If You’re Going

There are worse places to be than San Francisco in October. So stop worrying, and relax on the flight by reading this issue of Direct.

We hope you'll have advance insights into many of the topics being discussed at DMA06 by the time you land.

Take the subject of direct marketing's place in the advertising food chain.

We'd say that's pretty high right now, despite the slurs hurled against Howard Draft (and, by extension, his competitors) when he was named CEO of the combined Draft FCB.

As Brian Quinton reports, Chicago Sun-Times marketing columnist Lewis Lazare complained that letting Draft take over general agency FCB was a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Let's see if we can get this straight. DM is the tail wagging the dog?

On the contrary, it's the top dog in this age of accountability.

Get with it, Lewis. It's chief marketing officers who get tossed out on their butts after a year, not direct marketing officers.

For more on this, and for profiles on Draft and several other DM agency heads, turn to page 27.

As for that hot topic of accountability, you can learn more about it right here. Bruce Wagoner of Wilde Direct explains what to tell your CEO and CFO, and what to do when they give you the money you need for a program.

Don't stop there. Are you selling online? Check out Brian's story on social networks (page 47). Marketers of all stripes are trying them out, including those at the top consumer brands. And if you're active in the e-mail channel, you'd better read Ken Magill's alarming story about HTML image suppression on page 9.

Pick up some tips from our faculty of DM experts Grant Johnson, Sam Koslowsky, Jeff Schmitt and Jim Wheaton. And don't forget our regular columnists and writers, including Brian and Ken, Beth Negus Viveiros, Richard H. Levey, Larry Riggs, Ruth Stevens, Katie Muldoon, Tom Collins, Gene Del Polito and Herschell Gordon Lewis.

One final note about the conference: As we did last year, the Direct team will be recording its daily observations about the event in DirectBuzz, our ongoing blog (blog.directmag.com/buzz/). You'll find behind-the-scenes stuff that no DMA press release will tell you.

And for the big stories, watch for Direct Newsline, our daily e-zine.

Please stop by our booth and say hello. See you in San Francisco.