A company’s use of direct mail has a pronounced impact on how consumers perceive its environmental credentials. So says new research commissioned by ONEPOST and published by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

One third of consumers polled said the presence of a recycle logo alone on an item of direct mail would lead them to perceive a company to be environmentally-friendly. On the other hand, half of the consumers said polythene wrapping induces a negative perception and 30 per cent pointed to incorrectly addressed mail as counting against a company’s environmental image.

Luan Wise, marketing manager at ONEPOST, said: "Responsible Mail is a great product for helping organisations reduce their postage costs by meeting environmentall- friendly criteria while demonstrating best practice in areas such as data cleansing. Our clients have benefitted from more than £250,000 additional postal savings since its launch last April."

The study also reveals that direct mail is perceived to be the least potentially harmful to the environment. 

Wise added: "While this is good news, there is a clear difference in the response between unpersonalised leaflets and personally-addressed direct mail (30 per cent versus 17 per cent) in this study which builds on previous research from the beginning of last year. The industry is working hard to overcome the ‘junk mail’ tag and these results are promising indicators of our efforts to achieve this."

For a copy of the Sustainability Tracker Study, email luan.wise@onepost.co.uk or visit the DMA website: www.DMA.org.uk 

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News that British postal operator Royal Mail and the postal workers’ union have come to a compromise has been welcomed by independent postal expert, Graham Cooper (pictured).

Cooper, MD of ONEPOST, said the deal with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over the modernisation of the postal service, also bodes well for direct mailers: "The new deal is good news for the postal industry as a whole and those companies such as ourselves, borne out of the postal deregulation, to be able to offer clients alternative postal solutions.

"The strike action affected us all as without the Royal Mail we cannot deliver the final mile."

He added: “The UK postal industry needs Royal Mail to continue as a strong incumbent operator – without that the entire mailing industry is not sustainable. We will hopefully now see a return to Royal Mail meeting or indeed exceeding their Quality of Service targets which were severely hit by the industrial action of last year."

The compromise deal includes pay rises and working condition changes for staff as well as £2 billion of new automated machinery and equipment for delivery offices and mail centres.

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A UK-based annual survey into donor attrition levels is to be expanded to include charities around the world.

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association – the self-regulatory organisation for face-to-face direct debit fundraising in the United Kingdom – carried out the F2F Donor Attrition and Retention Survey (DARS) in the UK in 2008 and 2009, analysing the cancellation – or ‘attrition’ – rates of more than a quarter of a million F2F-recruited donors going back to 2004.

The surveys have shown that, in the UK, around 50 per cent of donors will cancel their donations within 12 months and have provided pointers for charities on how best to steward their donors to improve retention.

Now the organisation has decided to make the study a global exercise.

Mick Aldridge, CEO of the PFRA, said: "I attended the International Fundraising Congress in Holland last October and from talking to delegates it was clear there was a real appetite to share knowledge and best practice about F2F fundraising, including our attrition survey.

"F2F is a global fundraising movement and charities in every country where F2F is practiced can learn something from every other country where it is also carried out. Extending DARS into a fully international survey is a first step in that direction."

DARS was co-devised and is researched by Rupert Tappin, managing director of London-based fundraising organisation Future Fundraising, and Morag Fleming, head of fundraising at Scottish social care charity Quarriers. 

Tappin and Fleming have been in touch with international F2F expert Daryl Upsall (of Madrid-based Daryl Upsall Consulting International) about securing the input of his international charity clients, while the PFRA secretariat has already received interest from charities in the USA, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.

Tappin said: "DARS is already the most robust and complete picture of donor attrition and retention across any fundraising method in the UK. In fact, we don’t think there’s anything like this anywhere else in the world, so this is a wonderful opportunity to create an unparalleled global benchmark.

"We have benchmarks stretching back five years in the UK and it will be fascinating to discover whether attrition patterns for F2F donors are universal or vary from country to country and between cultures."

Any non-UK charity requiring more information about DARS should contact Rupert Tappin at rupertt@futurefundraising.co.uk. Data collection according to DARS criteria is taking place this month and will need to be planned by charities’ database teams in advance.

