Fred Schebesta awarded Australian Young Direct Marketer of the year

Last night at the ADMA Awards night I was announced the Australian young Direct marketer of the year for 2006. After winning the NSW Young Direct Marketer of the year I went into another round of interviews and presentations. I had to present work that we at Freestyle Media had done and show the following criteria:

• Knowledge of the direct marketing discipline
• Success in applying it
• Contribution to the industry
• Ability to be an ambassador for the Association as the winner will represent ADMA overseas

Last night at the award night at the State theatre in Sydney it all felt very surreal. Over 750 people listened and heard myself announced as the young direct marketer of the year. I had to give an acceptance speech which I loved doing. (I love public speaking.) I said in my speech that it was a sign of the times that a online marketer could be announced as the Young direct marketer of the year. (This comment started some good conversation with the print people afterwoods!) I then went on to thank the Freestyle Media team for all their contributions to winning this award. I said that without them this award would never have been possible. From the web design, web development, copywriting, media buying, search marketing, finance, admin, accounting and internet marketing this all contributed to making the award possible. I concluded with thanking Michael Kiely for his tutorlidge and Rob Edwards for his forsight in seeing where direct marketing is headed. I thanked the clients I have worked with including Sanitarium, Laser Sight, University of Newcastle, Qantas Holidays, McDoanlds Australia and am looking forward to delivering more award winning work for new ones.

I appreciate everyones support throughout these times and look forward to the internet marketing seminar which I will be able to help a lot of corporate businesses unlock the potential of their online marketing.