European Marketing Agency MaCS Receives Business Marketing Association’s Beacon Award for VeriSigns Campaign

MaCS Receives Industry Recognition for Leveraging VeriSign’s U.S. Creative to Land Success with Overseas Direct Mail Effort in U.K. and Germany

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—October 13, 2004—The Business Marketing Association (BMA) of Northern California today announced that MaCS Inc., a leading provider of European marketing communication services to U.S. based technology companies, received the Silver Award in the BMA’s annual Beacon Awards and Showcase, a San Francisco-based industry awards program that recognizes business-to-business marketing excellence in the U.S. and abroad. MaCS received the Silver Award in the Single Direct Mail Piece category for the European agency’s work on VeriSign’s “Muscle Man” mailer, which successfully leveraged VeriSign’s U.S. creative in the U.K and Germany.

The VeriSign U.K. Muscle Man direct mail campaign was named for its central graphic – a muscle-bound security guard. Campaign components included a highly personalized letter, informational flyer, fax-back form, and integrated online registration process with reporting tool. The Muscle Man mailer was successful as a direct marketing tool in the U.S., but required localization and strategic direction to reach the British and German technology markets. MaCS’ strategy was to leverage key elements of the U.S. based mail effort, adapting those elements and localizing the piece to talk to the overseas markets. MaCS appropriately titled the BMA entry “No Need To Reinvent the Wheel.”

“When American technology companies expand into Europe, often they hope to leverage the marketing creative produced in the States – yet the markets are quite different,” said Wolfgang Tittmar, President and CEO of MaCS. “We work with these companies on U.S.-to-Europe adaptations because, if done correctly, they can be both time and cost effective. The VeriSign U.K. Muscle Man mailer is a solid example of how to adapt an American marketing campaign to the European marketplace. Our goal was to produce a campaign that gave VeriSign the appearance of a local player – and not another U.S. technology company trying to break into overseas markets.”

"We needed to execute a direct mail campaign in the U.K. in a cost-effective and timely manner," said Andrew Horbury, VeriSign U.K. Marketing Manager. "By leveraging the Muscle Man mailer, which had been designed and distributed out of our U.S. office, we were able to save time and money, which is key to our core marketing agenda. The three percent response rate we received in the U.K. was very encouraging and could have only been achieved through proper adaptation to the U.K. market. We consider it a very successful direct mail campaign."

Wolfgang pointed out that adaptation from one market to another is often a sensitive area, requiring subtle and sometimes overlooked changes to the content and even materials being localized. “It is not uncommon for companies to make the mistake of localizing language, but forgetting about the presentation, production, and a variety of other nuances such as country-specific postal regulations – which may require adaptation of design, size and even location of postage on an envelope.” Reformatting envelopes alone can reduce postal costs by as much as 50 percent.

Another key element of a successful European direct marketing effort is the selection of the address database, which requires local background and knowledge in order to locate and identify high-quality address databases.

The target audience of the Muscle Man mailer was IT decision-makers and professionals responsible for networks and security. With the success of the VeriSign U.K. campaign, the Muscle Man mailer is now being adapted for the VeriSign Denmark region, and possibly additional European markets.

About MaCS, Inc.
MaCS, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of MaCS GmbH, a European full-service B2B communications agency with headquarters in Oberschleissheim near Munich, Germany. Since 1994, MaCS has focused on delivering creative and effective marketing communications and public relations for the European IT and high tech industry. MaCS helps technology companies enter and succeed in Europe by providing the most innovative marketing techniques in the business. Worldwide, MaCS maintains offices in San Francisco, Munich and London. For more information, visit http://www.macs-us.com.

About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN) delivers intelligent infrastructure services that make the Internet and telecommunications networks more reliable and secure. Every day VeriSign helps thousands of businesses and millions of consumers conduct commerce and communications with confidence. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com.

About NorCal BMA
Northern California Business Marketing Association (NorCal BMA) is the only professional association in Northern California dedicated to serving the educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers and their partner suppliers. NorCal BMA is a not-for-profit organization and part of the Business Marketing Association, an international organization focused solely on professionals who market to business. Further information about the organization can be found at www.marketing.org.