(Source: MARKETWIRE)DMA09 Conference and Exhibition -- Portrait Software, a leading provider of insight-driven customer interaction software, today presented Jane Muelhaupt, vice president of consumer direct at U.S. Bank, with its first annual "Uplift Award" at the DMA 09 Conference. The Uplift Award honors companies which have demonstrated innovative use of uplift modeling techniques to achieve outstanding incremental increases in marketing campaign response rates.

U.S. Bank was selected as the first recipient of the award for its use of uplift modeling techniques within both the deposit and credit sides of its consumer banking business. Their results delivered over a $1 million increase in incremental revenue from just two campaigns in early 2009. One of these campaigns achieved a 189 percent year-on-year increase in incremental responses coupled with a reduction in mailing volumes by 20 percent -- further increasing campaign profitability. In a second notable success, U.S. Bank used uplift modeling for take up of its Direct Deposit accounts. The results were a 73 percent increase in incremental accounts opened from a single campaign, together with a 32 percent reduction in mailing volumes.

"Portrait Uplift Optimizer has automated much of the model refresh process for U.S. Bank," commented U.S. Bank vice president of consumer direct, Jane Muelhaupt. "It used to take weeks for our internal team to create a new model. Now it takes days, and this allows us to use the technique on many more campaigns. We have surpassed our results expectations for these two campaigns, and seeing the effectiveness of modeling on incremental gains rather than all responses, we are constantly expanding our use of Uplift to other areas of the business. We appreciate this recognition of our team's work and achievement and look forward to a continued partnership with Portrait Software."

"We are delighted to debut this outstanding achievement award with U.S. Bank as our first recipient," says Mark Smith, EVP, Portrait Software. "Jane and her team have raised the bar with their strategic use of Portrait Uplift Optimizer and the incredible revenue results they have achieved so far this year. Jane is a visionary marketer who decided some years ago to focus on the true incremental impact of her campaigns -- looking to target campaigns based on a prediction of lift, not just measure lift after the campaign.