Media and marketing company Meredith named Specialists Marketing Services (SMS) its list management company, effective November 1, after nine years with American List Council. The company also expanded its relationship with Rickard List Marketing.
SMS, which won the business after an RFP, will manage the 85 million subscribers in Meredith’s database.
“SMS will help us reach brokers and marketers with information and recommendations of how best to mine Meredith’s database to help companies find good prospects for their products,” said Cheryl Dahlquist, director of database marketing services at Meredith.
Dahlquist cited stresses in the industry and a need for continued innovation as reasons for switching list managers, despite an overall positive relationship with ALC.
SMS will offer 41 data cards for Meredith. The list company will also manage order processing, including billing and collections.
Meredith also named Rickard List Marketing its list manager for publishing clients. The companies worked together previously but on a case-by-case basis.
“Previously our consumer marketing division would have asked Rickard for data and they would have turned to a list manager to get that information from another publisher whose data we wanted to rent, but now that process in consolidated,” Dahlquist said.
Dahlquist said Meredith’s lists can be sorted by 4,000 categories, and an average subscriber has 800 pieces of data.
