Direct marketing powerhouse Experian
on Tuesday tapped e-mail marketing infrastructure firm FloNetwork Inc. to help it take its
offline services onto the Internet.
The deal marries Experian’s direct marketing expertise with the back-end
e-mail systems that brings to the table, and it shows that Experian intends
to be a player in the online business.
Experian was actually the originator of what became MyPoints.com , but it sold that unit in 1998. The company still holds an
ownership stake in MyPoints.com, though, and Tom Newkirk, the chairman of
Experian Direct Technology Solutions and Experian Marketing Solutions, sits
on MyPoints.com’s board.
Now, though, it appears as though Experian is jumping back into e-mail
marketing in a serious way, probably because its clients are demanding it.
“This powerful alliance extends Experian’s broad range of direct marketing
services to include e-mail marketing solutions,” said Tom Newkirk,
chairman, Experian North America.
“We intend to fully integrate these services within our traditional
campaign production and management systems so that we can execute seamless
online and offline promotions.”
Experian brings in $1.5 billion of revenues annually, and is a subsidiary
of The Great Universal Stores PLC.