The Tide of Change

The September 28 issue of DMNews included a news brief that the Direct Marketing Association, the national trade organization, is considering repositioning its entire organization around interactive marketing, and may consider changing its name. While this may seem like a small story, it has a profound impact on a significant segment of the advertising industry.

Direct marketing is clearly at a crossroad, with the current recession being the tipping point. Surveys and commentary abound illustrating that marketers are moving their money into online venues. However, historically (and unfortunately), direct marketers have not claimed the internet as their territory. Yet, when it comes to "targeting" and "measuring" (hallmarks of direct marketers), online applications like paid or organic search, web advertising, personalized URLs, micro-site landing pages, web-based CRM and email, are clearly within the direct marketing skill set.

As a results-oriented agency, we at DMC Advertising are also moving away from using the term "direct marketing" to describe our services because people equate it with "direct mail". We utilize all forms of targeted, response-oriented media applications, especially those online. Our focus will continue to be on sending relevant messages to highly targeted audiences, regardless of the medium. Any marketer who values the benefits of targeting, testing and measuring needs to remain current with the ever changing technologies that impact our industry.