• by Amy Corr  @MediaPostOTL, October 18, 2005

Two weeks ago, The Association of National Advertisers debuted a new logo and brand identity at its annual conference. This week, it's the DMA's turn.

At the opening session of DMA05, Direct Marketing Association President and CEO John A. Greco, Jr. assessed the state of direct marketing and unveiled a new brand identity for the Association.

"Marketing is changing, and the DMA is changing with it. Our goal in developing a new identity is to reinforce that we're committed to cultivating stronger relationships between consumers and direct marketers, and propelling these relationships forward," Greco said.

The new identity reflects the innovation and value of direct marketing across all media, including mail, catalogs, online, e-mail, newspapers, magazines and interactive television, and radio.

The DMA's new tag line is: "The Power of Direct: Relevance, Responsibility, Results."

In addition to the identity launch, Greco reported that the contribution of direct marketing to the U.S. economy is substantial and continuing to grow in impact. The findings were part of a multi-year economic impact study prepared by Global Insights Research and released by the DMA.

The study found that:

Direct marketing advertising expenditures in the United States will top $161 billion in 2005. Advertising expenditures are expected to generate $1.85 trillion in increased sales in 2005, or 7 percent of the $26 trillion in total sales in the U.S. economy (which includes intermediate sales). All together, direct marketing will account for 10.3 percent of total U.S. GDP in 2005.

Each of the 1.7 million direct marketing jobs creates five additional jobs needed to fill customer orders resulting from direct marketing campaigns. All together, direct marketing supports more than 10.6 million jobs.

Sales driven by direct marketing are forecasted to grow by 6.4 percent through 2009--up from 5.3 percent in the period from 1999 to 2004. By comparison, overall U.S. sales are growing more slowly (4.8 percent for 2004-2009).

Direct marketing continues to provide a high ROI for marketers. In 2005, each $1 investment in direct marketing ad expenditures will return $11.49 of incremental revenue, on average, across all industries.