Message from Ken Daly, ERA Global Chairman 2019

Dear ERA GLOBAL Family,

I am delighted to be able to report to you that some excellent progress has been made recently to develop our Association to better serve our members, following a Board Meeting last week in Malta.

Firstly, we have agreed a new membership pricing structure which will be effective 1st January 2020.  The objectives of the new structure are as follows:

1.       Reduce fees for the vast majority of members to make ERA even better value for money.

2.       Simplify the structure and make it easier to understand.

3.      Attract more new companies as a result of the above as well as retain our existing membership.

In addition, it is our hope that by reducing fees and simplifying the structure, companies are more likely to pay the correct membership dues.  Our pricing is based on member revenues, with the larger companies asked to pay commensurately a bigger share.  Unfortunately, at present a significant proportion of members are declaring revenues that are lower than reality, and therefore are not paying their fair share of the Association’s costs.  This has forced pricing upwards in the past and has meant that the other members have had to shoulder a larger share of the burden than would have otherwise been the case.  With a fresh start in 2020, we think that most members should be very happy to declare their correct current revenues to ERA (in confidence) and will therefore make the appropriate contribution.

It’s worth reiterating that ERA GLOBAL is a true ‘not for profit’ organisation.  In 2019 we are projected to make only a very small surplus of around 600 euros.  We are however in a strong financial position thanks to cash reserves that were built up a few years ago, roughly totalling six months of our running costs.  These remain on deposit as a ‘safety cushion’ should we ever need them.  In recent years we have been running as a roughly ‘breakeven’ operation.  Going forward, if all the existing members pay the correct annual fees (even though in many cases these will be substantially reduced) and we are successful in attracting new companies, then ERA GLOBAL will be able to fund additional member benefits, or reduce the fees further.

ERA GLOBAL is an organisation run exclusively for members, by members.  Everyone on the Board (currently 10 people) are volunteers from member companies. They are elected by the membership every two years at the AGM.  If you or one of your colleagues are interested in joining the Board then please let me know as we are keen to have the widest representation possible without the numbers getting unwieldy.  We shall also shortly publish our accounts for all members to examine, and with regular updates so everyone shall be able to see where their membership fees are being spent.  In the meantime you will be pleased to note that the travel and accommodation costs of the Board Members at the aforementioned meeting in Malta were funded by the individual Board members’ and their companies.

The new pricing structure, effective from 1st January 2020 is as follows:

TABLE OF MEMBERSHIP FEES 2020

Rev/ €                  Fee p.a.

0,5 Mio. €            1.000 €

5 Mio. €                 3.000 €

10 Mio. €              4.500 €

20 Mio. €              6.000 €

Above                 10.000 €

In addition we shall be establishing a ‘Platinum Member’ package.  This will be priced at 15,000 euros and will include a whole host of special extra benefits, including branding on our website, marketing materials, sponsoring of awards at our conferences etc.  Full details to follow in due course.

There is further excellent progress to report following our Board Meeting:

Chicago Meeting Room

As previously announced in the last newsletter, as an exclusive ERA GLOBAL member benefit, will shall be providing a large meeting room during the Inspired Home Show in Chicago next year (this used to be called the International Home & Housewares Show).  Dates are 14-17 March 2020.  The room will be very close to the show floors at McCormick Place.  In the room you will find refreshments, tables and chairs, friendly faces of course and it will be a great place to take a break or meet with your ERA colleagues.  These facilities are provided to members Free of Charge.  However unfortunately the show organisers have stipulated that non-ERA members are not allowed to use the room.  There shall be an opportunity to sponsor this room and book a dedicated area for your company’s use.  Details to follow shortly.  We shall also be conducting a quick survey of member companies to find out how many people are attending Chicago and how many are likely to use the room so we can better gauge catering requirements.  Please support us by responding to this survey.

Frankfurt Members’ Meeting

In 2020 we shall be holding our annual Members’ Meeting in Frankfurt on Thursday 6th February, immediately before the Ambiente show which starts on the following day.  This will enable people who go to the show to more easily attend the ERA meeting if they wish to do so.  At this event the Board holds a meeting, but we also have our Annual General Meeting which is open to all members.  It is an ideal time for the Board to update everyone on matters relevant to our members and it is an opportunity for members to ask questions, make suggestions and provide feedback.  It’s also a good networking event and there is a dinner open to all members who would like to join us.  We warmly invite all members to join us.  Further details will follow.

