Year in review – and looking forward to 2012

Over the past six months I have made a commitment to build more Member benefits and services for all ADMA Members. As part of this initiative I will be touching base with all Members on a regular basis with an update and wanted to close off our final newsletter for the year with my year in review.

2011 has a pivotal year for direct marketing with many brands making the transition from mainstream advertising to one-to-one communication. The value of data and the necessity to understand your customer has clearly been recognised as key requirements for marketing success.

For ADMA it has been a year of growth, wins and change as we adapt to the changing marketing environment and the needs of our Members. Highlights for 2011 include:

• Launch of ADMA Dialogue, a central resource centre for ADMA members to ensure you can remain ahead of the curve in this ever-changing world of marketing;
• Start of the ADMA blog providing a daily feed of ideas, thoughts and opinions of the Australian marketing community.
• Expansion of ADMA Education to include new short courses – Social Media Marketing Strategy, SEO for Marketers and Testing for Success.

Protecting the interests of Members has continued to be a key focus for the Association in 2011 as the Government shifted its focus to online marketing channels.

• ADMA played a leading role in the development of the Australian Best Practice Guidelines for Online Behavioural Advertising, launched in March 2011.
• Continued extensive lobbying on the Privacy Act reforms to ensure the direct marketing community are not adversely affected by proposed changes to the Privacy Act.
• Launched the Group Buying Code of Practice to introduce standards to the Group Buying industry.

Next year promises to be even bigger as we plan new programs and significant new member benefits including:

• New Direct Marketing Compliance Hub including all you need to make sure your marketing campaigns stay within the rules and guidelines.
• Completely revised ADMA Certificate courses to be launched in February and available online from March 2012.
• New members recognition programs to ensure all staff members make the most of free benefits.
• New research, polls and thought-leadership series delivered through video, podcasts and white papers.
• New free webinar series and monthly ‘lunch and learn’ sessions.
• Plus much more! I look forward to working with you all in 2012.

 In the meantime have a Happy Christmas and wonderful New Year!

Jodie Sangster