Experian CheetahMail Sets Record-Breaking Attendance With More Than 900 Brand Leaders Sharing Digital-Marketing Strategies

NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian® CheetahMail®, the leading global technology services provider of integrated email, social, mobile and display marketing, today announced the successful close of the fifth-annual Client Summit, Digital Connections. Held July 21–22 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, the event provided a record-breaking number of attendees with ways to leverage digital media to better engage and connect with their customers.

More than 900 attendees from around the world gathered for the two-day event, making it the largest Summit to date. The Summit featured more than 25 interactive sessions and roundtables and a variety of speakers which included keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk and Josh Bernoff.

Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple and author of 10 books, including The New York Times bestseller Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, gave an inspiring keynote address encouraging attendees to "enchant" their customers if they want to build meaningful relationships. Gary Vaynerchuk, author of New York Times bestsellers -- The Thank You Economy and CRUSH IT!, brought the house down with his unique perspective on how companies can better engage with their customers and why some smart people dismiss social media — and why they shouldn't. Josh Bernoff, senior vice president Idea Development of Forrester Research Inc. discussed ideas from his June 2011 report, Competitive Strategy in the Age of the Customer, and moderated a panel of clients as they shared their thoughts around the idea of "customer obsession."

Experian CheetahMail experts and partners led valuable discussions focusing on the latest digital-marketing tactics and strategies — incorporating real examples from CheetahMail's most sophisticated clients and also offering a clear view into "what's next." Session topics included top ideas for email marketing, optimizing email design for mobile, how to effectively link email and display retargeting, how to optimize email capture at point-of-sale, how to take your social media and mobile efforts to the next level- and much more.  As well, David Cooperstein of Forrester Research Inc. led intimate sessions designed to spark conversation and debate between some of the industry's most forward-thinking marketers.  

Elite networking events provided throughout the Summit included a welcome reception aboard the flight deck of the USS Intrepid and a dinner at Cipriani, one of New York City's most elite venues, with special guests Michael Strahan of the New York Giants and apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas. Attendees also walked the red carpet to a private after-hours event where hit singer Mariah Carey was spotted enjoying a night out on the town.

"The Summit gives us the opportunity to share our vision and also to say thank you to our customers for their loyalty. We design every minute of the Summit to be both educational and entertaining. Our goal is for our clients to walk away understanding our strategy and knowing they are with the right partner," said Rachel Bergman, general manager Experian CheetahMail. "Every session and event is conceptualized with our clients' needs in mind. We balance providing exceptional content with networking opportunities so that our clients can walk away with tangible ideas they can execute tomorrow and with ideas they can debate with their management about their customers and the future of digital marketing."

Summit attendees had the opportunity to speak with representatives from Experian Marketing Services' Hitwise® competitive intelligence; Audience IQ(SM) addressable advertising; Customer Intelligence Platform database management; QAS® address verification; Mosaic® customer segmentation; Simmons(SM) consumer research; and Techlightenment, CheetahMail's new social media service. Clients also interacted with Experian CheetahMail partners Adobe, Certona, IBM, MyBuys, Pontiflex, Return Path and RevTrax.

"I cannot thank the whole Experian CheetahMail Team enough for providing such an insightful and successful 2011 Client Summit. This was my third time attending in 6 years and by far, the most-impressive." Lenny Donnarumma, Manager of Creative Services, Interactive, BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.

"The Client Summit was such an ideal event for learning and sharing new strategies that my business can use to improve our marketing programs – for email and beyond – and deepen customer connections. I'm looking forward to applying all of the new knowledge gained into our campaigns." Angela Clayton, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Starz Entertainment.

"The sessions and the keynote speakers were all informative and entertaining, and the party was amazing – I have to say that it was probably the best user conference that I have ever been to. I had a blast meeting new people and catching up with former co-workers." Brian Oakes, Marketing Director, Base Communications and Program Execution, Virgin Mobile.

About Experian CheetahMail
Experian CheetahMail is the trusted service provider of email marketing and customer intelligence technologies for top enterprises worldwide. With the industry's largest client services teams, feature-rich email technology and a broad range of data management options, Experian CheetahMail enables clients to build data-driven, relevant relationships with their customers. Servicing the world's most recognizable brands, Experian CheetahMail's globally diverse client base includes 1800Flowers, Barclays, Discovery Communications, KLM, Neiman Marcus and Wyndham Hotels. Experian CheetahMail, a business unit of Experian (LSE:EXPN), was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Beijing, Melbourne and Brazil. For more information, please visit http://www.cheetahmail.com or email [email protected].

About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services delivers best-in-breed data, analytics and platforms into multiple regions around the globe. It is focused on helping marketers more effectively target and engage their best customers through email, digital advertising, customer data management, customer and competitive insight, data enrichment and list rental, modeling and analytics, and strategic consulting. Through these capabilities, Experian Marketing Services enables organizations to encourage brand advocacy, create measurable return on investment and significantly improve the lifetime value of their customers.

About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 80 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2011 was US $4.2 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 41 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Experian CheetahMail