DMA Creates Email Powerhouse.

New York, July 9, 2007 — As part of its ongoing commitment to growing and strengthening all sectors within the multichannel marketing environment, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has reached an agreement to merge its Email Marketing Council with the Email Experience Council, LLC, (EEC) a global organization of marketing professionals.

“As email continues to expand and become an ever-larger part of the marketing mix, DMA is committed to educating businesses and nonprofit organizations about how they can most effectively and responsibly leverage this vital communications channel,” said DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan. “The combination of the Email Marketing Council and the EEC creates the leader among professional organizations for email marketers.”

Since the inception of email marketing, DMA’s Email Marketing Council (formerly the Council for Responsible Email) has promoted email’s effective and ethical use as a marketing and customer service tool. Championing the point of view of the inbox owner/end-user, the EEC has been devoted to enhancing the image of email marketing and communications to consumers and businesses. Combined, the new council will afford members unprecedented access to industry insight, best practices, and networking, as well as robust political advocacy and research capabilities.

“DMA and its Email Marketing Council have a proud record of achievement: We promulgated the first email delivery and append best practices, spearheaded widespread marketer adoption of email authentication solutions, and have hosted countless seminars and events that have helped marketers distinguish their communications in the inbox and have improved the consumer experience,” said Michael Della Penna, chief marketing officer for Epsilon and chair of DMA’s Email Marketing Council. “We’re excited to join forces with the EEC, which will help us to further expand and accelerate our education and community efforts around optimizing email marketing success and improving the customer experience.”

“In just one year, the EEC has become an important destination for marketers to interact (virtually and in person) on email marketing and the enormous opportunities this media offers marketers,” said Jeanniey Mullen, EEC founder and senior partner and executive director for global email marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide. “Our community construct has offered access to self-propelled and dynamic marketplace expertise that fosters a collective, unified approach to creating best practices and setting the stage for the future of email marketing. By joining forces with DMA, we’ll be able to deliver even more value, expertise, and resources to our members, and will be able to greatly expand our influence and reach in the marketplace. This is about coming together and building a powerhouse that will lead the next phase of email marketing.”

The combined council includes more than 400 active participants, including marketers, vendors, and suppliers. As part of DMA’s agreement to acquire the EEC, the memberships of the EEC and the Email Marketing Council will combine under the Email Experience Council name.

Mullen and Della Penna will serve as the co-executive chairs of the new group. Stephanie Miller, vice president for strategic services at Return Path, will serve as vice-chair of the group and lead the overall integration process.

Current committees and roundtables within the two organizations will combine as appropriate. The current events and initiatives of both groups will go on as planned. Members of the combined group will also have access to a wealth of white papers, discounted research offerings, published industry best practices, and resources such as DMA’s online Email Authentication Help Center (www.the-dma.org/emailauthentication).

For current EEC members who have not yet joined the Direct Marketing Association, DMA will be offering six months of free access to DMA member-only resources, such as legislative updates, research, and event discounts, and access to tools such as the E-Mail Reputation Registry announced today (http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=961). If an EEC member chooses to join DMA, DMA will also offer 50 percent of the first year’s membership for that company.

“Over the coming months, we will work thoughtfully and carefully to marry the strengths of these two groups in the most effective way possible,” said Miller. “In creating the expanded EEC, we have the opportunity to unleash a powerful combination of strength and channel expertise for marketers around the world.”

“Today’s announcement is part of DMA’s continued efforts to help marketers work to better advantage within the interactive marketplace,” concluded Ratan. “As these two groups come together, we look forward to announcing a range of exciting new opportunities and offerings for email marketers in the months to come.”

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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 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 — spent $166.5 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated $1.93 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted 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 mission of DMA’s E-Mail Marketing Council is to promote the most effective and ethical use of e-mail as a marketing and customer service tool by articulating ethical guidelines, by promoting best practices, and by serving as a forum for leaders to confer and collaborate as the industry evolves.

About the Email Experience Council

The EEC 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 Marketing Roundtables. The EEC members belonging are representative of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.

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