DMA Releases Revised Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for Q4 2009

March 4, 2010 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today released its updated Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for the fourth quarter of 2009.

For the first time DMA has published this report in conjunction with Winterberry Group, a leading strategic management consulting firm that helps advertising and marketing companies build shareholder value. Working together, DMA and Winterberry Group have given new life to the eight-year-old report.

The new version of this report has more context and information on digital media trends than previous editions which reflect the real-world. Two important facts stemming from this report prove it: the majority of marketers are increasing their total marketing spending this year; and those dollars are shifting to digital channels with email and search remaining stable or even growing in Q4. It also has expanded the scope of analysis to include brief commentary and survey participant feedback that provide an additional depth to the factors that are driving substantial changes in the direct and digital landscape today. QBR now provides a more streamlined, succinct view of the most relevant trends shaping today’s marketing opportunities by focusing the research on six key economic indicators: DM Spending; DM-Produced Revenue; Profitability; Staffing; Media Mix; and Performance by Media.

“Shifting economic winds, emerging technology and the proliferation of data have brought about significant changes in the direct and digital marketing world over the last few years,” said Jonathan Margulies, a director at Winterberry Group. “Our goal was to develop a report that was responsive to those developments while remaining approachable, insightful, and relevant.”

“As the world adjusts to the many changes taking place, we realized just how important a resource QBR is for marketers to have in their arsenal, and that all the useful and cutting-edge information it contains should be easy to find and at their fingertips,” said Yoram Wurmser, DMA research manager. “The new format is much more straightforward and for the first time we have included significant information on digital media trends and clear, at-a-glance charts identifying the signs of continued recovery from the recession.”

Some key findings include:

· The majority of marketers (51.2 percent) expect they will increase total marketing spending in 2010. Another third of marketers (just over 33 percent) say they expect to maintain budgets at 2009 levels.

· Staffing across the marketing industry remained relatively consistent during Q4 2009 with 68.3 percent of marketers and 60.3 percent of suppliers indicating that they maintained existing staffing levels from Q3 2009, further reinforcing the trend of economic stabilization.

· Marketers continue to shift dollars to digital marketing channels with both email and search showing stable or growing investment in Q4 as compared to the previous quarter as well as the same period in 2008.

· Though marketers said channel-specific ROI performance remained down across the board (as compared to that generated from Q3 2009), email and search saw the least drop-off in value generated.

About DMA’s Quarterly Business Review

DMA’s Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for the fourth quarter of 2009 is based on three online surveys deployed to DMA’s house list. The surveys were conducted by DMA’s Research and Market Intelligence department from December 14, 2008 through January 10, 2010. Altogether DMA received 451 usable survey responses.

The report is free for DMA members, and non-members can purchase a copy for $49.95 from DMA’s Bookstore by clicking here.

About Winterberry Group

Winterberry Group is a unique, global strategic consulting firm that helps advertising and marketing companies grow shareholder value. Based in New York, it offers a combination of corporate strategy, market intelligence and merger‐and‐acquisition due diligence support services aimed at helping clients identify opportunities for growth and achieve transformative results. The Firm’s global stable of clients includes service providers, marketers and financial investors representing every segment of the advertising and marketing industries, including Acxiom Corporation, Alterian plc., American Capital Strategies, arvato Services / Bertelsmann AG, Canada Post Corporation, Capital One Financial Corp., The Carlyle Group, Direct Group, Eastman Kodak Company, eCircle AG, Hewlett‐Packard Co., IWCO Direct, MediMedia USA, Meredith, Onex Corporation, Rosetta, Transcontinental, Inc., Xerox and Yahoo!.

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

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