DMA Releases 'New Media Emergence in DM & Brand'; To Host May 7 Virtual Seminar

May 1, 2008 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) yesterday released “New Media Emergence in DM & Brand,” a report that investigates Web 2.0 as the platform which converges all marketing. The new DMA study addresses a wide range of issues surrounding direct marketing and branding, and specifically, their integration of new Web 2.0 new media, including blogs, virtual words, social networks, user-generated content, RSS feeds, and Wikis.

As a complement to the report, DMA will host a virtual seminar on Wednesday, May 7 on “Using New Media — The Link Between DM & Brand.” This one-hour session (1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT) will cover the new report. Speakers Eugenia Steingold, Ph.D., DMA’s senior research manager who authored the report, and John Flores, vice president and chief strategy officer for GraficaGroup, will outline steps to help participants harness the power of the new media.

According to Dr. Steingold, three related objectives of the new report are: to examine how new media is being used for brand building, to examine how new media is being employed for direct marketing (DM), and to investigate the possibilities created by new media for the integration of DM and brand (how they are being used and which of them are effective).

“Web 2.0 provides a natural platform for integrating DM and brand,” said Dr. Steingold. “It enables marketers to create a real-time dialogue with each individual customer. It invites both marketers and their customers to work together to create the content that would increase brand awareness, improve brand perception, and generate both sales and leads.”

“The tracking opportunities that the Internet provides are enormous, and each marketing campaign can be carefully monitored and evaluated,” continued Dr. Steingold. “And most importantly, Web 2.0 provides marketers with the multiple tools and techniques to create a vibrant community of loyal customers.”

Some key findings from the “New Media Emergence in DM & Brand” report include:

· 84 percent of marketing respondents use Web 2.0 and rate it as a highly effective way to create a loyal community of customers

· The most frequently used Web 2.0 tool is not the most effective for brand building

· The most underutilized Web 2.0 elements are blogs and user generated content

· 85 percent of respondents are using Web 2.0 to build one-to-one relationships with their customers

· More than 80 percent employ Web 2.0 to generate leads and sales

· 82 percent allocated a quarter or less of their marketing budget towards Web 2.0

· 70 percent of those who report that they are experts in interactive marketing also allocate about a quarter of their budget to Web 2.0

The cost of “New Media Emergence in DM & Brand” is $295 for DMA members and $545 for non-members. The report is also available for downloading at DMA’s Bookstore. To purchase, please click here.

For information on DMA’s virtual seminar, “Using New Media — The Link Between DM & Brand,” which will be held Wednesday, May 7 from 1 to 2 p.m., click here or visit http://www.the-dma.org/seminars/newmedia. Registration is $149 for DMA members, and $199 for non-members.

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