ISP News November 2008

Welcome to the latest programme brought to you by the Institute of Sales Promotion.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the ISP but, rather than just looking back at past achievements, the ISP is continuing to modernise and expand its services.

After the arrival of Annie Swift in the new role of chief executive in the summer, the ISP has now appointed a new head of communications to manage all internal and external communications.

Martin Croft comes with a wealth of journalistic and PR experience in the marketing arena. He has been a contributing editor to Marketing Week for 20 years and has also worked for the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Institute of Direct Marketing.

He will support the ISP's overriding aim to ensure that it represents the interests and activities of all its stakeholders, as well as the industry at large, across all of its current services, from education and legal support through to awards, events and lobbying, plus new services being introduced in the near future.

The latest development for ISP education is two new courses that reflect that promotions run through a broad range of media, including experiential and digital channels. A new qualification, called the certificate in experiential marketing, is designed to provide a thorough grounding in how this growing discipline works and how to run activity better. The course has been put together by senior practitioners from agencies R.P.M., Because, Cord, Sense, Evoke the Senses, Goal and Lime.

The other new qualification is the certificate in digital promotion, which is aimed at companies providing digital marketing services, introducing them to the concepts, rules and best practice of sales promotion. There are many companies in the digital marketing sector who are not even aware that they are running promotions and that they need to comply with the Cap Code and other regulations.

At the same time, the long-established ISP Diploma in Promotional Marketing continues to be updated to respond to changing trends in marketing. From now on, the course will be known as the ISP Diploma in Promotional and Interactive Marketing, reflecting how the use of media such as the internet and mobile communications makes promotions more interactive than ever.

As well as marking 75 years of supporting and promoting the industry, the ISP is also celebrating another year of success for its members internationally. The organisers of the Globes Awards in Toronto have announced that among the list of nominees this year is the campaign, Give A Few Bob, which was created by a leading UK marketing specialist, The Communications Agency. It used innovative technology to bring the comedian, Bob Monkhouse, back from beyond the grave to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. It is one of only three marketing campaigns from around the world that have been nominated for the title of the best in the world. The other two are from the US and Australia.

Give A Few Bob has also been nominated in five categories in the IMC European Awards which run across 12 countries. Sixteen campaigns from UK agencies have been