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Latest News
Online auction data released for direct mail targeting
eBay has licenced data on 140 million UK transactions to Royal Mail to support targeting at postcode level by propensity to buy. The eBay market data provides anonymous, aggregated information on purchase history, products bought and levels of spend through the Royal Mail Insight Tool, developed with Advanced Ecommerce Research Systems.
Lastminute.com books profitable customers
Online travel and leisure retailer Lastminute.com is enhancing its customer lifecycle marketing through a managed solution supplied by SmartFocus. The goal is to drive customer relationships as well as react to interactions by the 1.65 million visitors to the site each week.
Leader
Privacy can not be counted
Ever since the publication last week by the ICO of its “Privacy Dividend” report, I have been having discussions with data professionals about what impact it will have. Just as asking two lawyers will give you three different opinions, so many in the data industry can not look at a piece of good work without finding something bad about it.
Behind the News
Favourite to succeed at online gaming giant
Combining a passion for sports with a love of data adds up to a dream job at Betfair for Antony Lea. As David Reed discovers, enthusiasm may be essential in a fast-growing business, but so too is keeping a sense of perspective on life
Super-user who helps data and IT co-operate
John Halpin is at the heart of the major change programme within The Co-Operative Financial Services. As it moves into a new future, he explains to David Reed how personal and career history combine to make the job possible.

Opinion
Hard times bring suppression to the fore
I think I can safely say that the last 12 to 18 months have been difficult for most businesses. At the beginning of the downturn, SPA members were largely optimistic about the future and not without good reason - it’s entirely logical to surmise that suppression would boom in a downturn.
Is data sexy at last?
No less a magazine than The Economist has featured a special report on managing information in the current edition.
Features
360-Degree view without going blind
It is easy to be convinced that marketing needs to see every piece of data about a customer in its database. As David Reed finds out, the single marketing view should be about what works and delivers value, not what IT thinks is appropriate..
Predictions for better marketing
The difference between best-in-class marketers and the laggards when it comes to customer acquisition can be as much as a factor of 43. On customer retention, the performance differential is a factor of 10.5. Those dramatic findings have emerged from research carried out by Aberdeen Group, sponsored by Neolane, into Offer Optimisation: Using customer analytics to improve marketing performance.
ROI is Good. But is ROC better?
Marketing knows that it has to deliver in the short term, even when campaigns are focused more on building customer loyalty and brand experience. So could a shift to new metrics help to prove that it is doing both, asks David Reed.
Case Study
Fresh, quality data at Iceland Foods
To support the roll out of its loyalty card, Iceland needed to improve data quality in its single customer view. By implementing a new solution, it has been able to improve business and marketing performance and enhance customer service.



