A UK report shows that Direct Mail advertising spend returned to growth in the third quarter of 2024, beating the country’s overall average of advertising spend of 9.7%, according to the latest figures from the Advertising Association (AA) and WARC (World Advertising Research Centre.) Digital Inkjet is the winner.
The figures showed sales of direct mail grew 12.9% in the year to Q3 2024 – a return to growth for the channel for the first time in just over two years. Direct mail’s strong performance put it on course for overall growth of 0.8% in 2024, an upgrade of 3.7 percentage points on October’s AA/WARC report.
Bruce Thomson, founder and managing director of mailing firm Bakergoodchild, says that the direct mail market’s buoyancy seems to have continued into the 2025 new year.
He notes: “Direct mail just seems to be very strong at the moment, especially among SMEs and start-ups. DM has become a bit of a ‘secret advantage’, because not so many of their competitors use it. We’re seeing more businesses enquiring about DM and seeing how they could apply mail through integrated automation.
DM does well in tough times
Thompson adds: “Direct mail does well in tough times, when it’s a challenging economy. Enquiries are up, because people feel like they have to either grow their sales or reduce their staff – and a lot of people have decided to grow their sales.”
Overall UK ad spend growth is forecast to reach 11.2% for the 2024 financial year.
Lucy Swanston, chair of the UK's Strategic Mailing Partnership, says the data was a clear indication of mail’s continued relevance for marketers: “As brands increasingly focus on consumer trust and engagement, the tangible, personal nature of mail offers a unique advantage. The industry is evolving, with innovations in data-driven targeting and AI-enhanced personalisation ensuring that direct mail continues to complement digital channels effectively,” she says.
The AA - WARC report credits some of the growth of online platforms to new AI technologies and the increased capability to deliver hyper-personalised messages, but these capabilities do not exist online alone. Digital variable data printing - which will be showcased at the upcoming Hunkeler Innovation Days, will clearly demonstrate that high volume inkjet, and some toner digital printing with the right finishing, can incorporate sophisticated analytical data streams that appeal to targetted sectors and even individuals.
(Thanks to Printweek.com for bringing this to our attention.)
Commentary by Andy McCourt:
Online only marketing is becoming increasingly mistrusted, due to a plethora of scams, misinformation, cluttered smartphone screens that intrude on the viewer's main purpose and unresolved concerns over privacy invasion. It is not all bad, but sufficiently so that consumers are increasingly wary of it.
Targeted Direct Mail is far more trusted and enables the recipient more repose and safety that, when considering offers, no one is 'tracking them' with 'cookies' and outright data gathering with the purpose of sending spurious or even illegal offers to unwitting consumers. Personalisation and respect of consumer rights has ended the old perception of 'junk mail.' If its targeted and of interest, it's not junk. The internet online has become the new 'junkyard' - and far worse than mass untargeted mailing ever was. The ridiculous and false 'paper kills trees' meme is well and truly disproven with Sustainably sourced materials and recycling in everyone's backyard bins.
If anything is harming the planet now, it's the huge, proliferating Data Centres and AI that consume unimaginable amounts of energy. An AI query uses about ten times more energy than a simple Google search, because it processes much more data, some of it not accurate or relevant.
Let's hope the UK trend is repeated here in the ANZ region. So long as Australia Post does not price mail off the radar, we should see a resurgance in DM as a trusted, sustainable and commercially wise medium.
Andy McCourt
