The Direct Marketing Association has doubled its promotional efforts for its annual conference, according to John A. Greco, the organization’s president and CEO.
The conference’s name has changed as well, from what would have been the 88th Annual Direct Marketing Association Conference to DMA 05. The new name reflects an emphasis on timely and relevant content, Greco said.
The conference’s content is being redesigned to better reflect the entire end-to-end direct marketing process, starting with data and moving through the creative, distribution, response and analysis steps. Within each discipline, sessions will be geared toward novice, mid-level and experienced hands in the direct marketing world. The Atlanta event will also mark the debut of a refurbished interactive pavilion.
The Association is even segmenting attendee prospects, designation potential conferences as loyalists (those who have demonstrated satisfaction with the event through repeat visits); skeptics (those who have stopped attending in recent years) and non-attendees (two groups: Those who need to be prompted about the conference’s relevance to their activities and those who are simply ignorant of its existence.)
While Greco did not offer marketing budget numbers, he did say that the focus on selling the event amounted to a doubling of last year’s efforts, and that it had been central to staff-wide discussions.
DMA 05 will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta Oct. 15-19.
