Battle to protect bereaved wins awards

MARKETING consultancy Millennium has won two national awards for its campaign to help prevent direct mail being sent to the deceased.

Shipley-based Millennium said 670,488 letters were sent to the deceased in Leeds alone last year.

Millennium says these letters can cause enormous grief to bereaved relatives.

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The two awards were for the PRCA's Best Business To Business Campaign in 2009 and Best Public Relations Campaign at the Business to Business Marketing Awards.

Jo Bell, Millennium's commercial director, said: "We are honoured to have been awarded such a high accolade – especially when competing with London and the rest of the UK. We are proud that our efforts to raise awareness of and reduce the quantity of direct mail sent to deceased people has been recognised."

Millennium holds exclusive rights to market Mortascreen, a service that ensures that the names of the deceased are swiftly removed from direct marketing mailing lists.

Mortascreen is based around a database of over eight million individuals with up to 50,000 new records being added each month.

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It is licensed for direct mail suppression purposes and has over 2,000 customers including Aviva, Centrica & Prudential

Millennium's parent company the Direct Marketing Group, which is Yorkshire's biggest marketing company, recently announced a big jump in profits, thanks to its focus on niche areas such as the older generation.

The company announced a 53 per cent leap in profits to 2.6m in the year to June 30.

Millennium specialises in the over-50s market.

The Direct Marketing Group said it had managed to boost its full-year profit figures by focusing on "recession-proof" markets. Another key factor has been the performance of market-leading products such as Mortascreen.

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The group's success has come at a time when many Yorkshire marketing agencies have gone to the wall.

Martin Smith, chief executive of the Direct Marketing Group, said: "With the decline of agencies such as WWAV North and Poulters, the Direct Marketing Group is one of very few in the Yorkshire scene who have continued to prosper."

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