Direct Mail Continues To Boom During Q3

Direct Mail continues to prove its importance as a marketing and communications tool, with expenditure and volume increasing during the third quarter of 2002, according to the latest figures from the Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS).

The figures for the July to September period show that total direct mail expenditure increased by 8.5% year on year to £553.9 million. Of this, postage made up 42%, while production accounted for 58%.

The volume of direct mail also increased by 7.7% during the same period to 1.21 billion items. The amount of business to consumer direct mail rose by 8.7% year on year and the volume of business to business mail improved by 4.5%.

Financial services and home shopping remain the largest mailers with volumes of 212 million and 143.9 million respectively. Year on year analysis shows that the financial services sector has only grown by 2.7% during the third quarter of 2002, whilst home shopping has increased by 17.2%.

The media, utilities and health sectors saw volume decrease year on year, with the media sector experiencing a 17.7% drop to 58.6 million items, down from 71.2 million in the same quarter last year.

According to the DMIS, the volume of direct mail has increased across all socio-demographic groups, with mailings to ABs and DEs rising by over 12% year on year. However, mailings to the 16-34 age group declined by 14.5% year on year during the third quarter. This was offset by a 20.4% increase in the 45-54 age group.

Commenting on the figures, Jo Howard-Brown, managing director of the DMIS, said: “The medium continues to go from strength to strength and if the trend continuous we will see another record year for direct mail.”

A recent survey from the DMIS shows that the popularity of direct mail remains unaffected by the growth of email and web-based marketing (see Direct Mail Remains Unaffected By Web-Based Marketing).

DMIS: 0207 494 0403 www.dmis.co.uk

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