The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is launching a ‘Search Council’ to reflect the fact that search engine marketing is crossing over into the territory of direct response.
The council, which comprises search engines, media owners, brands and search agencies, will meet for the first time on Wednesday 27th June 2012.
Search and social media agency, Tug, was the driving force behind the initiative, with Tug’s MD – Nick Beck – proposing the idea to the DMA earlier in 2012. The council’s additional members include: Barclays, Efficient Frontier, Google, iCrossing, I Spy, ITV, Latitude, MSN, Propellernet and Yahoo!.
The council’s main remit is to position search, both SEO & PPC, as direct response channels in their own right, whilst also focusing on the benefits of integrating search with direct marketing campaigns.
Based on monthly meetings, the council will issue actionable quarterly reports on the latest search and direct marketing issues. Initial topics for debate include: the role of search in direct marketing, social search and recruitment.
Tug’s MD, Nick Beck, said: “Search engine marketing is now such a powerful and omnipresent tool that its impact is being felt across many other areas of the marketing mix. We felt there was a particularly under-exploited opportunity in the convergence of search and direct response. Search, for example, is an excellent way of driving data collection for direct campaigns.”
DMA’s Head of Media Channels, Emma-Jayne McEwan, said: “When Nick [Beck] identified that there was a lack of industry recognition about how search is dovetailing into direct marketing, we asked him to convince us of his case. He put forward a very persuasive argument and we’re now excited to be leading the way in the convergence between search and direct.”
