The award was launched in Scotland in 2005 in memory of John Young, former WWAV Rapp Collins Edinburgh managing director, who died last year at the age of just 38. John was recognised as one of direct marketing’s foremost practitioners and the DMA was keen to honour his achievements with an award which encourages young talent and a new generation of direct marketers.

The Young Spark Award is given to the most outstanding talent in direct marketing, aged under 30, from an agency, supplier or client company across digital, direct, interactive or mobile marketing. Following nominations, judges will draw up a shortlist of four finalists who will be invited to Edinburgh for an interview. The award will then be presented on 17 November at the DMA Scotland Ball.

Edinburgh-based Story, the UK’s best selling agency, will be launching the quest to find this year’s Young Spark with a viral email breaking on 8 September which will be sent to DMA’s 5,500 plus UK members.

Story’s brief is to generate over 100 nominations throughout the UK for the Awards.

The campaign consists of a 60 second viral entitled “chick-in-a-box”. Doreen, the cleaner, is seen at the end of the day dusting down the company’s many awards hanging on the wall before the scene moves on to show 2005 Young Spark winner, Olivia Jones from Story, on display in a glass showcase. The showcase has a “Young Spark” neon sign flashing above, highlighting the message that it is important to show off your talent.

During his career as a direct marketer, John ran Wunderman in Amsterdam, was Joint MD of Claydon Heeley in London and set up CHJM’s Asian operation out of Beijing, before returning to Scotland to head up WWAV Rapp Collins in Edinburgh.

David Metcalfe, chairman of DMA Scotland, says: “This prestigious award is a brilliant way of recognising the wealth of young talent present in the direct marketing industryand is such afitting tribute to John. He was a great champion of the values, drive and professionalism that we are looking to celebrate.

“Last year’s response from Scotland was fantastic and we’re now hoping to build on this by opening up the award to the whole of the UK to reflect John’s UK-wide experience.”

Dave Mullen, Creative Director at Story, comments: “The Young Spark Awards is a fantastic idea that will help keep our industry focused on developing, encouraging and recognising success from young people in DM. We are honoured to be asked by the DMA to create the campaign in memory of John Young who inspired many young people by his own enthusiasm and charisma. To be judged the very best in DM in the UK is pretty amazing – we want people to be up against the very best.”

The Young Spark Award will be open for entries from 6 September 2006. The deadline for all entries is 16 October 2006. The entry fee is £30 with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.

For further information and to nominate a Young Spark, please visit: www.chick-in-a-box.co.uk or call Jo Scobie tel. 0131 315 4422

For press enquiries, please contact:

Rachel Aldighieri

DMA PR Manager
Tel : 020 7291 3315 / 07801 573324
Email : rachel@dma.org.uk

Editor’s Notes

The DMA UK is the largest trade association in the marketing communications sector, with over 900 corporate members. The DMA’s mission is to maximise value for members, whilst maintaining and enhancing consumer trust and confidence in the direct marketing industry.

To assist, the DMA administers a portfolio of Preference Services that allow consumers to register their contact details, free of charge, should they choose to reduce the amount of direct marketing approaches they receive via mail, telephone, fax and email.

Sales attributed to direct marketing activity total £107 billion each year, £67 billion of this from consumer sales and £40 billion resulting from business to business direct marketing. As an industry, direct marketing generates around 9% of consumer sales on a yearly basis as well as employing roughly 814,000 people (both directly and indirectly) and supporting 3% of all employment in the UK. In 2004 organisations spent a total of £37 billion on direct marketing, of which over £14 billion can be attributed to media spend.

DMA members benefit from added protection, intelligence and growth, which together we call the Power of Association. Within these three areas, DMA member services include government lobbying, free legal advice, training & development, representation on DMA Councils, networking opportunities, regular updates of current dm issues/legislation, research, use of the DMA logo, promotion of member companies and discounts on a range of dm products/services.

For further information please visit http://www.dma.org.uk/For details on the benefits of becoming a DMA member please call 020 7291 3388 to speak to the membership team, email membership@dma.org.uk or visit http://www.dmamembership.org.uk/.