The Affinity Group has pulled together its various lists under one roof and is attempting to rejuvenate its marketing efforts by naming AZ Marketing, Cos Cob, CT, as sole list manager.
The 11 files represent more than 2 million names in the sports and outdoors areas. They were previously managed at six different firms.
“We are hoping the ability to have it all together will allow us to come up with different types of records, and some multidivisional or combined databases,” said Jim Vanthournout, director of marketing database for Affinity, Ventura, CA.
The decision to consolidate the lists was made during Affinity's effort to create a marketing database. The firm wanted to start looking outside the normal areas of usage and take advantage of the demographics of its combined files.
“We wanted a fresh approach,” Vanthournout said. “We had just got stuck in a rut of doing the same thing as last year. A lot of the testing and marketing had fallen off.”
Affinity clubs related to the RV industry were the company's original focus and still make up the majority of its list portfolio. The 935,000-name Highways Magazine/The Good Sam Club membership and subscription file is Affinity's largest property followed by the 222,000-name Trailer Life Magazine and the 111,000-name MotorHome Magazine subscriber lists.
That RV focus was expanded to the retail and catalog markets two years ago when it acquired Camping World and its 262,000-name buyers list. The Affinity file also includes the 115,000-name Golf Card membership list, the 83,000-name Rider Magazine and 25,000-name America Rider Magazine lists as well as lists from Snow Goer Magazine and Bow Hunter Magazine.