European Conference – Amsterdam 9-11 June 2020

Good progress is being made preparing for our annual European conference, being held at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam 9-11 June 2020.  Registration will be open in the New Year.

Further Shows

We are actively considering establishing new additional ERA GLOBAL conferences outside of Europe, possibly in the USA and/or Asia.  Any feedback on this matter would be welcome.

New Members

We are delighted to let you know that as a result of the developments at ERA GLOBAL, we are attracting many new members.   To follow is a list of companies that have joined ERA GLOBAL in 2019.  There are companies in our industry – we are just waiting for them to sign the paperwork!

LIST OF CONFIRMED NEW MEMBERS (in alphabetical order)

Conference and PR Director

As you may have seen from our last newsletter, we have recruited our first full time member of staff to assist our CEO, Dr Julian Oberndoerfer.  Ionela Croitorescu joined us at the beginning of October and has been working hard to help organise Amsterdam and the new events that we have been planning.  Ionela will also be helping with all communications to members.  Ionela joined us towards the end of our recent Board meeting in order to meet the individual Board members and to help assess the hotel in Malta as a potential location for a future conference.

Weekly Membership News

Currently we produce a newsletter which is electronically distributed three times a year.  We plan to continue with this.  However, we want to increase the frequency and relevance of our communications and provide up to date industry news and ERA updates that are relevant to members.  We shall therefore be launching a weekly email news update and this will be put together by Ionela.  I know Ionela will be very keen to receive news and information from you so she will be in touch to provide her contact details.

UK ERA Chapter

For many years ERA had an active UK Chapter (subsidiary).  The reason for this was that a high proportion of ERA Europe’s membership came from the UK and a local organisation was absorbed by the Association.  An important member benefit from this was that ERA Europe/GLOBAL has the right to a seat on the BCAP Board.  This is a regulatory organisation in the UK designed to determine advertising standards.

We have appointed Simon Hinton Secretary General of the UK Chapter.  Simon’s role will be to organise UK meetings and take the seat on the BCAP Board representing ERA GLOBAL.

Simon will be well known to UK members as he organises the infamous ‘DRTV drinks’ held every year in London!!

APAC ERA Chapter

We have recently established an Asia Pacific Chapter and this is headed by Jon Gregory of Oak Lawn Marketing/ Shop Japan.  Jon is also a member of the ERA GLOBAL Board. If you did not have a chance to read it, here is an article in our newsletter about Jon and the APAC chapter. The APAC Chapter will be a forum to exchange information and network, to expand and promote self-regulation, to organize specific educational sessions, to represent the industry with the official authorities and to attract more members (product suppliers and technology partners) from the APAC region to expand our network.

Other Chapters under consideration

We are actively considering whether to establish additional chapters to better represent GLOBAL regions.

Most of our communications are now branded ERA GLOBAL as we have transitioned from being a European organisation.  Now 28% of our members are from outside of Europe and this number is growing fast.  One of things that we are keen to do is move away from lots of other brands, especially at our conference where we have had acronyms such as MCMS which perhaps few people understand.  We also have a quality seal which looks different and we think all of this could be confusing.  So we are going to make all of these different elements consistent so that they are all clearly branded ERA GLOBAL with the familiar logo.  We will probably keep the EMMAs at our Conference(s) as we do think this is a nice one.  This is where we have our gala dinner and present awards to the best examples of work in our industry.  But we shall make it clear that these are the ERA GLOBAL EMMAs (a bit like the Oscars!).  Btw, EMMA stands for ‘ERA Multi Channel Multi Screen Awards, believe it or not!

So that’s it for our update from the Board Meeting in Malta.  All that remains for me to say is that if I don’t see/hear from you beforehand, I wish you, your families and your colleagues and very happy, successful and peaceful Christmas and New Year!

Kind regards,

Ken Daly

Chairman of the Board, ERA GLOBAL