Issued by: DMASA


This is a valuable opportunity for South African direct marketers to get benchmarked against global standards and best practice. Finalists in this year's Assegai Awards will be judged by three leading figures in the international direct marketing space - Andy Owen, DM UK, Alastair Tempest, FEDMA and Pieter van den Busken, Interdirect Network (IDN). The participation of the three judges will be enabled via a remote panel facilitated through the Assegais website - www.assegaiawards.co.za.

Another coup for the Assegai Awards is the partnership with the DMA US whereby all winners in the Assegai Awards will automatically go through to the second of the three judging tiers of the Echo Awards. The DMA International ECHO Awards Competition honours the world's best direct marketing campaigns - campaigns that have raised the bar in terms of strategy, creativity and results. ECHOs are judged by client-side marketers, agency account directors, and senior creatives. The competition began in 1929 as the "Best in Direct Mail" contest. As interest grew, and business expanded, it was changed in 1979 to encompass all types of media in the entire direct marketing spectrum. Today, ECHO is the longest established international award that honours excellence in direct marketing. Entries are evaluated on creativity, marketing strategy, and response results. Every year, over 1,000 entries are submitted for the International ECHO Awards from all over the world. Participating judges came from cities across the United States, as well as from UK, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

Please visit www.assegaiawards.co.za for further information and to submit your entries or alternatively contact the Assegai Awards office on 011 894 2767 or e-mail info@assegaiawards.co.za for more information.


About Andy Owen
Andy Owen is a senior figure in the International communications industry, specifically in the area of direct marketing, in which he has worked for over 25 years. Andy Owen & Associates is his own International direct marketing consultancy with Head Office in Birmingham UK and country offices in Dubai, Bucharest and Moscow. He regularly presents conferences, seminars, workshops and training sessions on all aspects of contemporary direct marketing all over the world and travels over 100,000 miles a year in this respect. He works for the DMA and the Institute Of Direct Marketing in the UK and writes a monthly feature on copywriting called Copycat for the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also speaks regularly for the International Advertising Association. Andy is a highly respected contributor to several international marketing and advertising publications, including Admap, Marketing Week, Gulf Marketing Review, Direct Response, Direct Marketing Week, Direct Marketing International, Precision Marketing, AdAsia and Adline. He is the author of a groundbreaking new DVD on copywriting, called “How To Write Copy That Really Sells”.


About Alastair Tempest
Alastair Tempest was appointed director general of the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA) in 1999. He had been director general for public affairs and self-regulation at FEDMA since the inception of the federation in April 1997. He has made his career in European public affairs strategy and commercial communications policy in Brussels. Prior to his work at FEDMA, Alastair was director of European relations at Reader's Digest; and previously director general of the European Advertising Tripartite (an umbrella grouping of advertisers, advertising agencies and the media). He was also director of external affairs for the European Association of Advertising Agencies. He started his career in London with the Confederation of British Industry and subsequently worked for Independent Television. He is a board member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance and a member of the management committee of the Universal Postal Union's Consultative Committee. He serves on the editorial boards of many international advertising and marketing publications, including the International Journal of Advertising, and is a regular columnist for Direct Marketing International. He was elected a member of the UK DMA's Roll of Honour in 2008.


About Pieter van den Busken
Pieter is the Executive Chairman of the InterDirect Network, an International Network of Independent Direct Marketing Agencies covering 43 countries all over the world. Pieter started his Direct Marketing career in 1958 in the graphic design and advertising world in Holland. In 1961 he started his own creative graphic design and advertising art studio in Amsterdam. Soon this creative studio became one of the biggest art work suppliers for advertising agencies and advertisers. In the late 60's a lot of mail order companies started on the Dutch market, like Time Life Books, Berthelsmann, Les 3 Suisses and many book clubs, later followed by US mail order companies like Franklin Mint, Bradford Exchange and others. Already in 1988 Pieter van den Busken, and some of his European DM agencies colleagues, recognised the importance and challenges for the future of international Direct Marketing and established the Interdirect Network - a unique concept of independent direct marketing agencies as entrepreneurial enterprises connected together to exchange the latest international direct marketing business information and business opportunities. Pieter has presented worldwide at congresses and universities, from Canada to Australia and from Finland to Kazakhstan. In the past 40 years Pieter had many functions in the national and international direct marketing industry, like the Dutch DMA and board member of Edma and Fedma in Brussels. He was a jury member for the DMA Echo and Best of Europe and many others. Peter is also a Director of the Direct marketing agency Connexions, the InterDirect Russia member in Moscow. Pieter has been the Executive Chairman of the InterDirect Network since 2002.

Visit our PRESS OFFICE: The Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) has made tremendous progress in mobilising the industry after the dissolution of the MFSA. Initially falling under the MFSA structure, the DMA established itself as an independent body in November 2005 representing not only direct marketers, but with a focus on the consumer too.- more....

[5 Sep 2008 11:07]

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