Speaker Biographies

Graham Dodd – Managing Director, The Letterbox Consultancy

Graham Dodd, Managing Director of The Letterbox Consultancy, is a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing and a long serving member of the Direct Marketing Association’s Door Drop Council and is also Chair of its Events & PR Committee. Graham has over 40 years experience in the UK door drop industry and is widely recognised as one of the industry’s leading experts. Graham is a regular speaker at industry events and a contributor to marketing magazines. Graham formed The Letterbox Consultancy in December 1995 creating a business model which was unique at the time and is still at the forefront of industry developments and initiatives.

Andy Owen – Managing Director, Andy Owen & Associates Ltd

Andy is a senior figure in the international communications industry. He has worked in direct marketing for over 29 years and his renowned speciality is copy and creative. He writes campaigns for clients worldwide, every day. Andy Owen & Associates is his own International direct marketing consultancy with offices in Birmingham, Dubai, Bucharest and Moscow. He is the author of a groundbreaking DVD on Copywriting, called “How To Write Copy That Really Sells” and is soon to have a new live DVD available, filmed at one of his recent Masterclasses. He has a new book due to be published in 2011. Visit www.andyowen.co.uk and www.copywritingthatsells.com for further information.

Steve Thompson – Managing Director, Stepcheck Ltd

Graduating from Sussex University in ’90, Steve joined Instem, an industrial control systems company as a computer programmer. After a consultancy period in Public Works writing logic control software, he joined Stepcheck in ’94 to contribute to software development. Following a buyout and assuming control in ’02 and now with over 3.5 million interviews conducted since its formation, Stepcheck has unrivalled experience in scientific door to door measurement and is regularly used by advertisers and distributors alike to provide accurate insight into the fate of door to door items “in the otherwise wild unknown”.

Rick Pullan – Director, TBDA Ltd (The Business Development Agency)

Graduating from Sheffield University in Economics & Business Studies, Rick cut his teeth in sales & marketing with Mars, Glaxo SmithKline and Pedro Domecq.  He ran UK marketing for Alberto VO5, then as General Manager for 5 countries in the Far East. He became Board Director for Client Services at KLP (now Euro RSCG) before setting up direct & digital marketing agency TBDA.  He’s run TBDA for 15 years, written www.smartermarketing.co.uk, contributes pro-actively to the DMA Agencies Council and produced its Return on Ideas ‘marketing makes money’ programme (www.return-on-ideas.com), jointly funded by the DMA, CIMA and CIM.

Jason Ablett, Media Manager, Experian Business Strategies

Jason has worked at Experian for the past 15 years, the latter of which have been spent working with clients across the UK media spectrum -  publishing, broadcast, outdoor, digital, door-to-door, as well as classic below-the-line channels. He is particularly focussed on the opportunities that improvements in the granularity and diversity of segmentation can bring to publishers and door-to-door practitioners.  In his current role he takes responsibility for managing the media line of business at Experian Business Strategies.

Matt Stewart – Head of Insight & Data Strategy, EMO

Matt heads insight & data strategy at EMO, the specialist localisation marketing agency. EMO connects brands to networks, and networks to consumers, with clients that include Jaguar Land Rover, Department of Health, Toyota, Lexus and Tesco. Matt’s career spans 27 years in leading advertising and direct marketing agencies, before setting up his own consultancy. He has long been an advocate of marketing intelligence applied at a micro level, to engage with consumers and change behaviour.

Chris Roxburgh – Managing Director, Linkdirect Ltd

Chris has been involved in direct marketing since 1974 and with Door Drop since 1979 and in 1995 founded LinkDirect with two colleagues. He has extensive experience across the range of all the Door Drop disciplines and in 1991 was a member of the Steering Committee responsible for eventually setting up the AHD, the forerunner to today’s Direct Marketing Association Door Drop Council. He is a founder Council member as well as serving on and chairing various sub committees over the years. He is committed to helping further the cause, image and standards of Door Drop Marketing, which he believes have improved immeasurably since the creation of one industry association.

James Sherwin – Director, Tangerine, CVC

James started Tangerine in 1998, having worked with both Unilever and Sainsbury’s he recognised an opportunity to help FMCG clients explore the value of retailer loyalty data. James’ focus has been in data management, business modelling & planning, campaign planning & operational impact planning – working for: Client – Direct Wines, DM Agency – WWAV Rapp Collins & Data Consultancy – Data by Design