The ABG-Jacobsons DMA Business Presentation and Luncheon

The star guests of this event were a high-level delegation from the Direct Marketing Association, the President and CEO Mr. John A Greco Jr. and the Executive VP & COO Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, who flew in from the USA on a regional tour to support the development of ethical and measurable communication investment practices.

The DMA representatives briefed the participants on the stunning and rapid transformations that are affecting communication practices, and their measurable returns, within the USA and around the world.

The DMA presentation revealed that at present in the USA, every US dollar invested in "communicating directly" with consumers generates US$11.63 in revenue, while one US dollar in broadcast media appears to generate no more than US$5.24. An important distinction was made about the definition of "direct marketing" which is considered no longer the domain of direct mail or catalogue advertising.

Rather, "marketing directly" is a more apt description of the many channels marketers now use to communicate and hold dialogue one-on-one. This of course has been fuelled by our digital age and the now, well rehearsed use of online marketing, for example email marketing and the repertoire of social media engagement (blogging, content sharing, podcasts, etc).

As a result of this superior ROI and reduced waste, investment in measurable direct marketing and associated practices accounts for 53% of total marketing spend across all forms of advertising and communication.

The impressive consequence of this is that the practice of marketing directly to consumers drives a little over 10% of the US Gross Domestic Product. This dominance of direct marketing practices is also an emerging trend in Europe and the Far East.

While in the Middle East, based on activity levels reported by Jacobsons Direct, one-to-one marketing only accounts for nearly 1% of total investments in communications. Hence it is clear that the practice of direct marketing is yet to develop and mature here.

"The ABG were very pleased to be involved in the DMA's visit to Dubai and their presentation today,"

said Sara Sahely, Vice Chair of the ABG.

"The DMA's views on performance measurement are critical to understanding the value of our communications efforts and as an industry we need to continue embracing the paramount importance of measurable investments and using data to critically assess communications decisions."

Both ABG and Jacobsons agree that there is ample room to help foster growth of one-to-one marketing and capitalize on the opportunity to quantify and drive substantially higher return on communications investments.

Corporations and institutions in most activity sectors have already integrated their practices of "marketing directly" with mass and broadcast media channels to optimize returns. DMA representatives also observed that the Middle East region will be no exception to the worldwide trend and practitioners must rapidly educate and enable themselves to "market directly" or face tough competition.

Among the necessary additions and improvements to current Middle East practices, the DMA encouraged building robust client databases and developing metrics and analytics to track and predict client demand alongside developing client acquisition and retention strategies.

Equally important was the need to develop talent in the areas of skills, experience and knowledge to evolve customer-centric and customer-engaging marketers.