Sticks and Stones…
Last week, before I put up my Is John A. Greco, Jr. Really Worth $838,528* Post, I e-mailed Tim Parry to ask whether or not I could use a picture of two girls Jell-o wrestling as a visual.
2.2 seconds later, I received an autoresponder. Unfortunately, Tim Parry was out of the office.
I posted the article sans the wiggly jiggly.
About an hour later, a friend called to tell me about the “Shut Amy Africa up. Send the bitch a cookie” Campaign.
Wow. Fat jokes. How mature. Frankly, I was insulted. I mean really. I don’t even like cookies. If you want to muzzle me at least be courteous enough to try with cheese. (Although I’ll warn you, it won’t work. I am very passionate about this industry and the direct marketers behind it. If I hadn’t had the rockstars — folks like Katie Muldoon, Lois Geller, Tracy Emerick, Bill LaPierre, JoAnna Brandi and especially Mark Amtower and Tom Ziter — in my life, I’d be flipping burgers… In prison. For me especially, this is an association worth saving.)
John Greco, as interesting as the Carl “American Idle” Pavanom comparisons are, I’ve already gone on record saying that I don’t really care what you get paid. I give you props for negotiating a good contract for yourself. To me, your salary is the least of our worries. (Although I must admit if I find out that the “Sorry Johnny Gee” was at all accurate and that my buddies — like everybody’s sweetheart, the perky, little blonde Michelle — were laid off while your wife was enjoying spa services at the members’ expense, I am not going to be happy.)
Gerry Pike (aka the Rogue), I like (and respect) that you started this discussion. Even more, I LOVE that people like Connie LaMotta and Anne Schaeffer are coming out in support of you. That says a lot. Of course, you’ve been on the DMA Board for three years and it’s kind of hard not to think of you as a woman scorned (pardon the expression) when you don’t outline exactly what you’re going to do next. If you get enough proxies, what then? What’s the plan of attack? And please don’t tell us that it’s 007 and you can’t say. That’s about as appealing as the DMA’s comment that Annual’s “registration is tracking consistent with our plan in a positive manner.” (As an aside, it would be SO nice if the DMA would actually be forthright about the attendance at the events. It’s not like we’re not going to find out anyway and to be honest, many of us would help promote shows, like ACCM, for our friends who are speaking if we knew they needed it.)
We’ve heard what you’ve both had to say in your PERSONALIZED e-mails (really DMA, all caps is very 80’s) but maybe you could answer some of our more pressing questions because really, even if a cookie did shut me up, there are a lot of other people who’d like some more answers before they decide what to do with their proxies.
As much as I’d like to ask you both if Kelly Browning is the Snuffleupagus of the direct marketing world — “Browning was unavailable for comment as he was traveling”, “Kelly Browning did not return a phone call by deadline” – there are more important things we need to know. For example:
1. What is the financial viability of the organization? I won’t be pithy enough to ask what it would be if Experian’s anniversary didn’t coincide with Annual but it would be helpful to know where the organization stands on a scale of 1-10, 1 being bankrupt and 10 being so-flush-with-cash-you’re-burning-it.
2. This whole “the DMA is poised to shift to interactive” thing…. Yeah, so how exactly is it going to be different than the Great Logo/Rebranding Efforts of 2005? And more important, is the DMA planning on merging with the ERA (Electronics Retailing Association)? We know you like BIG announcements at Annual and we’re curious if this is going to be one of them? If it is, what does that mean for all the catalogers and direct mailers that depend on you for lobbying efforts?
3. Given the staffing cuts, what is the current DMA mandate when it comes to advocacy, education, and networking? If a member has a professional issue, who do they now contact that will give them a helpful response in a timely fashion?
4. How can “I” help? If folks don’t have the money but do have the time, what can they do to help the DMA?
As much as UFC-like fighting is fun to watch, and cease and desist letters and poorly-worded polls are amusing to discuss, the long-term viability of the DMA is of serious concern to many. The DMA has been around for NINETY-TWO years for goodness sake. Instead of pontificating our navels with schoolgirl-softshots, it’d do us all a lot more good to know if it’s going to be around for another 92 years, 92 months, 92 weeks or 92 days.
Oh, and boys, please do us all a favor and stop underestimating our intelligence.
We get that you are fiduciaries. Repeatedly stating that you are a fiduciary doesn’t really give you an excuse to not say anything new and/or of value. Not to mention you are a fiduciary to the organization and last I knew, it was a non-profit organization with a dues paying membership.
We get that it might be easier to ignore us and hope that we’ll go away. Just as a reminder, that hasn’t been all that successful of a strategy for you in the past. Look at solid initiatives by the ACMA or Catalog Choice if you need examples.
And for the record, I get that “Amy Africa doesn’t really matter.” Granted, I have a slightly-larger-than-Texas-sized ego (must be all those cookies) but I do realize that I am not all that important in the big scheme of things. With that said, there are some VERY important people who read this blog and even though they don’t always comment, the likes of Lee Odden, Lois Boyle, Bernice Grossman, and George Mollo do matter and either/both of you’d be wise to realize it.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Amy,
What flavor Jell-o? As long as it matches the color scheme of The Big Fat Marketing Blog, that’s fine. Although lime would make a nice contrast.
Tim Parry
Back in the office
October 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
People who use the “B” word often lack sufficient body parts for gender recognition - so I won’t comment on the idiots that said that.
With that out of the way, the relevance of the DMA (from my B2B perspective) is limited. The DMA foray into B2B was a fiasco. They bought the Direct Marketing to Business (DMB) conference and it immediately went downhill.
