ECircle

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eCircle was an email marketing and digital marketing provider headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company provided software as a service for email, mobile and social media marketing and opt-in email and lead generation media services. Buyers of the software and advertising products range from corporate marketing departments over to media and advertising agencies.

Contents

eCircle
TypePart of Teradata
Industry email marketing
Founded1999 [1]
Headquarters
Munich
,
Germany
Website ecircle.com

History

eCircle was established in 1999 by Volker Wiewer and Thomas Wilke and entered the markets in the United Kingdom, Italy and France in 2000. In the same year the company was transformed into a public limited company (plc). [1]

Originally eCircle's business was an email list management service, used to create and recruit members to mailing lists, including an archive of sent messages, similar to the eGroups.com product. The model was adapted to the service which eCircle provided. In 2009, eCircle opened offices in the Netherlands and Spain. In 2010 another office in Poland followed and in 2011 eCircle expanded into the Nordics region with a Scandinavian HQ in Copenhagen.

The company had 4 investors, Wellington Partners, Cipio Partners, Steadfast Capital and TA Associates, totaling €72.5million. In 2010, private equity firm TA Associates invested €60million, as the company estimated more than 200 employees. [2] [3]

US-based Teradata announced the final acquisition of eCircle on 4 June 2012, and it was merged into Teradata's Aprimo business. [4]

eCircle had in excess of 350 employees in 2012.

Products

eCircle's eC-messenger email marketing application offers features from email broadcasting to complex and automated email campaigns. In 2005 a German email marketing software benchmark study ranked eC-messenger as a 'high-end solution'. [5] eC-messenger was independently reviewed in 2009 by James Lawson of Database Marketing magazine who said "eC-messenger would make a solid platform for any company’s email marketing work…[eC-messenger] won’t disappoint". [6] In 2011, eCircle launched its Social Media Platform eC-social which enables Marketers to plan, implement and evaluate their social media activities from one central platform.

In addition to the email software, eCircle had an opt-in email list rental network. It generated leads for clients via online lead generation campaigns and online portals including Bestbuymoney.co.uk, GlamourExclusive.com, MyTestDrive.co.uk, SpoilMeNow.co.uk, WinGreatPrizes.co.uk and YourHolidayOffers.co.uk.

Partnerships

In 2004 eCircle became certified as a reputable mass email sender in the Certified Senders Alliance, a German whitelist programme. [7] In 2007 eCircle forged a relationship with email delivery company Return Path, Inc. to set up an ISP relations programme 'The Sender Score Receiver Alliance', to optimise delivery security to email addresses in Europe. [8]

eCircle's email marketing technology can be integrated with other technologies such as web analytics, customer relationship management systems, content management systems, e-commerce platforms and data warehouses.

Integration partners include: Asknet, [9] Bazaarvoice, [10] Coremetrics, [11] Hybris, Intershop, [12] ComScore, [13] Adobe, [14] Prudsys, [15] Salesforce and WebTrends.

eCircle is a member of the adigital, [16] BVDW, [17] Certified Senders Alliance, DDV, [18] the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA), Emma-nl, [19] IAB, [20] IAB Italia, [21] Netcomm, Signal Spam, [22] and SNCD. [23]

In 2011, eCircle was accredited the DMA DataSeal for its security measures. [24]

