Direct Group Opens Gateway to B2B Marketers Interested in Reaching 22+ Million European Companies

Direct Group Now Provides One-Stop Access To Any U.S. and European Business

(Pennington, N.J.) January 7, 2010—Direct Group , a fully integrated direct marketing services provider, has announced a reciprocal agreement with Sweden-based European data specialist, PAR AB that will give Direct Group clients access to PAR’s EuroContactPool database. Now, U.S. marketers will have a one-stop shop for European business-to-business (B2B) data that adheres to all the differing data regulations across the UK and continental Europe.

This agreement marks the first time that Direct Group will offer European data directly to its clients while opening a fully regulated gateway to 14 European countries for U.S.-based businesses and the list brokers who represent them.

PAR AB’s EuroContactPool is the world’s fastest-growing pan-European business-to-business database, currently covering 22 million companies and 16.4 million named executives across 16 countries in Europe covering approximately 80% of the total European market.

In return, PAR will offer Direct Group’s U.S. B2B database to its European customers. Direct Group manages data representing more than 26 million businesses and 50 million contacts across practically every location and industry in the United States.

Per Löfgren, international product director for PAR AB, said, “This is a perfect time to bring together two of the world’s preeminent B2B databases. The EuroContactPool database offers a unique solution to Direct Group and its clients in that Europe can be a difficult market to enter due to different data regulations in each country. Our program overcomes all those very real problems by only including data that adheres to the regulations of the country where it originates.”

EuroContactPool also forms the platform for PAR’s European data quality services, which enable automatic monitoring, updating, and enhancement of companies’ records. The recent development of PAR Manager plug-ins for Microsoft Dynamics and SuperOffice CRM systems enables data to be transferred and updated seamlessly between EuroContactPool and customers’ in-house databases. A plug-in for SalesForce.com is due for release shortly.

“Direct Group is proud to partner with PAR in bringing critical data to U.S. companies looking to initiate or broaden their marketing and sales efforts targeted to European markets,” said Ken Palma, vice president - database marketing, Direct Group. “We are equally excited about PAR marketing our own unique U.S. business data to European companies. Together with PAR, we now can provide best-in-class data for both U.S. and European markets.”

Löfgren added, “With U.S. companies increasingly looking to develop global business, and European countries eager to develop contacts in the United States, this is a perfect match. We’re delighted to have reached this agreement with Direct Group.”

For information on the EuroContactPool database, contact: Scott Bamford, senior manager - Data Services at Direct Group’s Database Marketing Division, at 732-980-0505 x154 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).