I attended the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) annual conference last week and got to hear Martha Stewart speak about her “omnimedia” approach. She addressed a DMA audience struggling to find its sea legs in a volatile marketing environment. I was impressed. Apart from many stories about epicurean adventure, Martha made a very compelling case for her “omnimedia” beginnings… inaugurated as MSO went public 10 years ago this week.
“The Internet is reshaping the entire media landscape” she said. Today it seems an obvious statement, but she recognized the value of integrated and “omnipresence” in all media fronts early in the 1990’s. Face it: this maven of living well was well ahead of most of her direct marketing audience. An early user of Twitter, Martha had 1 million followers in 5 short months. Martha embraced change and emerging media. She railed against traditional thinking and urged the audience to do the same. She concluded her comments with a favorite quip: “When you’re through changing — you’re through”!
Many in the DMA audience surely feel fatigued from the dramatic change of the last 10 years since the Internet began “reshaping” everything. We’re not done. Not even close. This is the beginning of the change.