Direct Marketing Provocateur Stan Rapp Sounds Wake-Up Call for Madison Avenue at Second Annual Email Evolution Conference

New York, NY, February 10, 2009 — The second annual Email Evolution Conference, the event for email marketers, hosted by the Email Experience Council (eec) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), today kicked off at the Westin Kierland in Scottsdale, Arizona. Direct marketing icon Stan Rapp, chairman of Engauge, welcomed attendees this morning with his opening keynote presentation entitled “The Writing on the Wall for Winning in 2009: It’s the E-Conomy, Stupid!”

Stan Rapp is the author of Max-e-Marketing in the Net Future and chairman of Engauge, a 21^st Century marketing solutions agency. In his keynote address, the community leader who first predicted the demise of yesterday’s mass marketing and the rise of a new, targeted, data-driven marketing called for a radical shift in marketing priorities. Rapp asked attendees why the most dynamic and efficient way to drive revenue — email with a 43 to 1 return on invested dollars — remains the least funded marketing resource at a time when we are facing the most severe drop in consumer confidence since the Great Depression.

“With the economy in a free fall, it is inexcusable for Madison Avenue to remain asleep at the switch. The failure to reprioritize spending to reflect the realities of the 21^st Century e-conomy is only adding to the devastating impact of the economic crisis on clients,” Rapp said. “Almost $200 million went down the drain at the Super Bowl on February 2. The Cardinals were not the only losers. Most commentators labeled the bulk of the commercials, with $3 million price tags, as weak to non-existent so far as generating interest or sales are concerned. Within just a few hours, almost 20% of the total budgeted for commercial email over a year’s time disappeared into thin air.”

During a time when all marketers need to be smart with every dollar they spend, email is one of the few “go-to” tools with dramatically low cost and instantaneous accountability. Rapp’s keynote focused on the extraordinary results being obtained — even in the worst of times — by the merger of Web 2.0 with the tried and true power of direct marketing.

Stan Rapp is co-founder and for 23 years was CEO of RAPP, one of the world’s top 5 advertising agencies with over $600 million in revenue. He is co-author of six books including the bestselling MaxiMarketing, which was the first to predict and use the term one-to-one marketing. His seventh title, What Business Needs Now, is the first marketing anthology to be serially published online prior to bookstore publication expected in late 2009.

Rapp has played a legendary role in the development of modern-day marketing — he was recognized by Advertising Age as one of the 101 individuals who shaped advertising in the 20^th Century, is a member of the DMA Hall of Fame, is one of only two community leaders to receive the prestigious DMEF Vision Award, and was recently featured by Investors Business Daily on its prestigious Leaders & Success page.

About the Email Experience Council (eec)

The Email Experience Council (eec) (www.emailexperience.org), the Direct Marketing Association’s vertical working group that is focused on the email marketing industry, is a global professional organization striving to enhance the image of email marketing and communications, while celebrating and advocating its importance in business, and its ROI value. The eec is committed to regularly conducting a broad series of email initiatives for a variety of organizations that highlight the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle, and branding device. Additionally, eec members are setting the standards for email through Member Roundtables. The eec members are representatives of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients, and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.

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 more than 3,400 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2008, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $176.9 billion on direct marketing, which accounted for 52.1 percent of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $2.057 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted for approximately 10 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also, there are today 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly support 9.3 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.9 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

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