Royal Mail’s marketing initiative backed by IPA chief Sutherland

A major new Royal Mail information initiative to promote direct mail, set for launch in early March, is “badly needed”, according to Rory Sutherland, the new president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

A major new Royal Mail information initiative to promote direct mail, set for launch in early March, is “badly needed”, according to Rory Sutherland, the new president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

A new website, featuring statistics from providers such as Nielsen Media Research and contributions from leading industry players including Sutherland, is currently being prepared for launch on 9 March.

“Direct mail is under attack and so I’ve pledged Royal Mail whatever support they require,” Sutherland said. “Mail is an important channel which is undervalued.”

The website, whose URL will be mmc.co.uk, will feature case studies from clients with data on how consumers have reacted to their campaigns. The site is being created by Redwood Publishing.

Antony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, said: “I can’t comment on who will be involved but the site will have industry-leading information from many independent sources aside from Royal Mail – ‘nickable’ stuff that will help advertisers and their agencies make the case for direct mail.”

On 25 February Sutherland delivered a speech about marketing in a recession at the Technology for Marketing show, after which he declared that there was “no such thing as DRTV ads anymore” as the lines between direct response and brand advertising were blurring because of the internet.

“An awful lot of advertising is now partially direct response,” Sutherland told Marketing Direct. “The old thinking was that an ad was either direct response or not. But that distinction is blurring. It may be that an ad has all the elements of response such as a web address but some DRTV ads create a lot of awareness and better recall, and are aired because of that.”