Recognition

In 2000, eCircle was listed as one of the top 25 start ups in Germany. [25] Volker Wiewer and Thomas Wilke were named as finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. [26] In 2004, eCircle was named as the biggest permission-based marketing provider in Germany [27] and was presented with the New Media Award 2004 [28] for its videomail campaign for Unicef. The following year saw the UK office win its first award with a Bronze in the 'Best Email' category at the DMA Awards [29] with its client Alto Clothing and agency Neoco. In the same year, eCircle Germany were shortlisted at the DMMA 2006 awards [30] for a campaign for sports retailer Karstadt (now Arcandor) in conjunction with Adidas promoting the film 'Goal'. In 2007 Marketing Magazine in the UK released their annual Digital Agency League Tables and eCircle ranked 7th, [31] moving to 6th place in 2009. [32] eCircle UK was ranked in 5th place in New Media Age magazine's Marketing Services Guide in 2007, moving up to 2nd place in 2009 [33] and reached the top of the table at 1st place in 2010. [34] eCircle retained its position as number one Email Agency in NMA's Marketing Services Guide in 2011. [35] 2009 saw eCircle winning 'Email Supplier of the Year' at the Eco Internet Awards 2009 [36] and the 'Best Use of Email' Award at the Revolution Awards 2009 [37] alongside Argos. It was additionally shortlisted for the 'Best Use of Email' Award at the NMA Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2009. [38] In 2010 the UK Managing Director Simon Bowker was elected onto the DMA Email Marketing Council [39] which led to his co-writing of The Deliverability Whitepaper [40] and the writing of the DMA Data Analysis and Segmentation Whitepaper. [41] In 2011 eCircle was shortlisted twice in 'Best Use of Email' category at the Revolution Awards 2011. [42] At the end of 2011, campaigns using eCircle technology won two awards from the UK Direct Marketing Association: Gold in the best use of email marketing category, [43] and Silver for the best data strategy. [44] In 2012 eCircle were listed in Red Herring's Top 100 Europe. [45]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Milestones: eCircle's success story". Web site. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "TA Associates buys €60million Stake in European Email Marketing Leader eCircle". Tech Crunch Europe. 11 January 2010. https://techcrunch.com/2010/01/11/ta-associates-buys-60-million-stake-in-european-email-marketing-leader-ecircle/
  3. ↑ Daniel Farey-Jones (14 January 2010). "Private equity investment primes eCircle for expansion". Media Week. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Teradata Completes the Acquisition of eCircle". Net Imperative. 7 June 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Outlook is not Sufficient for Email Marketing". Computerwoche. 29 September 2005.http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/2005/40/1206527/
  6. ↑ Database Marketing, Issue 117, June 2009
  7. ↑ "Internet Economy makes Important Move Forward in the Fight Against Spam". ECO. 16 February 2005.http://www.eco.de/verband/202_3381.htm
  8. ↑ "eCircle joins Return Path’s Sender Score Receiver Alliance". Brand Republic. 4 June 2007.http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/661816/eCircle-joins-Return-Paths-Sender-Score-Receiver-Alliance/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
  9. ↑ Asknet Partners http://www.asknet.com/partners/marketing-partners/email-marketing/ Archived 25 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Bazaarvoice Partners http://www.bazaarvoice.com/partners
  11. ↑ Coremetrics Partners http://www.coremetrics.co.uk/company/2009/pr09-30-09-e-circle.php
  12. ↑ "Intershop Accelerates Online Marketing Business". 12 February 2007. Press Release. http://www.intershop.com/press-release/items/intershop-accelerates-online-marketing-business.html Archived 5 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ "Nedstat and eCircle Announce Partnership". 2 July 2009. Press Release http://www.nedstat.com/nedstat-news-archive/359-nedstat-and-ecircle-announce-partnership Archived 7 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Omniture Partners http://www.omniture.com/en/products/marketing_integration/genesis/applications/15/184
  15. ↑ "A first from Prudsys and eCircle: Real-time Personalisation and Optimisation of Newsletters". 29 October 2009. Press Release http://www.prudsys.de/en/press/press-reports/press-reports-single-view/article/prudsys-und-ecircle-ermoeglichen-echtzeit-individualisierung-von-newslettern/?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=138&cHash=b98468dac9 Archived 4 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ Asociación Española de la Economía Digital – inicio. adigital (31 October 2011). Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  17. ↑ BVDW.org | Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) e.V. | BVDW – Internet | Online. BVDW. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  18. ↑ Ddv: Ddv. Ddv.de. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  19. ↑ E-mail – DDMA. Emailassociatie.nl. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  20. ↑ Internet Advertising Bureau UK: trade association for the internet marketing industry Archived 2 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Iabuk.net. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  21. ↑ Iab Italia – Associazione dedicata all'advertising interattivo. Iab.it. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  22. ↑ Signal Spam. Signal-spam.fr (20 September 2010). Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  23. ↑ Bienvenue sur le site du SNCD, le syndicat national de la communication directe. Sncd.org. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  24. ↑ "DataSeal". The Direct Marketing Association (UK) Ltd.
  25. ↑ "Focus Money and Bain & Company Present the Top 25 Internet Formations in Germany". Focus Online Money. 31 May 2000. http://www.focus.de/finanzen/boerse/grosser-wettbewerb-von-focus-money-und-bain-die-boersenstars-von-morgen_aid_240012.html
  26. ↑ "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2002". http://www.ey.com/DE/de/About-us/Entrepreneur-Of-The-Year/Sieger-und-Finalisten---Die-Finalisten-C-bis-E Archived 26 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ ABSOLIT Survey "Market Overview about Consumer Email Addresses" http://www.absolit.de/
  28. ↑ "New Media Award 2004" http://www.newmediaaward.de/index_04_01.html
  29. ↑ DMA Awards http://www.dmaawards.org.uk/
  30. ↑ "Nominations for the DMMA Awards" http://www.dasauge.de/aktuell/gestaltung/e485
  31. ↑ "Marketing League Tables: Digital Leagues". Brand Republic. 24 October. http://www.brandrepublic.com/league_tables/gated/756038/
  32. ↑ "Marketing’s Digital Agency League Table". Brand Republic. 22 October 2009. http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/gated/947555/
  33. ↑ "NMA Marketing Services Guide 2009" http://www.nmamarketingservicesguide.co.uk/2009/sector.php?section_id=4 Archived 16 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ↑ "NMA Marketing Services Guide 2010" http://www.nmamarketingservicesguide.co.uk/sector.php?section_id=4 Archived 6 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  35. ↑ "NMA Marketing Services Guide 2011" http://www.nmamarketingservicesguide.co.uk/
  36. ↑ ECO. 19 June 2009 [ permanent dead link ]. Eco.de (19 June 2009). Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  37. ↑ "Revolution Magazine – 2009 Award Winners" http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/892996/Nike-AKQA-triumph-Revolution-Innovation-Awards/
  38. ↑ "New Media Age – Effectiveness Awards 2009 – The Winners" http://www.centaur2.co.uk/emags/nma/awards2009/pageflip.html Archived 27 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  39. ↑ "DMA Email Marketing Council – List of Members" http://www.dma.org.uk/node/282 Archived 12 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  40. ↑ "DMA Deliverability White Paper Review". DMA. April 2010. http://www.dma.org.uk/sites/default/files/tookit_files/new_dma_deliverability_document_structure_amended_with_governance_comments_final_120410.pdf%5B%5D
  41. ↑ "A Guide to Data Analysis and Segmentation", DMA June 2011 http://www.dma.org.uk/sites/default/files/tookit_files/A%20Guide%20to%20Data%20Analysis%20and%20Segmentation%20-%20Whitepaper.pdf%5B%5D
  42. ↑ "The Revolution Awards 2011" http://www.revolutionawards.com/
  43. ↑ "2011 Gold Best use of email marketing". web site. UK DMA. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  44. ↑ "2011 Silver Best data strategy". web site. UK DMA. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  45. ↑ "Europe 2012 Top 100". Red Herring. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
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