The year ahead for ... direct marketing.

Mike Dodds predicts 2009 will see more collaboration, especially between digital and direct.

Two themes are on my mind as we embark on another year in some of the most challenging economic circumstances we have ever seen.

First, at a time where there has been evidence of direct marketing slowing over the past couple of years and when various industry luminaries have been debating the 'death' of direct marketing, I wonder where exactly we are in the lifecycle of the discipline.

Second, like every agency of any persuasion, I am constantly thinking about how we continue to respond to the explosion of digital media and channels we're seeing.

But before I get into details, I would like to dispel any suggestion that all is not well in my sector of the industry. On the contrary, I firmly agree with my predecessor at Proximity London, who suggested that we are about to enter the 'Third Age of Direct' where agencies will prosper if we 'remember the fundamental principles that underpin the discipline, but also are prepared to evolve and adapt'.

This latter point is crucial. I would go as far as to say that those agencies that grasp the nettle and make the necessary changes will ride out the economic uncertainties of the next few years and emerge in a much better place. Those that do not could end up on the direct scrapheap. In that sense, 2009 is going to be a crucial year for our discipline.

What we have to remember is that the development of direct marketing has always run parallel to technological breakthroughs, from the ability to personalise messages to the reduced cost of capturing, processing and segmenting customer data, to the integration of CRM systems and the arrival of the worldwide web.