Tyson Steele Associates - Advanced Dental Marketing Concepts

On July 10, 2009 the American Dental Association announced that the association's for-profit joint venture with marketing firm ADAidm had "experienced significant production and operational difficulties." As a result, the ADA has decided to shutter ADAidm, "providing customers with a full refund for paid undelivered goods and services."

ADAidm was founded in 2007 as a revenue enhancement vehicle that planned to profit by providing marketing services to ADA members. Services were supposed to include dental website development, direct mail campaigns, dental logo design, display advertising, and even message on hold production. 

However, various observers in the dental industry note that ADAidm's marketing strategies suffered from exceedingly poor returns-on-investment and failures to deliver product in a timely manner. Ultimately, dentists and their advisors grew increasingly critical of ADAidm leading to the ADA leadership decision to shut down the joint venture.

ADA trustee Dr. Robert Faiella has been appointed chair of the ADA's for-profit division (ADABEI) to resolve outstanding issues. Dr. Failella can be reached at: faiellar@ada.org.