DIRECTWATCH: A weekly analysis of the direct marketing field in association with Royal Mail
DIRECTWATCH: A weekly analysis of the direct marketing field in association with Royal Mail
From MARKETING, April 5th, 2001
By JEREMY RIDGWAY, an associate director of ACNielsen MMS Almost half of the UK's biggest advertisers cut their adspend in
2000 (Marketing, March 15), and the trend was reflected in the
direct marketing sector, where over 1000 of the 2366 companies that
mailed last year cut volumes. Direct mail overall still grew, but – like other media – saw big
changes at the individual advertiser level. Some see the overall
slowing of UK ad growth as evidence of an imminent recession, but
such talk is premature, given that growth is tailing off from record
levels of spend since 1997. The continuing attractiveness of DM is illustrated by companies such
as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Egg and American Express
substantially raising their mailing volumes despite fears of market
saturation. Some big financial mailers cut back their activity, but there are
often special reasons – Axa Sun Life, for example, withdrawing from
direct selling, and Bank One pausing activity due to its acquisition
by Halifax – and the sector is still fairly buoyant. Looking at other big fallers, Procter & Gamble's drop in activity is
in line with its pounds 40m ad cutback due to reorganisation, and
British Gas did not need to mail as heavily in 2000 as in 1999, when
deregulation sparked a wave of new competitors. These factors do not change the fact that these companies mailed
less, but taken as a whole, DM is in as good a shape as any other
media.
Consumer mailers biggest risers and fallers by items mailed,
1999-2000
Company Items mailed Items mailed % change
1999 2000
(millions) (millions)
Biggest risers
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter 19.4 54.2 180
Egg 12.4 27.5 122
Royal Bank of Scotland 8.3 20.2 143
Consumers' Association 5.7 17.1 199
Liverpool Victoria 14.2 23.2 63
Halifax 9.2 17.4 89
American Express 13.8 21.6 57
Reader's Digest 26.1 32.2 24
Telegraph Group 12.5 18.6 49
Biggest fallers
Cornhill 48.2 24.5 -49
Procter & Gamble 34.1 17.0 -50
AXA Sun Life 16.2 0.0 -100
Halifax Card Services 33.2 23.3 -30
Co-operative Bank 19.5 10.9 -44
Publishers Clearing House 16.2 7.8 -52
Capital One 54.1 46.9 -13
British Gas 13.9 6.7 -52
First Direct 15.4 9.7 -37
ACNielsen MMS monitors direct mail activity and spend using a panel
of
10,000 people profiled and weighted to be representative of the UK
population. Spend is estimated by multiplying grossed-up mailing
volumes
against average post and production costs for mailpacks in each
area.
Data does not include requested items, door-drops or inserts.
Detailed
information on direct mail is available via marketmovements.com
Copyright 2001 Marketing.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – FT McCarthy.MARKETING, 05th April 2001
