US Direct Mail Spending Forecast Sees 7.5% Icrease

It may be the Internet age, yet consumers should expect old-fashioned direct mail to keep clogging their mailboxes. Marketers’ spending on direct mail will swell 7.5% to USD64 billion next year after growing 8.5% this year, according to respected ad forecaster Robert Coen, who on Monday presented his industry-wide 2007 look-ahead at the annual media conference hosted by UBS. That means direct mail will continue to be one of the fastest-growing ad formats. “More and more mail advertising is being used … and all of this despite the fact that postal rates went up about 5%,” says Coen, forecasting director at media buying agency Universal McCann. Part of its allure, he says, is that it’s easy for marketers to track response rates compared with, for example, a 30-second TV ad. As for the ad spending outlook overall, both Coen and fellow ad forecaster Steve King, CEO of rival media-buying company ZenithOptimedia, say they expect U.S. spending growth to slow in 2007. Coen sees total ad spending next year rising 4.8% to USD298.8 billion. King forecasts 4.2% growth and a total of USD280.2 billion.