Kenneth Cole, Shelly Lazarus, Jimmy Wales and John Adams to Keynote at DMA07; Conference Set for Oct. 13 18 in Chicago

August 24, 2007 — Marketing acumen comes in all forms — from a shoe guru to a Web wizard — and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has four of the field’s top experts keynoting during the DMA07 Conference & Exhibition, the six-day multichannel marketing event of the year, which will be held October 13–18 at Chicago’s McCormick Place West.

The four DMA07 keynoters are: John B. Adams, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of The Martin Agency; Kenneth Cole, chairman and CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions; Shelly Lazarus, chairman and chief executive officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide; and Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, president of Wikia Inc. and founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

“DMA07’s four keynote presenters come from different areas of the marketing world, and yet each is a major influence in today’s data-driven, multichannel marketing environment,” said DMA Group Show Director Paul McDonnough. “Each of them has created or significantly shaped iconic brands. Each is widely respected in the greater marketing community for innovation and visionary leadership. Each has played a major role in harnessing the marketing capabilities of new technologies to serve consumers and businesses. And each has a powerful story to tell — and we will be hearing those stories and learning from these four masters of their games at DMA07.”

John B. Adams, Jr., Chairman and CEO, The Martin Agency

Sunday, October 14

On Sunday, October 14 at 11:30 a.m., the head of the advertising agency that spawned the iconic GEICO gecko and those urbane cavemen, The Martin Agency Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John B. Adams, Jr., will speak about “Smart Advertising...It’s More Than Just the Campaign, It’s the Numbers: The Power of Direct Response Campaigns.” Attendees will learn how to keep an eye on the numbers during thriving, creative multichannel campaigns.

Adams led The Martin Agency from being a little-known Richmond, VA-agency to being a major force in advertising, running multimillion-dollar campaigns. The agency that has won a quintet of “Agency of the Year” honors from Adweek has had a more than 20-year commitment to direct response campaigns, a language and process now being championed by chief marketing officers everywhere.

Kenneth Cole, Chairman and CEO, Kenneth Cole Productions

Monday, October 15

On Monday morning, October 15, multichannel marketer, business leader, and fashion icon Kenneth Cole, chairman and CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions and author of Footnotes: What You Stand For Is More Important Than What You Stand In, will give a keynote presentation. Cole’s talk, entitled “Responsible Leadership in Responsible Times,” will follow opening remarks by DMA President & CEO John A. Greco, Jr.

In 1982, Cole founded his company. Renowned today both as an American designer and a humanitarian, Cole discusses his choice to fuse fashion with social action in the introduction to his book. Although a marriage between social responsibility and fashion were once considered nearly impossible, Cole explains, “I discovered that the two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they are interdependent. Even today, I know that much of what sustains this company is our belief that we're doing a lot more than just selling shoes, footwear, clothing, and accessories.”

Shelly Lazarus, Chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Tuesday, October 16

On Tuesday, October 16, at 10 a.m., legendary direct marketing ad-agency powerhouse Shelly Lazarus will address DMA07 attendees. Lazarus, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, and one of Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” will speak on the “Changing Faces of Direct — Reinventing the Client, the Consumer and the Agency.”

After rising through the ranks of account management, and playing pivotal roles on many of the agency’s signature accounts, Lazarus became general manager for Ogilvy’s direct marketing unit in the US. Her success there led to positions of increasing responsibility in the worldwide company, to which she was named CEO in 1996. Working in both advertising and direct marketing cemented Lazarus’ belief that building brands successfully requires an integrated communication approach driven by a big core idea. This philosophy has stood at the heart of Ogilvy’s business practice, called 360 Degree Brand Stewardship.

Jimmy Wales, President, Wikia Inc.

Wednesday, October 17

Then on Wednesday, October 17, at 10:15 a.m., NeXt Gen marketer Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, president of Wikia Inc. and founder of the explosively popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, will address a topic dominating the marketing arena today: “User-Generated Media: Leading the Marketing Mix in the Digital Era.”

Wales is a colorful, Alabama-born Internet entrepreneur who earned PhD-level finance credits at Indiana University, but never wrote his doctoral dissertation, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia he founded. Wales speaks frankly about his belief in open-source software and Internet content; hence, he founded Wikipedia and has a new venture — Wikia Search, a service of Wikia Inc. — which he thinks will rival proprietary search engine Google.

About DMA07 Conference & Exhibition

DMA07, the largest gathering of direct marketing professionals, is DMA’s annual conference and exhibition. DMA07 will feature more than 150 educational sessions, plus roundtables, case studies, white papers and research reports. DMA07’s exhibit hall will feature more than 500 exhibiting companies. For more information, or to register for the six-day multichannel marketing event of the year, please visit www.dma07.org or call 1.800.293.7279 or 330.425.9330.

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