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Learn a few secret techniques that only AVI Digital has discovered. If you get a chance, take one of our free Mini-Seminars or attend our Powerhouse DM BootCamp, and you'll learn many examples of these Tricks, Tips and Secrets. We also have a Free DVD mini-seminar on Direct Marketing, available FREE.

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Direct Marketing and Ad Agencies: Our experiences with a variety of Ad Agencies' styles. Remember that our focus is as a SALES PROMOTION company. 

Canadian Airlines International     

For Canadian Airlines, a billion-dollar company, we worked side-by-side with McKim Advertising Agency - one of Canada's top Ad Agencies. McKim understood our expertise and worked wonderfully with us. Often we would follow their lead with a style and purpose that matched their existing advertising campaigns. It worked very well.  Other times, we would start on a Direct Mail campaign and have it wrapped up before the Ad Agency had even started on their Media campaign.  In those cases, we shared our thoughts and ideas with McKim and they chose to use it or not, at their option. There was surprisingly little overlap between our Sales Promotions and McKim's Advertising. When we created their Frequent Flyer Campaign, and Canadian Airlines was awarded the "Marketer of the Year Award" by Sales & Marketing Executives of BC, both ourselves and McKim were given credit for our substantial contributions.   

To see the full story on Canadian Airlines - see our Case Studies. Click here:

To see the Canadian Airlines Frequent Flyer Progam, click this button:

To see a case study of the Canadian Airlines Air Cargo Campaign, click here:

BC Telephone Company (now called Telus)

At BC Telephone, we worked directly with the client for hundreds of campaigns and seldom ever had contact directly with their Ad Agency, Baker-Lovick - an excellent Ad Agency. That was the client's choice.  On budget-conscious campaigns, we usually won out over the Ad Agency because we could better match the campaign to the available budget. 

Our Campaigns for BC Telephone usually drew very successful response rates of 22 to 26%. BC Tel never shared the response rate information with us, until one day they asked if we'd enter some of their campaigns into the DMA Awards. In the contest entry they publicly admitted that they usually received a response rate of 2 to 4% from other Direct Marketing firms, but ours typically drew 22 to 26%. 

 See some of those campaigns:

Working with a US Direct Marketing Agency as their Canadian Partner

Smith-Hemmings-Gosden of Los Angeles, now Foote, Cone & Belding Direct, used our company for years, where they would supply completed or semi-completed artwork and ideas to us.  We would then complete the details, such as printing, lists and lettershop, and we dealt directly with their clients on almost all campaigns. They were a very competent Direct Marketing Agency, and the fact that their entire company was bought up by Foote, Cone & Belding, shows their excellent caliber. We were proud to be selected by them for coordinating their Canadian business. Our joint work with SHG with clients like Uniglobe, Bell Ontario & Bell Quebec gave us tremendous experience dealing with Large Companies and Telco's.

Working with an Agency, where we handled the details   

Creative House Ad Agency was handling the Advertising Account for DHL Couriers.  DHL is/was the largest international courier company in the world, larger than FedEx at the time. Creative House simply told us what they wanted, and we looked after the Direct Mail details. They accepted our input, and we accepted their direction and final decisions. When the Project won a major Award, we remained invisible, so the Agency got full credit.

See a Case Study of this B2B Direct Mail Campaign that we did for DHL Worldwide Express: Click  

What if you already have an Advertising Agency?
We work well with Ad Agencies - their focus is usually upon advertising alone. Ad Agencies are good at Branding & Advertising. At AVI Digital, we focus our attention directly on SALES PROMOTION, of which most ad agencies have little experience, skills or history. We specialize in this one area, and quite frankly - we’re good at it. We find companies fresh sales and produce sales leads. 

What if you're not happy with your Current Ad Agency?
Ad Agencies tend to be specialists in Advertising. AVI Digital Direct Marketing is a specialist in Business Marketing & Sales. If you're calling us because you're not entirely happy with your Ad Agency, then consider whether we're going to working with them either. If this is the case, you might be better off dealing directly with us. In many cases, the layers of management which are supposed to serve the boss, actually interfere with the boss' intentions.  We prefer to report directly to the top - direct is best.

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