The DARS results for the UK will be announced at a special seminar following the PFRA’s annual general meeting in London in June, with the exact date and venue yet to be announced. PFRA is still considering suitable scenarios to announce the results of the international component.

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The third annual Dubai International Advertising Festival takes place next week (March 15-16) and is set to attract advertising and communications industry players from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Staged at The Palladium, a new state-of-the-art venue in Dubai Media City, Dubai Lynx brings together 32 international creatives and clients from 25 companies, presenting seminars and workshops. 

This year’s speakers include: 

• Ahmed El-Azizi, vice-president Marketing of PepsiCo MEA
• Barry Cupples, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific
• Carter Murray, CMO, Worldwide Account Director Nestlé, Publicis Worldwide
• Chuck Porter, co-chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky
• David Nobay, creative chairman, Droga5 Australia
• John Hunt, worldwide creative director of TBWA\ Worldwide
• Mark Fiddes, executive creative director, Draftfcb London
• Mark Tutssel, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide
• Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman; regional executive creative director, Asia Pacific of McCann Worldgroup, India

Delegates at Dubai Lynx 2010 will be able to view an exhibition of winning advertising pieces from Cannes Lions 2009, Eurobest 2009, Spikes Asia 2009 as well as the Dubai Lynx 2010 shortlist. The latest Dubai Lynx winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony and dinner, which takes place next Wednesday. 

Steve Lane, Dubai Lynx festival director, said: "We are very excited about this year’s Dubai Lynx programme. It’s an intense agenda with some hot topics presented by a host of world-class speakers. We’ve also injected the fun element by introducing some equally important networking opportunities central to this business." 

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Global data provider Infogroup has been acquired by CCMP Capital Advisors for $635 million, transforming it from a public to a private company and to a full-service direct marketing provider.

Bill Fairfield, Infogroup CEO, added: "Transitioning from a public to a private company brings many benefits to our shareholders, clients and employees. Our shareholders will receive an attractive, immediate and certain cash value for their shares.

"For Infogroup’s clients and employees, the merger will allow for greater stability, focus and flexibility to make the strategic, long-term investments that are needed to advance the Company’s leadership position, grow the core business, expand product solution offerings, improve overall cost structures and efficiencies, invest in technology and expand our global reach.

"Under the new partnership with CCMP, we can accelerate the positive momentum we started this past year."

Richard F Zannino, CCMP Capital managing director said he was delighted with the acquisition: "Marketing clients today are craving innovative, impactful and cost-effective ways to reach their target customers. We are very much looking forward to working with the talented team at Infogroup to help its clients meet those needs." Co-head, Kevin O’Brien, added: "CCMP has extensive experience in direct marketing and business services. We believe our proprietary operating expertise together with targeted investments in people and systems can help Infogroup accelerate its drive toward higher value-added,’end-to-end’ marketing services and extend its market leadership."

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The judging of The Intercontinental Advertising CUP has been moved, following the postponement of Thailand’s AdFest 2010 event, due to political unrest there currently.

Sarajevo – the capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – will welcome the judges from around the world next week; from Sunday March 14 to Wednesday 17th.

The CUP was originally scheduled to take place during AdFest 2010, with judges due to arrive in Thailand on Saturday and The CUP ceremony taking place Thursday, March 18, in Pattaya, Thailand.

However, last week, organisers took the decision to postpone AdFest following unexpected political events in Thailand and it was decided to move The CUP to Sarajevo. Jimmy Lam, president of AdFest, said: "I would like to thank our friends at Golden Drum and ADC*E (Art Directors Club Europe) for their help in relocating The CUP 2009 to Europe, with the support of city mayor office of Sarajevo. 

"We are very disappointed that The CUP 2009 will no longer coincide with AdFest 2010, but the organisers unanimously agreed that this was the right decision to make given that circumstances in Thailand could cause travel delays for our jury panel."

The political tension has been mounting in Thailand since the Thai Supreme Court stepped in to decide whether to seize the $2.3bn assets of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The former telecommuncations tycoon was popular among many rural Thais but removed from power by a coup in 2006 and now lives in exile in Dubai. His supporters, meanwhile, have been rallying, largely via Internet-enabled mobiles phones and new media such as Twitter (Thaksin has more than 65,000 followers on Twitter), which he uses to communicate directly with his supporters – ‘the red shirts’. There are concerns the unrest will escalate into violence over the next few days.

