John A. Greco, speaking to a modest audience by DMA standards, put the best face he could on the recession yesterday during his keynote at DM Days 2009.
Greco conceded that “the challenges we face in 2009 are in many ways more serious than anything anyone has ever seen.” But he argued that direct marketing will help fuel the recovery.
“Even with the downturn, we expect the $176 billion advertisers spent on direct marketing last year to drop only slightly this year, perhaps as little as one or two percent overall,” Greco said. In contrast, advertising in general fell by 12 to 14 percent in the first quarter.
Greco noted that direct marketing returns $11.63 for every dollar spent on advertising, and that E-mail is the top performer, generating $45. Internet marketing pulls almost $20 and direct mail brings in over $15.
But DMers face their own challenges. “Direct dollars are moving from traditional channels including mail into digital in all its forms,” Greco said.
“Here again, the need for a seamless mix of the best of the new and the best of the traditional is apparent.”
What’s Greco’s prognosis?
“Everyone seems to agree that the economy will recover, maybe even by the end of the year,” he said. “However, it will never be 2007 again.”
The speech opened a sparsely populated conference in comparison with past events. The general session was filled, but it was in a smaller space than usual, at the edge of the exhibit hall.
Greco was followed onstage by Ivanka Trump, who urged listeners to stay resilient in the face of the downturn.
What’s it like to be the daughter of Donald Trump? “I would say it’s interesting,” she said. “You can see his paternal instinct (on TV) as he violently fires people and throws them out of the room with a small glimmer of sadness in his eye.”
Trump said she is vice president in charge of real estate acquisition and management for the Trump Organization. “I am (Donald’s) apprentice in every sense of the word,” she said. “Much is given, much is expected.”
Have the Trumps been hurt by the economy?
“The last 18 months are the best education I’ve had to date, better than Wharton and operating in hottest real estate marketing anyone’s seen,” she said.
(Ray Schultz is the former editorial director of the Chief Marketer Network.)
