Direct marketing has always been about finding the best possible match between the offer and the prospect and using the most effective mix of media and creative. As such, technology has been a driver in my profession since the birth of the computer - through its development in terms of capacity and functionality and now as a channel in its own right.

The revolution that is digital messaging has had an unprecedented effect across all channels to market. It primary strengths - speed, scale, low-cost and multi-level measurability – have thrown down the gauntlet to all forms of direct marketing and not simply revolutionised businesses, customers have also been transformed.

But we must remember that despite affecting this great sea change, digital marketing is still in its infancy. We are all learning better ways to make use of the capability it has and finding new applications to extend what we are able to do it. As this report testifies.
While it is encouraging to see that levels of use are high and growing, as you read through you will see that measurement, if practised at all, is not always done as well as it could or should be. Further, significant numbers of respondents have yet to get up to speed with the characteristics of the technology and how it works both in isolation and as part of a wider integrated marketing campaign.

Frontwire are to be congratulated for undertaking this first Digital Messaging Survey. It paints an encouraging picture for direct marketers planning to penetrate markets using digital means. In a years’ time if the respondents predictions prove true, the volume of campaigns that use digital messaging will have increased significantly. Let’s just hope that growth is accompanied by a deeper understanding of digital marketing as part of the wider media-neutral landscape.

Professor Derek Holder
Managing Director, The Institute of Direct Marketing

© frontwire 2006

Professor Derek Holder

Managing Director, The Institute of Direct Marketing

Click here to download the survey