Carnival Cruise Lines CEO/President, Bob Dickinson and Office Depot Director of Community Relations, Mary Wong Headline Executive Level South Florida Marketing Event on strategic marketing management in the area of community involvement marketing. The meeting will bring together CEO's, CMO's, Marketing Directors, Community Relations Directors, non-profits and many others for this not-to-miss luncheon.
Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) October 4, 2006 -- Charting a Course for Success with Community Involvement Marketing is the topic of the Florida Direct Marketing Association’s (FDMA) November luncheon being held Thursday, November 16, 2006 onboard Carnival’s Legend in Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale. A departure from its usual monthly format, the FDMA’s November event offers marketing leaders a premium forum and venue for hearing direct marketing successes in community involvement from two of the area’s leading businesses, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) and Office Depot.
The expanded luncheon/speaker-format event takes place from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in port on board Carnival’s ship, the Legend. The event is open to the public, but is specifically geared toward marketing executives to inspire and encourage companies get involved in their communities for the betterment of the community. The cost to attend is $50 for members, $75 for non-members. Attendees must register in advance by October 31, 2006 and are encouraged to do so online at www.fdma.org. The event is being sponsored by Avenue A | Razorfish.
"You don't have to be a Bill Gates or Richard Branson type with billions of dollars and a large workforce to get involved in the community and obtain exposure for your company. Companies of all sizes can play an active part, said Keith Fletcher, FDMA President. "One can merely get a team together of co-workers wearing company logo'd shirts and help build a house, clean a beach, or sponsor community events."
In keeping with their dedication to community involvement, CCL has generously donated use of the Legend specifically for this event. Yet as Carnival’s President & CEO Bob Dickinson will explain during the luncheon, his company has a long history of community involvement marketing. As one of the world's largest travel companies, Carnival believes that it has a responsibility to enhance the communities in which it operates, including both its headquarter locations, as well as in the numerous homeports and ports of call visited by its cruise brands. Through its 12 cruise companies, Carnival Corporation supports and encourages the extraordinary efforts of its employees whose involvement in a wide variety of programs provide aid, donations and services to a huge array of charitable organizations.
Collectively, Carnival Cruise Lines employees donate thousands of hours each year to dozens of different community service projects. For example, members of Carnival Cruise Lines' employee-driven service organization, the "Friends Uniting Neighbors (F.U.N.) Team, organize bimonthly projects, including several community beautification projects. Some recent examples of employees giving back to the local community are participation in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica event, the Biscayne Bay Baynanza Beach Clean-Up Initiative, and teaching children at Miami's Renaissance Elementary Charter School about the various aspects of business and the cruise industry as part of the Junior Achievement Mentoring Program.
During an elegant, seated four-course lunch, Bob Dickinson will highlight these and other CCL Community Involvement initiatives. He will be followed by Mary Wong, Director of Community Involvement for Office Depot. Mary will explore what’s in it for today’s leading marketers to become involved in corporate giving and community philanthropy, and how both corporate and community expectations have changed. She’ll then discuss two of Office Depot’s successful community involvement programs and illustrate their results as well as how their marketing effectiveness is measured. Both Mr. Dickinson and Ms. Wong hope to motivate the audience of marketing leaders to follow in the footsteps of Carnival and Office Depot by instituting community involvement marketing programs of their own.
About the Florida Direct Marketing Association (FDMA)
The FDMA (www.fdma.org/join.asp) has nearly 200 members, including catalogers, Internet retailers, financial services providers, publishers, book and music clubs and retail stores. “Direct marketing” is the art and science of sending one-to-one promotional messages directly to consumers, which allows marketers to measure response rates and campaign effectiveness.
FDMA events are typically held on the third Thursday of each month at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. New members receive their first regular event free. Special membership rates are available for non-profit organizations as well. For additional information, please contact Karen Talavera, FDMA Programming Chair at 561-964-7237 or Keith Fletcher, FDMA Board President, at 786-357-3275.
About Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Corporation & PLC (www.carnivalcruiselines.com) is a global cruise company and one of the largest vacation companies in the world. Their portfolio of 12 leading cruise brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line and Windstar Cruises in North America; P&O Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village and Swan Hellenic in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; Costa Cruises in southern Europe; and P&O Cruises in Australia.
Headquartered in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. and London, England, Carnival operates a fleet of 81 ships, with another 15 ships scheduled for delivery between now and spring 2010. With over 140,000 guests and 60,000 shipboard employees, there are more than 200,000 people sailing aboard the Carnival fleet at any given time.
Their success in providing quality cruise vacations has made Carnival the most profitable company in the leisure travel industry. Carnival's stock is dually listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and on the London Stock Exchange under symbol CCL. Carnival is the only company in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 index in the United States and the FTSE 100 index in the United Kingdom.
About Office Depot
Office Depot (www.officedepot.com) provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company. Incorporated in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, Office Depot has annual sales of nearly $15 billion, and employs approximately 50,000 associates around the world. Currently, the Company sells to customers in 33 countries, and has affiliates in another five.
Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel -- from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. As of July 1, 2006, Office Depot had 1,071 retail stores in North America and another 322 stores, company-owned, licensed or franchised, in other parts of the world. Office Depot serves a wide range of customers through a dedicated sales force, telephone account managers, direct mail offerings, and multiple web sites. With over $3.8 billion in online sales, the Company is also one of the world’s largest e-commerce retailers.
About Avenue A | Razorfish
Avenue A | Razorfish (www.avenuea-razorfish.com) solutions are entrenched in deep technology, rigorous analytics and a rich understanding of customer needs, including award-winning web media and creative, search marketing services, email marketing/eCRM, and world-class creative, design and implementation of customer websites, intranets and extranets. Avenue A | Razorfish operates three U.S. regions – East, West and Central – with offices located in major U.S. markets, the U.K., Australia, Germany and headquarters in Seattle. Clients include AstraZeneca, Best Buy, Disney, Kraft, Microsoft and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. aQuantive, Inc. and all of its operating units are committed to Internet privacy.
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