Story, the creative agency that won five golds at last year's awards, devised the theme for this year's call for entries, which asks recipients to "fame or shame" agencies.
Postcards will follow the initial mailing, playing on the Fame theme using the words "blame" or "lame" to combat the two main excuses for not entering the awards.
This will be backed up by a viral short film showing someone who does not have what it takes to be the best.
The DMA said it was updating the award categories to reflect the growth of new media.
The digital award cetegories have been extended and the email and SMS categories have been separated. Last year they were covered by one category.
Statistics show that marketing expenditure on new media grew by an estimated 29% in 2003 to the value of £678m.
Other changes this year include combining IT and telecoms into one category, discontinuing the international category and grouping TV and radio together.
Lin McCarthy, the chairwoman of the DMA Awards committee, said: "Our aim is to ensure these awards reflect the true state of the direct marketing industry. Digital media continues to grow as part of the marketing mix while radio and TV spend, particularly in the case of radio direct response advertising, is slowing."
Earlier this month Brand Republic revealed that Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, had been named chairman of the judges for the 24th DMA Awards.
He will oversee the 200-strong judging panel and take part in the final decision on who wins the grand prix, which is selected from all the gold winners.
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