LONDON - DSG International (DSGi) is boosting its £2.5m digital and direct marketing spend in a bid to reinvigorate sales across its Currys, Currys.digital and PC World stores.

The beleaguered electronics retailer has appointed new agencies, and plans to bolster the below-the-line portion of its £80m annual spend in an effort to stave off competition from US rival Best Buy, which plans to enter Europe through a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse.

John Browett, who joined DSGi as chief executive last September from Tesco, recently embarked on a wide-ranging business review that will result in the closure of almost 80 Currys digital stores. The company hopes the shake-up will contribute to a £50m cut in costs in 2008/09.

The retailer is yet to brief its agencies on specific projects, but it is understood that they will work to help the company transform its business over the next three years.

In a blog by the Canadian Marketing Association, the poster considers the impact that direct marketing has on the environment. By focusing on customer data, he says that companies can dramatically change the environmental impact of their direct mail initiatives.

Eclipse Marketing is delighted to have reached number 38 in Marketing magazine’s annual ranking of the UK’s biggest direct marketing and sales promotion agencies. The list relates to agencies’ position in 2007.

 Here’s the top 42:

How did we ever manage without it? Can it really be 15 years old?

On 30 April, the world marked the 15th anniversary of the birth of the web, 15 years to the day since the web’s code was put into the public domain.

The web has changed our lives in so many ways, from internet banking and booking holidays to the availability of 24 hour news and the phenomenon of social media networking.

by Chris Thorneycroft Smith, associate director, Eclipse Marketing

My experience in the UK automotive industry taught me many things. One of the most important is that, when it comes to marketing, if you don’t constantly innovate you’ll be left a distant speck in your competitors’ rearview mirrors.

It used to be that the UK automotive sector was in the vanguard of marketing, setting the trends and leading the field. I’m not sure this is true any more. In recent years the world of marketing has changed almost beyond recognition. Unfortunately, automobile industry marketing – particularly to its retail customers – hasn’t kept pace.