DMA Introduces iDirect Leadership Committee

From Online to Offline It’s All About One to One

New York, NY, June 16, 2009 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today introduced the new iDirect Leadership Committee, a strategic reinforcement of DMA’s broad commitment to developing the power of multichannel direct marketing for advertisers and consumers in the digital age.

Bringing together top direct and digital marketing and advertising experts from across the marketing community, the committee's mission will be to usher in the next era for marketing, based on a new and emerging set of customer-focused actions and processes that can be powered by advanced data systems.

The focus of the iDirect Leadership Committee is to provide thought leadership around this new approach to marketing strategies, and to help pool and fuse all the best thinking and cutting-edge experience in direct and digital marketing within DMA's membership. The committee will drive new educational programs, conduct and publish research, and connect DMA members with public policy advocacy issues which increasingly impact digital marketing.

“The iDirect Leadership Committee represents an exciting effort to combine traditional direct marketing thinking with new capabilities, enabled by data, analytics and the ready availability of multiple communications channels, into a highly intelligent and powerful form of one-to-one marketing,” said John Greco, DMA President and CEO.

“Fully integrated and streamlined marketing incentives across all channels, from online to offline, are the future of marketing directly," said Greco. "We anticipate that this kind of intelligent advertising will allow business and nonprofit marketers to accelerate sales growth due to its measurability, accountability and return on investment."

Launching the iDirect Leadership Committee represents a shift in attitude and will help to reinforce the reality that direct marketing encompasses all digital channels. They will foster ways for marketing to leverage the strengths of traditional and emerging interactive channels through technology, addressability, consumer insights, and analytic skills, integrated in a way that delivers predictable and profitable results for all marketers, across all online and offline channels.

The iDirect Committee debuts today during the 2009 DM Days New York Conference & Expo taking place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, June 16-18. DM Days New York truly reflects integrated marketing, as DMA brings together a seamless blend of digital marketing with traditional, tried and true strategies. The conference, a New York City tradition since 1966, has chronicled the rapid development of multichannel, direct marketing from its roots in direct mail through today’s digital landscape.

Energized to tackle our digital-driven world, the Committee is currently comprised of a total of 23 prominent figures from a large spectrum of leading-edge companies within the business and marketing communities.

DMA’s iDirect Leadership Committee Members:

· Ian Baer, President & Managing Partner, BIG FUEL

· David Barnes, Vice President, Best Buy for Business

· Bruce Biegel, Senior Managing Director, Winterberry Group

· Jill Cowen, Vice President, Citi Cards e-Business Group

· Scott Delea, Chief Executive Officer, Inflexion Interactive

· Robert DeSena, Managing Director – North America, iO global limited

· Noah Elkin, Senior Analyst, eMarketer Inc.

· Pam Evans, WWW Software Marketing Senior Web Marketing Manager, IBM

· Lisa Fischer, Managing Vice President, Marketing Strategy, Capital One

· Gabe Greenberg, Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Relations, Vibrant Media

· Jennifer Hanley, Senior Vice President, Marketing Services, Nationwide

· Yosi Heber, President, Oxford Hill Partners LLC

· Kaenan Hertz, PhD, Senior Vice President Market Intelligence & Business Analytics, USAA

· Dr. Marjorie Kalter, Academic Program Director, Clinical Professor, Master of Science Program in Integrated Marketing, New York University

· Kimberly Miller, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, People Style Watch, Head of Audience Development, People.com

· Jeanniey Mullen, Global Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Zinio

· Matt O’Grady, President, Nielsen Claritas

· Elly Puyat, Managing Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide-Manila

· Stan Rapp, Chairman, Engauge

· Keith Sedlak, Managing Director, Meredith Integrated Marketing

· Tim Suther, Senior Vice President, Global Multichannel Marketing Services, Acxiom Corporation

· George P. Thacker, Chief Marketing Officer, Gerber Life

· Eric Webster, Vice President, Marketing, State Farm

The iDirect Leadership Committee is co-chaired by Stan Rapp, chairman of Engauge, a 21^st Century marketing solutions agency developed around consumers’ digital DNA, specifically how they integrate the digital world into their everyday life, and Tim Suther, senior vice president, Global Multichannel Marketing Services of Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company.

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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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