Recovery, Cajun Style

More than six months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area, the importance of direct marketing to the area's recovery is big, if not easy.

Enterprises great and small are turning to measurable media to get back in business. But those efforts often are concentrated online, because direct mail simply isn't a reliable option. The storm winds have long since died down, but periodicals and standard mail going into most of the 701-based ZIP codes are turned away at the point of origin.

Holly McCollum, vice president of media services for Keating Magee, notes that in the city's new world order, “Everything is pure direct response.” This, she says, could make New Orleans “a beta market for DM.”

“We are back to the days of having to prove a campaign's effectiveness — Did we sell product? That is, did it work? — vs. efficiencies,” she says.

The week of Mardi Gras, Direct senior writer Richard H. Levey and contributing writer Jonathan Boorstein traveled to New Orleans to get a sense of what the future holds for the region's marketing community.