The CUP Awards are organised by three regional festivals: AdFest, FIAP (Ibero America) and Golden Drum (Eastern Europe). ADC*E (Europe) is also a participating member.

AdFest organisers will announce new dates soon – the event is likely to take place in late May 2010. The Asia Pacific winners of The CUP 2009 will be announced on the AdFest website on Friday (March 19) and winners will receive their trophies on stage at AdFest 2010. To sign up for email alerts, visit: www.adfest.com 

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Advertising and marketing businesses are among the most confident about their prospects for the next six months compared with other industries, according to UK research from Santander Corporate Banking. But the figures show nearly double the number of firms suffered profit falls in the past six months, with 48 per cent reporting declines compared with 25 per cent recording increased profits.

The Santander Corporate Banking Business Confidence Index reveals that 81 per cent of advertising and marketing business owners are confident in the prospects of their own business for the first half of 2010. That compares with just 68 per cent who were optimistic when the research was first conducted in September 2009.

Almost one in eight firms say they are ‘very confident’, while 69 per cent are confident about the future with 19 per cent not very confident.

Confidence in the advertising and marketing sectors is higher than the national average, which showed that 74 per cent of firms were optimistic about the next six months. The national average has stalled since September 2009 when 75 per cent of companies were confident about their prospects.

But confidence is higher among firms with turnovers of £25 million plus – 81 per cent of those firms say they are either ‘very confident’ or ‘confident’ about their prospects and report average profit rises in the past six months of 14.1 per cent.

Profit pressure

The national analysis shows that it is the continuing squeeze on profits that is holding back confidence – half of companies say profits fell in the second half of 2009, compared with 21 per cent which reported an increase.

The average profit fall in the past six months is 16 per cent, compared with the average rise of 13.7 per cent. Profit decreases were highest among firms with an annual turnover of less than £1 million.

However, in the advertising and marketing sector, 48 per cent of firms have reported declines in profits, while a quarter have seen rises. The average fall in profits is 16.5 per cent,  while the average rise is 14.7 per cent.

Businesses in the construction/building services sector have been worst affected by the downturn with 70 per cent suffering a drop in profits in the second half of 2009. The average profits fall for the sector was 17.8 per cent with the travel sector seeing an average drop of 17.3 per cent. Firms supplying the Government/public sector saw the biggest average increase in profits, at 19 per cent, with the health/medical sector recording average profit rises of 17.6 per cent.

Business owners’ confidence in their prospects for the next six months

Five most confident business sectors:    

1. Health/Medical
   
2. Technology/IT/Telecoms
   
3. Advertising/Marketing  
   
4. Charity
   
5. Manufacturing  
   

Five least confident business sectors:   

1. Construction/building services
   
2. Transport      
   
3. Energy
   
4. == Travel  and  Agriculture    
   

Steve Pateman, head of Santander Corporate Banking, said: "The advertising and marketing sector has seen an impressive turnaround in confidence thanks in part to a better profits performance.

"The official end of the recession marks a turning point but sustained recovery and growth will be challenging, requiring support from the banking industry."

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I have recently celebrated a birthday and was curious to note that I received almost as many emailed greetings as traditional cards. This was not as a result of my nearest and dearest cutting down on postage (or effort) but that I was getting extra good wishes from others via computer. People who had never sent me birthday greetings before, sent me an email. Nice! But how did they know?

At the FEDMA List Council meeting in London in the same week (page 6), the topic turned to just how much personal information there is floating about in cyberspace, thanks largely to profiles within FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype et al (page 16). Of course, marketers are not surprised that communications channels and systems do just that; communicate details (page 24). And yet, people can be cavalier and even careless about giving out sensitive data. My birth year (both the real one and the one I have . . . ahem . . . adjusted slightly), is easily traceable over the web, and that’s OK. But one list council member told how he had tried to remove a photo he was not happy to have scrutinised by all and sundry across the Internet, yet, despite all efforts, opt-outs and use of the delete button, it can still be Googled. Ethical marketers (page 19) worry about this because:

1. Scattered data can be scraped by less than scrupulous list compilers and sold on
2. Privacy advocates will get mad enough about that to eventually become furious agitators . . . and thus spur ever-increasing legislation (page 7).

