At the DMA 2008 Conference & Exhibition today, Acxiom^® Corporation (Nasdaq: ACXM) announced a joint case study with Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network, that highlighted Acxiom’s innovative customer intelligence solutions as the key to impressive results for Alltel Wireless’ “My Circle” direct marketing campaigns.

When Alltel Wireless launched its ground-breaking “My Circle” calling product, for the first time customers could enjoy unlimited calling to any 10 numbers – on any network – for free. The market responded enthusiastically, with “My Circle” popularity contributing to consistent year-over-year revenue growth.

As a result of the popularity of “My Circle,” the direct marketing team at Alltel Wireless quickly realized that to improve the customer experience, it needed to automate a portion of the company’s customer lifecycle management (CLM) communications to deliver the right messages to the right consumer at the right time.

“Our siloed sources of customer data and limited prospecting data were restricting our abilities to engage with customers and potential customers,” said Tara Llewellyn, director of direct marketing for Alltel Wireless.

The team engaged Acxiom Corporation, the global leader in interactive marketing services, to improve the precision, relevance and sophistication of its direct communications. Acxiom worked closely with the Alltel Wireless team to deliver a set of solutions that anchored the entire campaign process. Acxiom combined its data products and customer intelligence with Alltel Wireless customer data and prospect list for targeted segmentation based on actual customer behavior and real household composites.

“Acxiom’s customer intelligence is designed to help marketers acquire and retain more high-value customers, and to cross-sell and up-sell existing customers while strengthening loyalty,” said Greg Hogue, Acxiom’s industry executive. “Our marketing solutions provide deep insight into the look of our clients’ best customers to discover how they act and where they come from.”

A daily customer lifecycle management engine automated customer communications and delivered relevant direct marketing messages at precise times in the customer lifecycle. Through advanced analytics, Alltel Wireless gained a deeper understanding of its customers and prospects, and produced detailed reporting on campaign effectiveness to drive continuous improvement.

“We now communicate with our customers 285 percent more than before the Acxiom solution implementation,” Llewellyn said. “Our automated ‘My Circle’ direct marketing campaigns have been very successful in driving increased adoption of ‘My Circle,’ at a fraction of the cost of traditional direct mail campaigns.”

Due to Acxiom’s solutions, Alltel Wireless’ direct marketing team now efficiently manages more than 300 direct marketing initiatives yearly, many of which feature automated CLM campaigns using direct mail, email, outbound voice and text messaging.

“Our number one brand differentiator is ‘My Circle,’” said Chuck Toomer, vice president of direct marketing at Alltel Wireless. “We use Acxiom’s solutions to enable better communications with customers about the product, which is the cornerstone of their relationship with us.”

Using PersonicX^®, Acxiom’s household-level segmentation system, Alltel Wireless can target potential customers based on consumer behavior and demographic variables. The data also allows Alltel Wireless to design communications that speak specifically to certain customer groups. With cleansed contact information and centralized customer data, Alltel can personalize communications with relevant information such as the customer's first name and account details.

“It’s very much a complete solution,” added Toomer. “We impact customers throughout the entire lifecycle, and our campaigns are executed at a level that is pretty incredible. There’s a lot of attention given by our team and Acxiom on targeting, testing, evaluating results and improving the next campaign.”

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About Acxiom

The global leader in interactive marketing services, Acxiom connects clients with their customers through deep consumer insight, powering effective and profitable marketing initiatives and business decisions. Our consultative approach spans multiple industries and incorporates decades of experience in consumer data and analytics, information technology, data integration and consulting solutions for effective marketing across digital, Internet, email, mobile and direct mail channels. Founded in 1969, Acxiom is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., and serves clients around the world from locations in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. For more information about Acxiom, visit www.acxiom.com.

Acxiom is a registered trademark of Acxiom Corporation.

About Alltel Wireless

Alltel is owner and operator of the nation’s largest wireless network and has more than 13 million customers. For more information about Alltel, please visit www.alltel.com.