ADMA widens membership, stepping into AMI’s territory
ADMA CEO Andrea Martens: "Individuals... are looking for support"
The Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) has opened its doors to individual members, putting it in direct competition with fellow industry body the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI).
Founded as the Direct Marketing Association of Australia, ADMA had offered only corporate membership since its inception in 1966. That changed last night, when the organisation officially opened its membership to individual marketers for an annual fee of $495.
Speaking to Mumbrella about the decision, ADMA CEO Andrea Martens said there were a “few factors” at play.
“One is the way marketers are engaged; [the number of] fractional CMOs and consultants is significantly increasing over time,” she said.
“Individuals within other organisations are looking for support in skill building, regulatory guidance, thought leadership, and networking. This demand isn’t only in Sydney and Melbourne, but also in many other states where they are crying out for networking, community and skill-building opportunities.”
ADMA is one of several industry bodies in the marketing sector. Alongside the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), ADMA focuses on representing client‑side marketers.
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Other adjacent organisations include the Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA), the Communications Council, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia, and the Media Federation of Australia (MFA).
Of these, only AMI offered a standalone membership for individual professionals, until ADMA’s move.
Asked whether there was a need for consolidation between bodies, Martens said: “At the end of the day, the industry is served by several industry associations, who all have a very, very core purpose and why they exist.
“We have a large industry, a large industry, and each industry association stands for different elements, and the marketers ultimately can enter, choose what is most relevant to their business, and what is most relevant to them.”
ADMA signed up its first individual member at the launch event last night, freelance marketing consultant Andrew Goldstein.
Membership, claimed to be valued at $3,160, gives access to courses, certificates, and events — including sessions that recently featured international speaker Tom Goodwin.
ADMA declined to disclose its total membership numbers.
AMI, meanwhile, currently charges a professional membership fee of $450 and last year generated $994,000 in revenue from membership subscriptions. At the same time, it made a loss of $133,616.
In a statement about ADMA’s move into individual memberships, AMI CEO Bronwyn Heys said: “A diverse ecosystem of industry organisations can be healthy when each plays a clear role. Marketing today is broad, complex and rapidly evolving, and there are many needs.
AMI CEO Bronwyn Heys said her focus is on the body’s “mission rather than structural speculation”
“[Our] role is very clear: we are the professional home for individual marketers, where marketers feel a sense of belonging to our community, with a focus on skills and capability, coupled with career-long professional development. That clarity is what our members value.”
Responding to whether the two should merge, she added: “Our focus is firmly on delivering against the Australian Marketing Institute’s mission rather than structural speculation.”
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