Direct mail in the UK continues to rise

Direct mail in the UK continues to rise despite recent signs of a general advertising slowdown. This is according to new research recently released from the Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS).
The DMIS study indicates that direct mail volumes rose to around 1.25 billion items during the April-June quarter of 2001, representing a 4.5% increase on the same period in 2000. At the same time, expenditure increased by 7.5% to £480 million during this period. The volume increase is primarily attributable to an increase in financial services’ mailings. DMIS figures show that volume in the “banks/building societies/other financial” category rose from 209 million items to 228 million – a 9% increase. Mailings by insurance companies increased by 4.3%.

At the same time however, some direct mail sectors showed a year on year decline in volumes, most notably the retail sector. This whole area recorded an almost 7% annual drop to just over 80 million items. The research also highlights the fact that mail volumes by socio-demographic sector have changed significantly. The affluent ABs actually received considerably fewer mailings year on year – down nearly 15% –whereas DE-targeted mail volumes rose significantly by 25.8%. Analysis by gender shows that women received more mailings, with volume up 11%, while the male population saw receipt fall by 4.9%.

Commenting on the latest DMIS findings, managing director Jo Howard-Brown suggested that, “The figures are encouraging in that they show continued growth – although it comes as no surprise to see that the growth rate is slowing given the signs of a slowdown in the industry as a whole. The third and fourth quarter statistics will no doubt show us whether the predicted continuing economic downturn in the Eurozone will adversely affect the UK direct mail medium.”

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