Considering Speaking like a Newsreader

Most of the following UK celebrity speakers, presenters and television personalities are available for dinners, personal appearances, ads and conferences in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales - and indeed, worldwide. Some celebs will also host awards ceremonies and presentations.

Recent data suggests that the vast majority of people spend a portion of their time regularly listening to the radio. So, if these people were to include your target market, might it make sense to send them a little message about you services or products? I was listening to radio 2 the other time on BBC radio and I heard the news. I was actually impressed with how clear the newsreaders had been speaking. Whenever, I attempt to speak on the microphone or even just leave a message on my telephone, I sound all weird! Be friendly, but avoid being cute. Speak in a warm, friendly voice that lets your personality show through, but don’t try to be cute or funny-it’s not professional, and it could easily backfire.Some of the best inside the company inside voiceover arena include Richard Cartridge and a number of that crowd. You may think the radio announcers you listen to on the daily basis are awesome at what is named the “Ad Lib” in the company.

The majority of them aren’t. What these are is expert, creative, funny and most importantly prepared. Quite a few best morning shows have expert writers who are behind the scenes feeding material on the “on air talent” as the show progresses. Other people invest hours researching present events and planning what will be included inside day-to-day show.That’s mainly because, frankly, I will not typically get it very challenging to acquire return calls from the voice mail messages I leave. Not even from complete strangers, renowned authors, top-level executives, etc.

The Affinion Group

Before Affinion Group’s inception in 2005, the firm operated as CUC International, Benefit Consultants, Comp-U-Card, and Cendant. At present, the group has for its subsidiaries Progeny Marketing Innovations, Affinion International, Trilegiant Corporation (TLG), Affinion Security Center, and Affinion Loyalty Group. The company is managed by Apollo Management LP and its assets came from Cendant Corporation, now known as Avis Budget Group.

Affinion offers loyalty programs, insurance, memberships, and package insurance as part of its functions as an affinity marketer. It is a discount supplier of shopping, dental, health, club buying, consumer protection, and travel assistances based on membership.

In tracing the Affinion Group’s history, it is important to note that Comp-U-Card first provided membership goods via the establishment of Comp-U-Card of America, Inc. (CUC) in 1973. From 1985 to 1986, Comp-U-Card of America obtained Financial Institution Services Inc. and Madison Financial Corporation’s the package and insurance enrichment products. CUC later bought National Card Control Inc. And in 1997, CUC collaborated with HFS Incorporated and created Cendant Corporation. Their products were re-branded as Cendant International Membership Services. In 2001, the products were once again re-branded, this time as Trilegiant Loyalty Solutions.

In 2004, Trilegiant Corporation updated its organizational structure to incorporate separately-developed products. After one year, Trilegiant and Cendant sealed a purchase arrangement that saw Affinion buy Cendant’s equity interests of what is now known as Affinion Group, LLC.

In 2007’s second quarter, the business obtained the ID/data theft protection assistance called CardCops, backing its already-established ID theft and credit tracking products.

In 2008, the company put up the Affinion Security Center, which offers customers and firms reliable solutions, consultancy assistances and products for data breach and ID theft incidents.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinion_Group

Jeff Clarke Explains Travelport’s Cost Cutting Initiative

In a recent interview with Travel Management, Travelport and Orbitz CEO Jeff Clarke explained Travelports $75 million cost-cutting initiative. Jeff Clarke wanted to reassure customers that Travelport is not taking away resources from its customers or technology.

“There is not a customer out there that is not looking to constantly reengineer the organization and optimize their cost structure,” Jeff Clarke said. “Given the scale of our firm, where we have over $1 billion a year in operating expenses, a $75 million cut is a relatively modest cut.” Jeff Clarke put things in perspective as he pointed out the 20 acquisitions Travelport had made over the past four years. “We are just now shifting the focus toward intense integration and execution,” said Jeff Clarke.

Jeff Clarke intends to do away with duplication and inefficient procedures within the company. “We strongly believe that if a department is doing ten things, most likely those things are too diffused to be successful in all of them. So we have asked each of our departments to prioritize everything they do in a forced rank, and we have asked people to redeploy, in a Darwinian way, their activities toward the most important areas,” Jeff Clarke pointed out.

Jeff Clarke was quick to point out that he has no intention of driving his employees harder. “It’s a reprioritization. We had been working on over 250 enhancements to Galileo. Many of those were pet projects and had multiple-quarter deliverables. Most of them looked like good things to do on paper, but no organization can operate on 250 items at the same time.” Jeff Clarke explained what is real motivation behind the cost cutting. “By reprioritizing, we believe we can do fewer, more strategic things and save money at the same time,” Jeff Clark said.

Intelius Eyes Asian Online Market

Naveen Jain and Intelius have gone a long way since the former Microsoft executive founded the leading online information provider after leaving InfoSpace, a company which he also founded. Indeed, Intelius has surged and expanded into the admirable company that it is today.

Growth and expansion are definitely on Naveen Jain’s mind for 2009. Intelius, an online information provider co-founded and headed by Naveen Jain, acquired the China-based Ucloo.com. Ucloo.com is the first and only search engine dedicated to Chinese users and the Chinese market.

The Bellevue, Washington-anchored Intelius will include in the acquisition Ucloo.com’s offices in China and its 72 employees, aiming to keep the acquired company’s structure intact. With this buyout, Intelius will have a firm foothold on the online market of Asia.

The buyout may also prove to be a good move for Intelius as China’s economy has been constantly showing significant growth. With Ucloo.com’s capabilities, the Naveen Jain-led Intelius may secure a strong grasp of the market in Asia and may even establish a strong inside presence in the region’s online commerce.

Ucloo.com’s coverage is also significant, as the company updates 200 million personal data information with up to 800,000-1,000,000 data fields daily. All profiles are complete with names, contact information, education/work backgrounds, web references, reputation/credit histories, online activities, and other important personal details.

Naveen Jain’s Intelius bought Ucloo.com, its interests and assets, for a total of $48 million. The deal was closed in the 4th quarter of 2008.