Veer Receives 2005 DMA International ECHO Award for Excellence in Direct Marketing

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Most prestigious award in direct marketing names Veer product catalog a world’s best

New York, New York, November 3, 2005 - Veer, a provider of visual elements and design-related products, announced today that the company has received a 2005 Direct Marketing Association (DMA) International ECHO Award - the oldest and most prestigious honor in direct marketing. Veer’s product catalog, The Very Big Summer Activity Book for Creatives (2004), was named a winner by a panel of over 200 international judges from marketing and creative firms such as Draft, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Leo Burnett. Commonly referred to as the Oscars of direct marketing, the ECHO is the only international award where judges rigorously assess entries based on strategy, creativity, and results. The Very Big Summer Activity Book for Creatives can be downloaded at:

http://www.veer.com/download/pdf/veer200407_activity.pdf

“Veer’s campaign represents the kind of work we want to honor in the ECHO Awards,” says Sid Liebenson, Executive Vice President of Draft and Chairman of the DMA International ECHO Committee. “It shows insight into the target audience, takes an innovative, creative approach that’s on-strategy, and produces outstanding results.”

Veer produces several catalogs each year to showcase its products, conjure creative inspiration, and generate sales. For Veer’s July 2004 catalog, Veer’s in-house marketing and creative team created The Very Big Summer Activity Book for Creatives. The catalog showcases Veer’s stock photography, illustration and type in 100 pages of design-themed crossword puzzles, word scrambles, and brain teasers. From a marketing standpoint, the book is multi-functional in that it showcases Veer’s product, pricing, and sales promotion, but also provides a high level of entertainment value and interactivity. With puzzles such as Industry Speak, where designers guess the design jargon by filling in missing vowels, the piece demonstrates Veer’s insight into its creative audience. The catalog was effective at generating sales over the summer months - typically a slower sales volume month due to holidays - since its content made for a fun and compact travel companion.

“Veer’s Very Big Summer Activity Book for Creatives was a fun way of getting Veer’s products in front of the target, creating buzz and offering keeper and pass-along value,” explains Tammy Wing, responsible for marketing strategy at Veer. “The catalog outperformed our highest sales expectations but, equally important, the response from the design community was unprecedented. Our customers requested extra copies. I’ve never seen customers respond to a catalog in such a positive way. To be honored by the Direct Marketing Association as one of the world’s best direct marketing campaigns is truly an honor. It is wonderful recognition for the quality work we are committed to producing at Veer.”

Veer received top honors in the Retail & Direct Sales category with a Silver ECHO award. The four other finalists in the category received Bronze ECHO awards. An elite panel of judges, each with fifteen years of direct and interactive marketing experience, scored each piece on strategy, creativity, and results. DMA ECHO Award judges critiqued over a thousand international entries in three rounds of evaluation and selected gold, silver, and bronze winners across 12 categories.

About the International ECHO Awards and the Direct Marketing Association

For 76 years, an ECHO Award has been the DMA’s greatest honor and highest form of recognition. Founded in 1917, the DMA is today the largest trade association for businesses interested in direct, database, and interactive global marketing, with over 5,200 member companies from the United States and 44 foreign nations on six continents. For more information on the DMA and the International ECHO Awards, visit the-dma.org

About Veer

Veer sources and delivers visual elements with imagination and style to help creatives diverge from the norm and generate fresh solutions. Veer’s discerning, design-driven selection of photography, illustration and type are used daily in advertising, print and web design, corporate communications and publishing. With the addition of the community-based Veer Marketplace, Veer became the first company to offer rights-managed, premium royalty-free, and low-priced royalty-free photography on one web site. Veer is recognized for its community activity, including The Skinny blog and Veer Ideas networking web site. Veer serves its global customer base through its contact centers and award-winning web site localized for North America, the UK, Germany and the rest of the world at www.veer.com.

Web Site: veer.com
Toll-Free Orders and Product Support: 877 297 7900
Free Catalog Requests: 877 297 7900
Product Submissions: submissions@veer.com
Outside USA & Canada: +1 403 234 7900

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