Reflected Glory

I just had an e-mail from Julie Pitts at Direct Marketing Network (DMN) announcing that the Houston-based agency had won big at the recent international MarCom Creative Awards competition.

According to its sponsoring organization, the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, this competition has grown to perhaps the largest of its kind in the world. The competition is so well thought of in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants. The winners range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 50 companies – and at least one energetic and growing agency here in Houston. (Example: this past December, DMN was selected by American Airlines Federal Credit Union as its direct marketing agency.)

DMN-created campaigns for clients Kraton Polymers, Reliant Energy and Advanced Data Exchange were chosen from more than 5,000 entries in this year’s competition. A website for Kraton and a direct mail campaign for Reliant Energy went “Platinum.” The Advanced Data Exchange sales promotion kit won a Gold Award.

And two direct mailers for Reliant Energy, conceived by DMN’s Charles Eldred and yours truly, were Gold Award winners as well. One of the Reliant pieces, “Alarm,” is pictured above – a clever use of an everyday object, I think.

My thanks to Principal Pam Lockard, Charles Eldred, Shannon Rasberry, John LaCour and all the other DMN-ers for giving me a chance to bask in their glory, reflected in the shiny finish of the agency’s newly gained MarCom award statues.

Photograph © 2007 Direct Marketing Network. All rights reserved. With thanks.