DAC Group swept each of the award categories in which it submitted entries, and has now won more awards (11) - and more gold awards (eight) - than any other Certified Marketing Representative over the past three years. In addition to recognition for CMRs performing outstanding directional marketing services on behalf of their clients, YPA award recipients include publishers, marketers and associated companies that contribute to a $31 billion dollar industry worldwide.

"The Industry Excellence Awards recognise those that are driving innovation and success in our industry and helping national and local advertisers achieve superior results with the Yellow Pages products," says Neg Norton, YPA president.

In the National Advertiser Print Success category, DAC Group won gold for its work with Direct Energy, one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers. Direct Energy sought directory advertising that was both competitive and affordable for its non-gas service offerings. DAC recommended a strategic plan that met both mandates. The result was increased profitability, new sources of revenue, and higher brand awareness.

DAC also won gold for outstanding results for Western Union, the financial services and communications company that provides consumers with fast,
reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world. DAC
Group analyzed in-house data from leads generated over a 10-year period for
Western Union. DAC was able to demonstrate that the leads had a higher quality
and value than previously thought.

In the National Advertiser Electronic Products Success category, DAC took top honours for multi-platform work with GE Appliance Repair. The DAC team helped GE generate more clicks and more calls for service appointments in 2008 by executing a multi-platform plan that included print yellow pages Internet yellow pages and local search engine marketing and optimization. As a result, GE lowered its customer acquisition costs and achieved improved overall return-on-investment.

Lawn Doctor, another DAC client, won bronze in the same category. DAC Group helped the renowned lawn care company find qualified homeowners during the right seasons, on the right IYP sites, and in the right landscaping categories.

And DAC Group again won top honours in the Process Innovation category for iPID, the intelligent Publisher Information Database. iPID is a central database that collects and processes all publisher promotions and categorizes the data by publisher and region. By automating several hundred thousand publisher offers annually, iPID optimizes each of DAC's client budgets, including the agency's clients that negotiate special pricing discounts from the publishers.