Direct mailers adjust to PiP's 'restrictive' rules

Clients are getting to grips with Royal Mail’s new mail pricing regime, pricing in proportion (PiP), as the industry enters its first full month under the new rules, but remain concerned about their effect on creativity.

Speaking to Marketing Direct just before size-based pricing was introduced, industry figures said that despite months of preparation, their main concern was the standardisation of mail packs and the prospect of lower response rates.

Andrew Jones, head of direct marketing at the Royal British Legion, said the changes posed a creative and financial challenge. The charity’s annual Remembrance Cross mailing is now classed as a larger letter owing to its thickness.

“We know it works well so we’ve just had to accept the increase in price,” said Jones. “It’s a small increase per pack but, when you’re working with charity direct mail, every cost is important.” He added that the extra postage costs would eat into the legion’s income.

Iain Clarke, creative services director at Hicklin Slade & Partners, whose clients include Honda, said the new pricing formats would restrict creativity. Honda’s standard welcome pack, for example, is currently mailed in a large box. Clarke said that if another one is produced, it is likely to use a new format.

“Honda’s creative philosophy is ‘the power of dreams’, which is about doing what others wouldn’t do. PiP seems to fly in the face of that,” Clarke said.

Royal Mail is promoting the changes as a creative opportunity. According to Antony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, PiP brings mail into line with other media, citing 20-second TV spots and newspaper pages as constraints that other industries work within successfully.

“You can have any shape within the (new) boundaries, in the same way you can within other media,” he said.