DMA Announces Improvements to Preference Services

Washington, DC, October 24, 2006 —The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has announced improvements to its long-running Mail Preference Service (MPS) that make it easier for consumers to control the amount of advertising mail they receive.

MPS is designed to assist consumers who wish to decrease the amount of unsolicited advertising mail they receive at home from companies that market nationwide. Consumers can register for the preference service online at www.dmaconsumers.org. There is a $1 credit card verification fee for each consumer registered. This nominal charge serves two important purposes: to create a permanent record of those who did the registering and to help prevent fraudulent registrations.

DMA has reduced the online registration fee from $5 to $1 in an effort to make the service more accessible to consumers. MPS registrants may also print the online form and send it, along with the registration fee, directly to DMA. Once registered, consumer names remain active on the service for five years, after which, they may register again.

Additionally, DMA is now allowing caregivers to register on behalf of individuals in their care. A separate caretaker registration form is available online. DMA developed this new service to respond to requests from people who wish to register elderly parents and others in their care.

Last summer, DMA also created the Deceased Do Not Contact List in response to requests from family members, friends and caretakers seeking to remove the names of deceased individuals from commercial marketing lists.

More information on the preference services, and all of DMA’s consumer assistance initiatives, is available online at www.dmaconsumers.org. For information on recent changes to DMA’s Telephone Preference Service, please visit

http://preference.the-dma.org/products/tpssubscription.shtml.

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About 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 industry 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 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2006, marketers – commercial and nonprofit – will spend an estimated $166.5 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures will generate an estimated $1.93 trillion in incremental sales. This year, direct marketing will account for 10.3 percent of total US GDP. Also, there are today 1.7 million direct marketing employees in the US alone. Their collective sales efforts directly support 8.8 million other jobs. That accounts for 10.5 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

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