Marketing software specialist smartFOCUS Group PLC (AIM: STF) said that Hachette Filipacchi Media US, the US subsidiary of the global magazine publisher, has chosen the company’s multi-channel marketing product to improve and manage its direct marketing and list rental.
Hachette's marketing solution is hosted by Equifax, a provider of marketing database hosting services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hachette publishes, among other titles, ELLE, ELLE DECOR, Woman's Day, Car and Driver, Road & Track and Cycle World.
Working with Equifax's outsourced direct marketing database team and complemented by the smartFOCUS marketing platform, Hachette is able to more optimally market to its growing database of 23 million subscribers across multiple channels, smartFOCUS said.
SmartFOCUS' smartMARKETER suite, which is hosted by Equifax, allows Hachette to leverage analytics to see how its campaigns are performing, and discover new insights from the information it receives. Current clients and prospects can be segmented and targeted for tailored campaign communications which will yield increases in conversion, cross-sell and retention rates across its print and online publications.
Just before Christmas, the company issued a trading statement saying it was expecting its full year results to be ahead of market consensus following recent contract wins.
The latest contract win adds to a string of other deals secured recently. In December alone, the company announced several significant contract wins, one with Bournemouth-based financial services group Liverpool Victoria (LV=) to streamline its entire marketing strategy, and another with Rank Group (LSE: RANK), both to implement the digital marketing suite smartMARKETER.
Also in December, smartFOCUS signed a partnership agreement with Initiatives & Developments (Group ID), under which the French group will integrate, operate, and resell the full smartFOCUS Intelligent Marketing software suite as part of its loyalty management product to its European customers and prospects.
Group ID develops consumer loyalty management and customer relationship management (CRM) programmes, working for some of the leading companies across Europe, including Carte Bleue VISA, l'Oréal, Microsoft, British Telecom and Havas Voyages.