The Direct Marketing Association will remain DMA, but it’s dropping “direct” and putting “data” front and center.

DMA’s new name, the Data & Marketing Association, is part of a comprehensive rebranding, as the organization approaches its centennial in 2017. The rebranding “includes a new mission: to be the community that champions deeper consumer engagement and business value through the innovative and responsible use of data-driven marketing,” said CEO Tom Benton. “And with a mission this powerful, it became equally important to ensure DMA’s name and logo reflect where our industry is headed and where the association is headed.”

Benton explained that the word “direct” had become associated with the offline world, and it “did not capture the most important ingredient of modern marketing—data.”

Why is data so important?

“Data has always been the fuel driving marketing and advertising innovation from its earliest days a century ago to today,” Benton said. “More recently, innovative technologies and techniques have been the catalyst for an explosion of data as well as a proliferation of channels to connect consumers with relevant and engaging content. These were two principal factors driving DMA’s rebranding and the reality that our industry is not about a channel, it’s about data that inspires meaningful connections with consumers across all channels and devices.”

The new name more accurately reflects what DMA members do—which includes direct marketing but encompasses many other methods of reaching audiences. “This new name reaffirms that DMA represents the entire marketing ecosystem of brand marketers, agencies, media companies, data companies, and tech companies,” Benton said.

At &THEN (DMA’s global marketing conference) in Los Angeles last week, attendees got a sneak peek at the new name. The reaction was “incredibly positive,” said Lindsay Hutter, senior vice president of communications.

“A tidal wave of enthusiastic tweets and posts immediately followed,” she said, noting that the sneak peek served as the introduction to a year-long launch of the new DMA. “We will be rolling out the new name and brand more formally in the coming months in an exciting array of online and in-person events and gatherings.”