1          The next Direct Mail Advisory Board (DMAB) meeting will be held on 2 November here in Bern, Switzerland. The theme this time is “Convergence”, and the aim is to show trends and practical cases of the effective use of direct mail in conjunction with other media, including digital media. Confirmed speakers include Wunderman (one of the most important direct marketing agencies in the world), GMC Software, which provides solutions for transpromotional mail, and Ingemar Persson of PostEurop, the Association of 48 European public postal operators. We are about to confirm other speakers to present on hybrid direct mail and the integration of direct mail with other Internet tools. Participation in DMAB meetings is by invitation only, and all DMAB members have already been invited.

2          The DMAB is a group of designated postal operators and industry organizations, including private companies. Its mission is to "foster the growth of direct mail as a factor of economic and market expansion by increasing market knowledge and by developing the expertise of stakeholders at all levels". If you are not yet a DMAB member and wish to work with the UPU to accomplish the DMAB mission, you can apply for membership – for more information, including the DMAB Rules of Procedure, fees and the application form, please check our website: www.upu.int/dmab/en/index.shtml. All applications must be approved by the DMAB Assembly upon recommendation by the DMAB Steering Committee, before membership can become effective.

3       The United States’ Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is holding its annual conference and exhibition in San Diego, California, from 17 to 22 October this year. Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the UPU and the DMA earlier this year, a special rate is offered to postal professionals working for the designated operators of UPU member countries as well as their clients, when booking online. To register and benefit from this special discount, go to the conference website (www.dma09.org). To receive the special rate, simply enter UPU9 in the “discount code” box. No other discounts or reduced-rate pricing will be possible with this special UPU rate, but you can check for yourself: the discount is quite substantive! The US DMA is a member of the DMAB.

4       The DMAB is also an educational sponsor of the European Transpromo Summit, due to take place in Brussels on 6 and 7 October 2009. The conference is dedicated to all aspects of “transpromo” communications, i.e. a new, innovative form of communication that combines promotional and person­alized direct mail with transactional documents such as bills, statements and invoices. Its main purpose is to take advantage of the blank spaces in these documents to communicate marketing messages to cus­tomers. More information is available at www.transpromosummiteurope.com. In order to benefit from a special discount given to the DMAB (“Association pricing”), please insert DMAB2009 in the “Direct Mail Advisory Board Code” box. Xplor, which is part of the Summit’s organizing team, is a member of the DMAB.

5       On 12 October 2009, the Postal Users’ Group, the alliance of Europe’s largest users of postal services, will host the 2009 edition of the Postal Users’ Group Awards. At the event, next to the Awards Ceremony, a high level discussion and presentation will be organised. The event will bring together EU policy makers, government representatives as well as postal services users and regulators. The discussions will focus on the European postal market opening, competition, quality and the need for postal services to adapt to the new market conditions and to the new requirements of companies and consumers. Registrations are open until 1 October 2009. For more information and registration, please send an email to Razvan Antemir at the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (FEDMA), at rantemir@fedma.org. FEDMA is a member of the DMAB.

5       All subscribers of this “DMAB Update” newsletter received, on 26 August, an invitation to participate in a survey on transpromotional mail in Europe. Because the DMAB is one of the supporters of this survey, the Executive Summary of the study will be made available on the DMAB pages of the UPU website, next October.

6       If you are new to the DMAB Update, or if you are a long-term subscriber who has missed a few issues, may we point out that past DMAB Updates are regularly posted on our website, in English and in French. For the English versions, go to www.upu.int/dmab/en/news.shtml.

For more information about the DMAB, feel free to contact:

Ms Raquel Ferrari

Programme Manager

Direct Mail and Stakeholder Relations

Tel: +41 31 350 3534

Fax: +41 31 351 0266

E-mail: raquel.ferrari@upu.int    

Ms Abby Bossart

Assistant Project Manager, Direct Mail

Tel: +41 31 350 3593

Fax: +41 31 351 0266

E-mail: abby.bossart@upu.int

Universal Postal Union

3015 BERNE, SWITZERLAND