The Direct Marketing Association’s conference roster might be lighter by one entry next year.
Insert Media Day, an event focusing on alternative print media, may be postponed for six months while the DMA’s Insert Media council reevaluates the event. That would move it to March 2007.
Concerns about the health of the three year-old conference came up in a telephone meeting of the council’s operating committee. In response, the DMA sent a survey to attendees last week.
There are two issues, according to Jeff Holland, co-chairman of the Insert Media Council.
One is that the September event is too close to the annual fall conference. If they have to choose one, even insert people will go to the big event, Holland said.
The second is the vendor/mailer ratio is weighted heavily in favor of vendors. Of roughly 270 paid and non-paid attendees during last month’s conference, only 10% were mailers, Holland said. Another problem is that the sessions are repetitive from year to year.
Holland dismissed fears that the Day will simply disappear. “It’s not going bye-bye,” he said. “It’s our flagship event.”
But he added: “We can’t continue in the same way or it will go away.” And some council members are worried.
Among them are Leon Henry, the head of Leon Henry Inc., who acknowledged some of the challenges but argued that the field is “just starting to get the publicity it needs.” He added that inserts will get bigger next year after the postal rates go up.
There seems little doubt that the conference has to attract more mailers. One major mailer called it “a rah-rah session for vendors” in a recent letter, Holland said.
The mailer also asked: “Are these vendors really in touch with what mailers really want to know about insert media?” As for timing, Holland noted that March might be a good time for Insert Media Day because it is not overloaded with conferences. The council drew 90 people to a luncheon during that month this year, turning people away, he said.
One remaining question is that of venue. Henry argued that that while attendance is good, it was a mistake to move the conference from Rye, NY to New York City. Many attendees preferred the more casual atmosphere in Rye, he said.
Holland said that New York will remain the site for the foreseeable future. But he added: “It is not beyond the realm of possibility that we take it on the road.”
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