So, although it is truly wonderful to see the brotherhood of Internet users linking arms around the world (and sending happy birthday messages), ultimately there will be less pleasant side-effects for consumers and, particularly, for marketers.

Among the general messages I have received recently via email was this offer (the punctuation is theirs): ‘Sally, Win a Cake Every Month for a YEAR! Imagine how happy you’d be if you opened the door to the Postman and, instead of giving you the usual bumph, he passed you a freshly-baked cake. Ecstatic!’

To be fair, it’s a free prize draw website which also offers rather bigger prizes, such as holidays and cars. But the rather inventive copy-writer talked up this prize for all it was worth, which was actually not very much. Shortly afterwards, another email arrived, this one touting tickets for ‘a fabulous comedy romp of a show with something for everybody and free cake!’

What is it with all this email cake?

Why can’t they just post me the real stuff?

P.S.

I am delighted to introduce Jamie Riddell as DMI’s new technology editor – our resident expert in all things cyber! Read his first DMI article on page 16 and view his digital DMI Extra debut here.

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Ian Hughes says he made a mistake when he consigned Twitter to the corporate rubbish bin.

When I am wrong, I am prepared to admit I am wrong. I was wrong once before and it might be that I am wrong again.

I recently wrote that I could see no commercial use for Twitter. And indeed, at that time, I could not.

That was until I came across Rebecca. And she made me change my mind.

Before I tell that story, let me tell you about a browser called Flock, it’s a sort of web browser but it does Social Networking properly. Using Flock, I can monitor what’s going on in the world and track it down. For sure, there are other systems that do the same, but I use Flock and I am happy. Rebecca uses Hootsuite.

Being an insurance junky, I have been looking at the way different companies in that sector are using the feed.  

One company clearly tells all their employees to retweet any announcement or news to all their colleagues and then pays a series of fictitious people (bots) to carry on the tweeting. For some random reason someone must have told them it was a good idea. 

Another seems to have a robot that seeks out the words ‘Car insurance’ and then checks the first name and location of the Tweeter. If they are in the UK one of three tweets is sent to them, making it look like they care about the Tweeter.

 I am not sure what the Twitter word for this is, possibly twivvel, or twap.

One of the things you learn from being in mass personalisation, is that it is what it is. It is not real personalisation, it’s a computer pretending to care. Let’s not try and make it bigger than it is.

And then there is Rebecca, and she is fab. The first thing you notice about Rebecca is that she is a real person. In fact her name is Rebecca Sibley and she works for Aviva, a large, yellow insurer. You can check her out on LinkedIn if you don’t believe me. On twitter you will find her at AvivaUKGI.

Saving the transaction 

The great thing about Rebecca is that she clearly looks out for people on Twitter who have issues and then, gently, sees what she can do to help. In fact, as I write these words, I am watching an interaction between her and a MissKittyLea. The original connection happened because another Tweeter recommended that MissKittyLea tweet Rebecca.  

 Within four minutes, of the initial tweet: ‘@AvivaUKGI horrendous customer service im looking forward to leaving you in april’ Rebecca Tweets back: ‘@misskittylea can i help at all? My email address is rebecca.sibley@aviva.co.uk, I work for Aviva. Becca’ and she proceeds to try to help. Another small thing she does; she tweets the person who recommended contacting her and thanks them for putting MissKittyLee in touch. Even though Kitty Lea is, in essence, complaining and that person has helped her complain.

And in five minutes, a transaction save has begun.

 Who knows whether she will win Kitty over, you will have to follow the feed. It looks like MissKittyLee might be a professional model/entertainer, so I am not sure she is covered under a traditional insurance policy anyway.

 If that’s the power of Twitter, if Rebecca can make a boring, yellow brand personal with just a little bit of work, then maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for humanity yet. And I think that’s at the heart of my observation – technology is great, people are better.  

There used to be a saying that on the Internet no-one knows you are a dog. You can’t beat the human nature of interaction and on Twitter people do actually know if you are a dog.

 The question here is can money be made from it, and that was central to my mistake. As a marketer, I am always trying to sell something . . . but what I should be thinking about is not what I can get but what I can keep. It seems to me that it is the issue of saving sales that will be the first possible outcome of working on social networking. Maybe the objective here is to connect. And only connect.

