04/12/2011
DirectSmile wins silver GWA production award for innovations in production processes
Leading supplier of variable data printing and cross-media marketing software, DirectSmile, was presented with the Silver GWA (German Association of Advertising Agencies) Production Award for 'Innovations in Production Processes' at the award ceremony held last week at digi:media, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Berlin, 12th April 2011 - Leading supplier of variable data printing and cross-media marketing software, DirectSmile, was presented with the Silver GWA (German Association of Advertising Agencies) Production Award for 'Innovations in Production Processes' at the award ceremony held last week at digi:media, Düsseldorf, Germany.
The GWA Production Awards have been running for seven years and honour the complexity of today's media production process as a whole. DirectSmile Cross Media - an integrated software solution designed to enable personalisation of marketing materials across all communication platforms, including print, SMS, email and URL websites - was the product recognised for this prestigious award.
"We are especially proud to have received this acknowledgement from the advertising industry," said Christoph Clermont, CTO, DirectSmile, "DirectSmile Cross Media is designed to make data-driven campaigns easy to produce and deliver, while at the same time, maintaining freedom for creativity."
In particular, it was Cross Media's capacity to create highly targeted e-mailings and personalised URLs (PURLs), without specialist support and without prior knowledge of HTML that caught the judges' attention.
Michael Stickel, General Manager Services, Wunderman, and jury chairman of the finalists and winners in 2011 was recently quoted as saying, "Creativity and innovation, attention to detail, care in execution - the GWA Production Award takes into account all aspects that are necessary for successful communication in today's world. It shows that the modern media production process is more than the timely implementation and delivery of a brochure or a mailing. Production is in the ideal case, a catalyst, that makes the communication idea for the consumer faster, more entertaining, vivid and easier to understand - no matter in which channel."
The award was presented to DirectSmile during digi:media where the company was showcasing its latest solutions, including Cross Media's new locr Maps application. Offering yet another ground-breaking personalisation function to drive effective marketing campaigns, the locr maps application enables marketers to include personalised maps in direct mail and email shots.
Franziska Müller, Marketing Manager, DirectSmile, commented, "The tool opens up new possibilities for B2C communication. Direct mail pieces in print and online can now include maps that show individual access routes from the recipient's address to the local branch of the company being advertised or the event being promoted.
"This extra detail makes the call to action even easier for the recipient, potentially driving higher response rates and ultimately, increased return on investment for the brand. It is this kind of forward-thinking approach that we hope will continue to provide DirectSmile with similar recognition from the advertising and marketing industries, as we received from the GWA last week."