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February 22 2008 Precision Marketing 13
Profile
Shooting from the lip
Sara Kimberley
Charles Ping
Never afraid to speak his mind, the
former DMA (UK) chief ruffled a few
feathers with his comments about
the future of the MPS. Now Ai look
‘‘
Everyone has to
set to benefit from his experience
be wary of the
environmental
C
harles Ping may have shocked a few
with his assertion that the Mailing Pref- aspects and
erence Service could be “buggered” if
the funding crisis is not resolved (PM Febru- question the
ary 8), but no-one can question that the for-
mer DMA (UK) chairman, and member of validity of direct
the Advertising Board of Finance, is well
placed to see the potential threat. Charles Ping mail that uses
It is no doubt that this straight talking, ‘The problem now is the amount of data you can generate from any website is phenomenal’
and his knowledge of customer data – he resources and
spent 14 years at The Guardian, most
recently as head of CRM – triggered his After six years, Ping left the FT to move cerns is also vital. He reckons this can be gets a low
appointment as client services director at to News International as insert manager. A achieved through segmentation, to combat
Ai Data Intelligence (Ai) (PM January 25). year later, he moved again, leaving a diffi- fears over companies’ carbon footprint. response rate
Like many in this sector, Ping stumbled cult working environment behind him, and He says: “Everyone has to be wary of the
into direct marketing by accident, origi- spotted an opportunity at The Guardian. environmental aspects and question the
nally planning to make a name for himself Starting as insert manager, Ping’s even- validity of direct mail that uses resources
in the steel industry after studying for a tually headed up The Guardian’s ventures and gets a low response rate.”
micro-structural engineering degree at division, which included brand extensions However, Ping believes the recent initia-
‘‘
Sheffield Hallam University. and reader offers. In 2005, he took on the tive undertaken by Central Office of Infor-
His best laid plans were put to the sword, additional roles of DMA chairman and mation (COI) to only work with suppliers
however, as, in the early Eighties, the head of the SmartFocus User Group. which can demonstrate their green cre-
British steel industry was suddenly not the At Ai, he will be responsible for creating dentials, will become the norm within 12
place to launch a glittering career. So, he and driving forward a comprehensive cus- months.
started out on what has become a well trod- tomer services strategy as well as assisting “The whole concept of marketing is
den path for graduates – a career in sales. Ai in the development of its digital services. about segmentation and what drives seg-
At the time, like most publications, the But Ping recognises the industry faces mentation is data. The future of all mar-
Financial Times (FT). employed a blanket major challenges. He comments: “The prob- keting is around segmentation and how
marketing strategy, and it was widely lem now is the amount of data you can gen- you manage it. If you get that right, every-
acceptable to mail the whole of the Electoral erate from any website is phenomenal. The thing else will fall into place,” he says.
Roll. He recalls: “Targeting was a strange future of data will be about managing vast Yet he is no archetypal data geek. Away
concept and databases were rarely inte- quantities of data and getting better at from work, Ping splits his time between his
grated, except for a few mail order compa- combining different sets of data to predict family and restoring vintage cars – his cur-
nies, such as Great Universal Stores (GUS). an outcome. People will have to have the rent projects include two Fiats and an
They were at the cutting edge of how to do skills in analysis and modelling to make Austin dating back to the Thirties.
things and the early days of data being the the best out of data to make a difference.” A data man who likes getting his hands
critical exponent of direct marketing.” Using data to aid environmental con- dirty? Who could argue against that…
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