What are the best practices for going global with direct marketing? We led the Direct Marketing Association’s Fundamentals of International Marketing seminar along with the DMA’s Charles Prescott and WorldVu‘s Merry Law. Our presentation focused on e-GDP and the Availability Quotient, helping delegates understand which countries and languages make the most sense for online marketing.

The conference presentations were chock-a-block with statistics and other data which we’ll share in upcoming reports. We found one set of stats particularly interesting, especially in light of our advice on which world markets matter the most and how deceptive emerging markets like India can be. Of 100 people in the world, you will find the following distributions:

• Gender: 50 females, 50 males
• Country or continent of origin: 61 Asians, 21 Chinese, 17 Indians, 13 Africans, 12 Europeans, 5 U.S., and 1 Australian or New Zealander
• Religion: 32 Christians, 68 non-Christians, 19 Muslims, 8 Buddhists, 1 Jew
• Language: 22 speak a Chinese dialect, 9 speak English, 8 speak Hindi
• Literacy: 88 are old enough to read, 17 cannot read at all, 1 is a teacher

Finally, one of the speakers presented a Dutch site that owes much to Rube Goldberg — take a look at Hema, but make sure that your Adobe Flash player is current.