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Marketing League Table: Direct marketing leagues

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Direct mail is unlikely to shed its 'junk' tag anytime soon. The fact that 21% of mailings are immediately discarded, unopened, by the recipient illustrates that the industry must clean up its act. However, as more agencies look to alternative channels, principally digital, to communicate effectively on behalf of clients, an imaginative mix will help.

Direct marketing: Direct marketing leagues

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Mailings are under pressure, but opportunities in digital and data are buoying the direct industry. Amanda Nottage and David Tiltman report.

Direct marketing league tables detect shift to digital

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:00:00 GMT

LONDON - In the past 12 months there has been an acceleration in the shift in focus by direct marketing agencies from mail to digital work, according to Marketing's exclusive league table of direct marketing agencies.

TELEMARKETING LEAGUE TABLES: Budget cuts affect agencies' fortunes - Telemarketing research shows that economic slowdown has affected many bureaus, but the gloomy picture is not universal.(2 of 2)

Thu, 11 Apr 2002 00:00:00 GMT

TOP TEN FOR GROWTH - LARGE BUREAUS (OVER POUNDS 10M TURNOVER) Rank Agency Turnover 2001 Turnover 2000 % chng (pounds) (pounds) 1 Garlands Call Centres 12,300,000 5,700,000 115.79 2 Telecom Service Centres 26,176,000 15,171,000 72.54 3 iSKY Europe 12,050,000 9,300,000 29.57 4 ICT Group 14,000,000 10,857,000 28.95 5 7C 45,000,000 35,000,000 28.57 6 Contact 24 26,800,000 22,500,000 19.1 7 MM Group 20,500,000 17,500,000 17.14 8 BPS Teleperformance 12,719,000 11,000,000 15.63 9 Prolog 32,132,000 28,561,000 12.50 10 Serco Online Services 14,501,000 13,697,000 5.87 TOP TEN FOR GROWTH - SMALLER BUREAUS (UNDER POUNDS 10M TURNOVER) Rank Agency Turnover 2001 Turnover 2000 % chng (pounds) (pounds) 1 Kingston incontact 4,587,000 1,254,000 265.79 2 Telegen UK 5,945,000 1,853,000 220.83 3 Callpoint Europe 2,850,000 1,200,000 137.50 4 Inkfish Call Centres 8,800,000 3,770,000 133.42 5 The Listening Company 8,400,000 3,700,000 127.03 6 Response Handling 8,300,000 4,000,000 107.50 7 Telecorp 5,336,000 2,597,000 105.47 8 Financial Telemktg Servs 2,951,000 1,500,000 96.73 9 Telebusiness Partners 223,000 131,300 69.84 10 Telescope UK 4,407,000 2,600,000 69.50 AGENCIES 1-56 Rank Agency Turnover 2001 Turnover 2000 % chng (pounds) (pounds) 1 Vertex 159,400,000 155,900,000 2.25 2 Ventura 101,250,000 123,300,000 -17.88 3 Sitel 53,200,000 66,612,000 -20.20 4 7C 45,000,000 35,000,000 28.57 5 Merchants 42,404,000 63,050,000 -32.75 6 Broadsystem 37,558,000 38,674,000 -2.89 7 Prolog 32,132,000 28,561,000 12.50 8 Thus 27,519,000 29,140,000 -5.56 9 Contact 24 (was 26,800,000 22,500,000 19.11 Brann Contact) 10 Telecom Service 26,176,000 15,171,000 72.54 Centres 11 MM Group 20,500,000 17,500,000 17.14 12 CPM 20,015,000 19,025,000 5.20 13 Voice Media 16,634,000 15,922,000 4.47 14 Serco Online Servs 14,501,000 13,697,000 5.87 15 ICT Group 14,000,000 10,857,000 28.95 16 BPS Teleperformance 12,719,000 11,000,000 15.63 17 Garlands Call Centres 12,300,000 5,700,000 115.79 18 iSKY Europe 12,050,000 9,300,000 29.57 19 Telecom Express 9,953,000 11,664,000 -14.67 20 Ant Marketing 9,000,000 5,900,000 52.54 21 Inkfish Call Centres 8,800,000...

AGENCY 2001: TELEMARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR - MMGroup. MM Group is set to join the upper echelon of UK agencies as it sees fantastic returns on its £4m per year investments

Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Telemarketing Agency of the Year is MM Group, which is steadily moving towards its goal of becoming one of the sector's biggest players. Growth in the sector has taken a dive this year, with the severe downturn in IT and telecoms causing particular problems. However, the Bristol-based bureau, which ranked 10th in Marketing's League Tables this year and increased its turnover by 80%, is more than holding its own. "This has been another phenomenal year for us and despite the general slowdown we are feeling very confident," comments operations director Stephanie Rouse. The bureau has acquired a number of clients, including TimeLife, ITV Digital, Capital One, and Floodline, a government helpline. It is continuing to invest at the rate of around 4m per year, doubling the capacity of the Ashby call centre it acquired from Omnicom last year to 400 seats. Its operation in Bangor, Northern Ireland, is being expanded to a similar size, together with support services. And the company has recently acquired a fourth call centre in Cardiff, in a particularly neat solution for another new client, Western Power Distribution. The utility, which provides energy for the west of England, recently acquired its rival Hyder, which supplies Wales. Although it normally prefers to outsource its marketing functions, it was aware that Hyder's 60-station call centre in Cardiff was a source of expertise that it should ideally exploit. It was also reluctant to make the staff of the centre redundant, a move that would bring damaging publicity. Total flexibility The dilemma was resolved when MM Group suggested that it take over the call centre and run it on Western's behalf. Because the lease was about to expire, the centre was moved to a building nearby, together with all its employees and much...

TELEMARKETING LEAGUE TABLES: Technology spurs call centre growth - Developments in e-CRM techniques have seen the telemarketing sector develop rapidly

Thu, 12 Apr 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Telemarketing continues to be one of the most dynamic sectors covered by Marketing's league tables in terms of growth. Alongside established players such as Carlson Marketing, some impressive performances from newcomers to the tables, such as Vertex, resulted in a combined turnover of the 53 companies featured here of pounds 793m - 51% up on last year, a significantly faster rate than the 29% rise achieved in 1999. A sign of the sector's strength is the rush to invest in call centres. Most of the leading companies set up new facilities last year or are in the process of doing so, while others further down the table are growing so fast they are doubling or trebling their capacity. Several newcomers expect to feature in next year's table, in some cases reporting multi-million-pound turnovers from a standing start. Perhaps the outstanding feature of the year's activity was multi-channel e-CRM, as telemarketers moved to provide the integrated facilities needed to meet customer expectations. E-mail handling and SMS text messaging grew significantly, and while take-up of web support services - 'collaborative browsing' and 'call-me buttons' - fell short of the hype, it too is expected to grow. Some companies also reported a shift from the phone to the internet when handling data capture and cleaning for business clients. Many bureaus are revamping themselves as multi-channel contact centres, distancing themselves from the association of low-cost commodity work that has become associated with the term call centre. Recruitment problems But with this growth, recruitment has become a worry. Estimates put the numbers employed in the call centre industry at more than 400,000, and in areas where activity is intense, such as Bristol and Glasgow, qualified candidates are hard to find. Several companies are also complaining about...