 Getting it right

We have a programme with one of the largest Internet blogs where they recommend us – every now and then we make mistakes and people get irritated with us and then blog about it. When that happens we react, in fact we try to over-react. We want to turn the situation around.  

 Sometimes it works. 

We rarely get thanked, but we learn a lot. Our customers tell us what we are getting wrong and, as a result, help us to get it right.

And that’s all the thanks I need.

Ian Hughes is managing director, Consumer Intelligence. Email: ianh@consumerintel.com   Twitter: ianchughes  Facebook: ianchughes   And on LinkedIn. 

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Keith Wiser says business is booming. But there is a down-side.

I recently read the 1997 biography of Paul McCartney by Barry Miles, Many Years from Now. Apart from being a rollicking good read, a number of things struck me.

One was the sheer speed at which Lennon and McCartney knocked out hit after hit after hit. And they were all belters. The second thing was just how easily one can recall the words to almost every Beatles song that was ever written just from hearing the title.

(OK, that probably doesn’t apply if you were not around in the ’60s. But I was. And trust me, if you were there, this is true.)

I can’t think of another band or song-writing team to whom this applies.

Which brings me back to the title of this article, which was taken from the Beatle’s song called It’s Getting Better All the Time. You can probably see why the lyrics are so easy to recall from the chorus below.

It’s getting better all the time

Better, better, better. It’s getting better all the time

Better, better, better.

Which then, with a bit of a hop and a skip, brings me back to the present. Suddenly, I find myself turning away business that last year I would have kissed feet for. Yes sir, I have to admit it’s getting better.

It’s getting better all the time!

Spending frenzy

As you will have gathered from my last DMI article (January/ February 2010), South Africa finds itself in a unique position this year, due to the fact that we are the hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. You will also recall, if you read that article, that the country has been in the midst of a spending frenzy as part of its preparations for the great event. But that in no way explains what happened at the beginning of 2010.

I deemed last year a success for my agency because we survived. Business was like the Monty Python parrot: it was dead . . . it had expired . . . it had ceased to be! Suddenly, we are on a roller coaster of note. Which is all a bit frustrating. Last year I bit my leg off because I was hungry. Now I have been entered into the Olympic 100 metres!

In times of recession, one has little choice but to cut back and this primarily means on staff. What’s he banging on about, I hear you cry. Just be grateful and hire a new team or two, I hear you say.

Well, it’s not that easy. And there’s nothing like a recession to make one a little cautious, particularly when you look forward another 12 months.

Down to earth

Just as I was getting all gung-ho about the new year, one of our clients brought me down to earth with his projection for 2011. Apparently, every country that has ever hosted the World Cup has experienced a major recession in the following year.

I seem to recall getting into this business because it was fun. Am I still having fun? You’d better believe it. But I have never, while running my own agency, had to face challenges like the ones that confront me now on a daily basis:

• I am basically working 24 hours a day and if that’s not enough I work nights.
• Clients seem to have forgotten the meaning of the word ‘planning’. Yes, there’s lots of work coming in, but it normally begins with a phone call that goes something like this: “Hi, I believe you are a direct marketing agency. We’d like to talk to you about a campaign we would like to get out in the next five minutes’ time.” OK, it’s not quite that bad, but not far off!
• Of course, we weren’t the only people to experience the recession, so clients are still looking for suppliers with very sharp pencils.
• Apart from suffering from SPS (Sharp Pencil Syndrome) clients are also suffering from commitment issues.
• Asking clients for retainers these days, so that one can plan and provide the required resources, is met with about as much enthusiasm as the Gunners on a visit to Old Trafford.

The upside, of course, is that we might just be getting all this work because the world is changing. Short deadlines, tight margins and lack of commitment are part of it.

But on the upside, this brave new world may FINALLY be at the point where it is starting to take what we have to offer seriously.

Now wouldn’t that be a thing! And, if having to live with all the hassles I have just been describing are part of it, so be it . . . because it’s getting better all the time.

Keith Wiser is founder/CEO of 5th Dimension, based in South Africa. Email: KeithW@5thDimension.co.za

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