Senior Sales Engineer. The demonstration showed the capabilities of the Publisher Portal and Audience Facing Features. A key benefit for users is the extreme ease of use and intuitive navigation that has been built into Acuity. Moreover, Acuity's ability to facilitate reader engagement with content and permit publishers to monetization those interactions was also shown.

Attendees were very complimentary of Acuity features and agreed that the day was a real learning experience for them.

All the Best,

Ray

Sunita Kishnani of Diaspark visiting the ARGI Acuity engineering team and ARGI CEO, Ray Butkus, in NJ. The Acuity team, including product development and Diaspark team members not pictured, has met every delivery milestone in the last 3 years on-time, on-scope, and under budget. This team rocks!

I remember well when Veterans Day was always a real holiday. I'm not referring to the fact that banks and the Post Offices are closed on the second Monday of November. I am referring to today, November 11th, the day that was once called Armistice Day or what is known as Remembrance Day in the UK and much of Europe.

Armistice Day was created by an act of Congress in 1926 to commemorate the end of hostilities of World War I. That act was amended in 1954 to recognize the service of all veterans. Somehow with the creation of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971 this important day has lost much of its significance. I wonder how many Americans know the significance of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month? I wonder how many will visit a cemetery, attend a memorial service or do anything special to mark this day.

In the UK nearly everyone wears a red poppy today and for several weeks leading up to today.
It is simple way of remembering those that served and saying thanks to those that are still serving. Most do not do that in this country, and I fear that many do not understand the significance of the poppy or why it is worn. Perhaps if you watch this video you will have a simple way of saying thanks to a service man or women.

All the Best,

Ray

The New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies deserve hardy congratulations for a very well played World Series. There managers, Joe Girardi and Charlie Manuel, both have the acuity to bring different personalities, temperament and egos, into one group of men playing baseball as a team. Both teams do have some large personalities and egos to assuage.

I always liked baseball watching a game, whether it is a professional game or the local little league. Each player focused on what they have to do for the team to win; of course with the young players watching them watch a butterfly in the outfield is just as much fun as seeing Mariano Riveria or Cliff Lee pitch; or Hideki Matsui and Chase Utley hit the ball. The coaches watching their players and developing the strengths of each member so they play to their potential. The strategy of when to steal a base or when not to comes with studying the timing of a pitch; its follow through and how far a lead you can get before being noticed by the pitcher and catcher.

Lead Generation , Audience Development and Database Marketing are similar in some respects. Publishers in today's market need tools that will bring in advertising, work with subscription fulfillment and database management of their audience. ARGI Focus, ARGI Acuity and ARGI Insight work in that capacity. ARGI Focus and ARGI Focus HD will attract advertisers to your publications for its ability in lead generation. ARGI Acuity with a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, can enrich publisher’s relationship with the audience, regardless of media type. ARGI Insight, our Database Marketing Solution, can handle your most challenging querying, segmenting, reporting and analytic tasks.

At this year's annual convention in San Diego DMA's President John Grecco said in his keynote address that "data and analytics are the DNA of the DMA". Perhaps better said, data and analytics are the DNA of DM. While this is true in every aspect of direct marketing, it is especially true in the specialized area of subscription fulfillment and circulation management of magazines, journals and newsletters.

What exactly did Grecco mean when he said the DNA of DM? Wikipedia, that font of all contemporary wisdom, tells us that Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. The main role of DNA is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells.

Great metaphor for the data in DM! As I have written before on this blog, I consider data to be holy grail of direct marketing. As consumers become more sophisticated and their choice options proliferate, it is absolutely critical that marketers understand their audience as deeply as they possibly can. Data is indeed the blueprint for so doing. In the not too distant past data meant: demographics (address, age, income, home ownership, et al); response (surveys, warranty cards, et al) and if one was lucky, behavior (POS purchase). These are all still important, indeed essential, but today's marketer has a far more vast array of data in which they must be interested. On-line interactions with content and merchandise yield behavioral data far richer than ever available in the past. Preference or inclination data is available both on an actual and inferred basis. Knowing how these data elements interact to drive consumption is what marketing science is all about. It also requires powerful tools.

Before data can be acted upon it requires the necessary systems to collect, store and analyse it. Attention must be given to what and how it is collected, as simple issues like data field layout and record formats can, if not properly and carefully defined and implemented, become major problems for the marketer.

I've said it before Data is King, and like all royalty it requires a castle and the proper attendants. Ask yourself if the royal household is in order and are all the Ladies and Lords in Waiting properly attired.

All the best,

Ray