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JUNE 2007 - From Where I'm Standing

By Keith Norris

As published in DLB #66 May/June Issue

This issue of DLB is all about retention.  If you’re a business owner and marketer it’s about revenue retention and customer retention.  If you’re an agency, it’s about client retention.  And if you’re into data, it’s about information retention.  So where does retention fit into my working life?  Well, a good 40% of my time is now devoted to political and regulatory affairs – retention of the right to communicate with our customers and prospects.  The better I do this part of my job, the more likely we are to retain you as a member of the Marketing Association.

To illustrate what I’m talking about, here’s a snapshot of my activities over a two-week period early in May:

• To Wellington – appeared before Select Committee to present our submission on the Major Events Management Bill.  This is particularly relevant if you advertise on radio, television, billboards or the via the mailbox within the area of a major event like the Rugby World Cup.  If you’re a sponsor of the event, you’ll want your exclusivity protected, but if you’re a business in that area, you’ll want to be sure you can carry on your normal activities.

• Met with publishers of the NZ Guide to the Law for Sales & Marketing to assist in the compilation of their next publication.  As a marketer, you might want to do some personal research when you devise a new promotion or campaign (plug here for the MA – you can, of course, always call us for advice.)

• Meeting with members of the eMarketing Network executive to discuss the concept of a New Zealand “white list”.  This concept would involve the creation of a register of approved email marketers to avoid the indiscriminate black-listing of spam monitors like Mail Marshal. 

• To Wellington again – all day meeting with the Law Commission, headed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer.  The discussion focused on privacy.  Interesting to note that of the 30-odd people invited to participate, there were only two or three other people representing business and they were either lawyers or compliance officers.  Yours truly was probably the only person with a commercial/marketing background.

• Met with newly-independent Yellow Pages Group; discussed ‘scraping’ – the practice of plagiarising content from websites, etc.  

• Prepared submission for the Select Committee responsible for the passage of the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationship Registration Amendment Bill.  The bit we’re interested in, of course, is access to the Deaths Register for the maintenance of accurate data.

• To Wellington (yet again!) – presented the new anti-spam legislation to the Wellington members of the Data Advisory Network (DAN).  Met with Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages to discuss our ongoing access to the Deaths Register.

• Still in Wellington – interviews with Radio New Zealand National and TV3 News to talk about the Name Removal Register.  Australia has passed new legislation creating a Government-run Name Removal Register covering unsolicited telemarketing calls.  Do we want similar legislation here?  I suspect our call centre members would not see that in a positive light!

• Met with Chairman and Executive Director of the Advertising Standards Authority. I’m chairing an industry committee to set up a code of practice for alcohol marketing.  Although we have an excellent code for advertising, there are no guidelines for merchandising, sponsorship and packaging.

• Back in Auckland – met with Northern DAN group to present the anti-spam legislation.

• Interview with “Campbell Live” to discuss data privacy.  Privacy is becoming a really hot topic again.

The freedom to communicate our brands, products and services is very precious.  There are dozens of vociferous pressure groups who seek to regulate the way we tell our marketing stories.  One of the most important aspects of my job is to help you retain the right to communicate with your customers in a responsible, meaningful way.  Sounds dull, but happily it’s a part of my role that I really enjoy!