Mr. Smug smirks again

Who is Mr. Smug – even though he doesn’t deserve to be?

No, it’s not David Cameron, hugging himself as he sees the Bloated Toad’s government and party fall apart.

It’s meeeeeeee.

It’s because our little business school, EADIM, looks like doing well this year in the depths of the recession.

Last year we kicked off a year’s training with a residential week in Brussels. I lost my shirt and socks because the good people at the Marriott there screwed us sideways.

However, people came from as far away as Australia and South Africa, and we got 87 testimonials from 25 delegates. I never heard of such a thing – did you? It must be a record.

One man – the former marketing director of a national telecoms firm – said it was the most valuable week since he learned to read and write. Another said it was his best week ever.

Now we’re running another week in October – but this time in London. It’s almost half sold out already. Ho Ho! If you want to know whyit’s doing so well, go to www.eadim.com. There’s nothing like it anywhere, I promise you. The downside is that you’ll have to listen to me babbling in webinars for a year afterwards.

I had a bit of a fillip last week, too which took me back 31 years. In 1978 I won the U.K.’s top direct marketing award – for a four page letter (which of course I never kept).

The letter invited people to come to some one-day seminars called The Printed Shop, which a) made a lot of money for us and b) got our first clients at the agency I sold later to Ogilvy & Mather.

Well, fast forward to last Thursday – and my colleagues and I did surprisingly well in the IDM Business Performance Awards. I say “surprisingly” because direct marketing – and the competition – must be about ten times bigger and infinitely more complex than it was in 1978 – and what we were selling was deeply unsexy – home improvements.

Despite this we were one of the last five in the top category – the Diamond Award – and were highly commended. Frankly, I had very little to do with the result – my partner Marta did most of the work. But it felt good to be 302 years old and help win a little something.

We are pleased to inform you that the Data Marketing Show Conference programme is live. Data Marketing Show, is a must – attend event for all marketers and data professionals, and is a vital first appointment in this year’s marketing calendar.