Set up in memory of direct marketing champion and former WWAV Rapp Collins boss, John Young, the DMA Scotland run event promotes the hottest emerging talent in the sector. In addition to the prestige of being named DMA Young Spark, the winner will receive a £1000 cash prize and also receive mentoring from an industry guru specialising in the winner’s chosen field.

Steve Leach, a winner of International Entrepreneur of the Year and CEO of the world’s largest digital agency, will chair a panel of judges who will select the winner of the Award. Joining him on the judging panel are Dave Mullen, co-founder and creative director of Story, Peter Wilde, of Experian Integrated Marketing, and Clara Avery, Macmillan Cancer Charity’s head of direct marketing and sales.

DMA believes the award, sponsored by Experian, is important for promoting future industry leaders, rewarding talented young practitioners and as a recruitment tool for people thinking of a career in direct marketing.

For more information, please visit www.youngsparkaward.co.uk.

The DMA is to restructure its Board as part of a strategic review which began earlier this year. As a result the current Board will step down in November 2008 and will be replaced by a new smaller Executive Board who will have overall responsibility for the administration and operation of the Association and fulfil the necessary legal duties.

The Advisory Council, which will elect the new Board, will focus on the strategic issues facing DMA members and the direct marketing industry and will co-ordinate a number of sub groups looking at these specific issues.

All senior DMA members are eligible and encouraged to stand for the Advisory Council and the DMA has sent out nomination papers to all the electoral classification groups. There is one vacancy in each of the electoral classification groups, apart from the client group where there are 10 vacancies. The deadline for nominations and requests for changes of electoral classification groups is Friday 29 August 2008.

The Commission is modelled on well-established self-regulatory bodies that have provided effective consumer protection in the UK over almost 50 years; its structural independence and its status as a separate company from the industry’s trade body, the DMA, will bolster confidence amongst its wide-ranging constituencies. It is the first regulatory body whose remit extends to both DMA and non-DMA members and it will investigate complaints about direct marketing from any source about any company operating in the UK. To fulfil its consumer protection role the Commission will ensure that direct marketers observe the Code of Practice on Direct Marketing, while maintaining a level competitive playing field for practitioners.

For more information about the Direct Marketing Commission, please visit www.dmcommission.com.