The DMA solution? Start a second B2B event, that over-priced B2B thing in Arizona.
The result - both events are gone!
Do we need a top flight B2B event? YES. Ongoing education is always needed.
Is DMA relevant? Borderline.
Can it be saved? Possibly.
With current management? Not likely, but not my call. I’m not a member.
DMAs answer to all this?
1) Announce (after the stuff hit the fan) that they are moving to an all-digital marketing association. Reminds me of a client who told me in 2006 “You know Mark, I think this internet thing is here to stay.”
2) threaten to sue the messneger, Gerry Pike.
Laocoon, the high priest of Troy, was taken out by giant snakes after he warned the Trojans about the horse at the gate.
Did they listen in Troy?
Not that I have an opinion.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Who IS Gerry Pike? And yes…what he’d like to do other than collect 80% of what John Greco gets paid would be nice to know. Best I can see Gerry Pike runs a company called DMSA Inc. and I cannot tell what they do…other than have no website and not answer their phones…
October 5th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
H.L.: Are you a Greco fan? I am not being snarky, I am asking seriously. A lot of people have come out for Pike but nobody has posted for Greco yet and I feel it would be nice if someone did. By the way, I am with you about the “cannot tell what they do thing.”
October 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Seems to me that when organizations get caught up in politics, their members suffer. Now more than ever, DMers need an organization that can provide the education, lobbying, research and other support to help members cope with an ever-more-rapidly changng marketing climate. An organization with such high fees for membership, events and research needs to deliver even higher ongoing service and value to its membership. The expense makes it hard for newbies, rising stars, and the expanding group of individual DM consultants and practitioners to take advantage of all that the organization offers. In these most challenging of times–the economy, as well as the rapidly-changing field of marketing–make an organization founded on the original principles of the DMA more important than ever. It really shouldn’t come down to two guys sparring, or people taking pot shots or pelting cookies at Amy for speaking out about what she sees. This is the business world, not middle school, folks! Years ago, I owned a small retail chain and I always reminded new employees that my signature may be on their paycheck but the customers were the ones who paid their salaries–and that they should always be well served. That holds true for companies and ORGANIZATIONS. DMA employees and board members must always remember that they are there to well-SERVE THEIR MEMBERS. It’s a fast-changing world out there and DMers need HELP. It’s time to step back and refocus the organization on how to BEST SERVE the needs of the INDUSTRY. Do that, and membership will grow and prosper…as will the DMA!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Amy - I must correct one small, but very important point. “…it was a non-profit organization with a dues paying membership.” To my knowledge, the DMA is NOT a non-profit organization with 501(c)3 status. It is a not-for-profit organization formed for the benefit of its members. A not-for-profit organization had fiduciary responsibility to its members only.
A true non-profit is formed for the benefit of the public trust and has fiduciary responsibility to the public. While many true non-profits may be members of the DMA, the organization itself is not.
I volunteer for an environmental non-profit, San Bruno Mountain Watch Conservancy, and I know how hard we work for every penny donated.
Thank you again for daylighting these issues of concern to a wider circle.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Would be interesting to see what the total salaries & benefits of all employees are for the association as a % of total collected revenue.
Would also be interesting to see where the associations dollars are spent again broken out by total dollars and % of revenue.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
With regard to Mr. Sawyer’s comment, the DMA’a 2008 annual report sheds a little light on the subject. http://www.the-dma.org/aboutdma/annualreport.pdf Skip to page 26 for the financial statements, most of the rest is just fluff.
Doesn’t look like they had a great fiscal 2008 and I can’t imagine 2009 will be much better.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Keep it up, kiddo. You are asking rational, worthwhile questions. I, an ex-board member, would love to have worthwhile reasons to rejoin The DMA.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:27 am
I just need to comment, I agree he’s not worth 838K, and neither is his EVP worth whatever he’s paid, probably around 500K… if that kind of money was better spent in hiring more employees for a decent salary, not the association starving salaries they usually pay, members would certainly have better service, because the truth is the DMA staff tries very hard to satisfy its members, now why they are never really satisfied with anything is a whole other issue which I’ll leave to psychologists nationwide to try and figure out. I think that goes somewhat beyond the DMA, that goes into “my corner of the world is more important and the DMA is not paying enough attention to me…” who knows… in any case, I think members could help, and the DMA should be much more open to help instead of being so afraid that any little thing could go wrong. Truth is the whole world is taking risks these days, everyone is on Twitter, Facebook, making media partnership agreements, etc… and all this stuff helps, but the DMA moves in snail pace because it’s so afraid that anyone will criticize it since they are supposed to be the ideal marketers… oh well, I’d say take more changes, do more WOM, and let the members do their share of the work as long as it’s not out of control of course!
Well, good luck guys!
October 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Boy, would I love to be a fly on the wall at that board meeting!
By the way, the font for replies is appallingly hard to read. It’s so light I can barely see it.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:35 am
I agree totally with Grace Cohen. I would add only that I think the DMA has struggled to be relevant for at least 25 years. When computer service bureaus wanted a Council of their own in the 1980s, the DMA didn’t think that was appropriate. So the service bureaus started the Direct Marketing Computer Association, which the DMA ended up buying four years later, and turned that into the Computer Council, the predecessor of the Marketing Technology Council. The MTC had a lot of growing pains in the late 1990s, when I was active in it, trying to get its arms around the Internet. I finally gave up, being one of the few voices in the wilderness for embracing the shift to Web-based marketing technology. Ten years on, the need for real leadership in this space is still unmet, and more urgent than ever! Enough of the political sideshows, Nero, I smell smoke!