STRAIGHTFORWARD APPROACH GETS RESULTS FOR CLIENTS, WINS NATIONAL AWARDS FOR AGENCY

GRI Direct Takes 3 Folio Awards – Two Gold and a Silver — for Circulation Direct Marketing

WESTPORT, Conn., December 1, 2000 – GRI Direct (GRI), a full-service agency focusing on direct marketing, recently took home three of the prestigious Folio: 2000 Circulation Direct Marketing Awards. GRI was the only agency to win three awards in this category of the national competition, which recognizes excellence in circulation direct marketing. The firm won two Gold Medals, one for Paid Circulation for a campaign it created for Medical Economics magazine, and another for in the New Launch category for Nature Immunology magazine. The agency also won a Silver Medal in Alternative Sources Promotions for Contemporary Urology, another Medical Economics company. GRI president Brian Snider accepted the awards at the annual event held at the Hilton New York & Towers. In his acceptance Snider shared the awards with his clients and presented them with the trophies.

Snider attributes his agency’s award-winning ways to a straightforward approach to creative – where the primary goal is to get results. The agency’s results orientation is tied to a fundamental respect for the target audience.

“We can be as clever as anyone, but that’s not our first criterion,” said Snider. “What we first ask ourselves in developing any message and offer is, ‘Would we respond to this?’ It helps us to communicate as though the recipient of one of our pieces were sitting across the desk from us in a personal sales call.”

Snider understands the dynamics of one-to-one sales and marketing, having come from a Fortune 500 sales background prior to joining GRI, originally founded as a printed products company by his father, Gerry Snider. In addition to its high quality creative approach, the agency’s expertise in the specialized areas of Internet direct marketing, production technologies and list segmentation has contributed to its direct marketing success for its clients.

The GRI direct marketing philosophy is cost conscious, as well as personal, and focuses on bottom-line results as well as response rates. This has led to GRI’s doubling its revenues every three years since Brian Snider joined the company in 1987.

In each of its award-winning campaigns GRI Direct surpassed the client’s target goals. For Medical Economics, the agency designed a unique billboard-style self-mailer with a double postcard designed to reach new subscribers.

The Nature Immunology Gold Medal was the sole award in the New Launch category. To attract charter subscribers prior to the launch date of this new publication, GRI designed a package, which included an attention-getting 9 X 12 outer envelope, enclosing a letter from the editor and a colorful brochure describing the magazine and highlighting the significant charter subscription savings.

For Contemporary Urology, GRI won the Silver Medal with a cover wrap on which the copy was designed to build credibility and reflect the professional standards of the target audience. The offer combined strong savings with a bonus toward CME credits for new subscribers.

The core creative team for all three award-winning campaigns included Brian Snider, Chief Creative Officer; Laura Farrell, Art Director; Tara Denninger, Graphic Designer; and Eileen Hilinski, Director of Client Services.

GRI Direct was established in 1985 and maintains offices at 49 Richmondville Avenue, Westport, Connecticut 06880. The agency serves a worldwide clientele in a variety of fields including publishing, finance, education, technology, manufacturing and business services. A full-service agency, GRI Direct provides strategic planning, list acquisition, creative development, copywriting, design and production. Production services include digital pre-press, Web site/banner ads, broadcast e-mail, printing and lettershop execution. The agency produces marketing programs in a variety of media such as print, mail, telemarketing, interactive voice response and online. For further information call 203-222-7567 or visit the GRI Direct Web site at www.gridirect.com.