Door drops under threat from environmental issues
LONDON - The Direct Marketing Association has warned that the door drop industry could face strict measures in response to Government and public concerns over the medium’s impact on the environment.
Speaking at a doordrop media conference organised by postal operator TNT Post, Alex Walsh, head of postal affairs and industry development at the DMA, said environmental issues were posing a significant threat to the direct marketing industry.
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He added that while legislation would be too complex to set up for the doordrop industry, a door sticker initiative, in use in the Netherlands since the 1990s, could soon be a reality in the UK. The door sticker, which is also in use in France, Germany, Norway and Belgium, allows consumers to opt out of unaddressed mail completely including free newspapers, or to opt out of undressed mail but opt-in to free newspapers only.
“The door sticker initiative seems like a strong front runner as far as the Government is concerned and is a real threat. If the industry does not do something, the Government will,” said Walsh.
Walsh said that serial offenders who continue to deliver unaddressed mail to those who have opted out by using the door sticker, face fines. ‘No junk mail’ stickers exist in the UK, but there is no legal penalty for those who ignore them.
A spokesperson from TNT Post in Holland said that 13 per cent of households in Holland have chosen to opt-out by using the door sticker.
Walsh also hinted at other possible measures that could be imposed on the industry, such as an eco-tax, which exists in France. Suppliers of unsolicited mail are given the choice of supporting local authority recycling schemes or paying for advertising that encourages the public to recycle.
Marketing Direct will be running its 'Profiting from Green Policies' Conference on 9 November. The event will feature leading brands revealing how they run sustainable and profitable environmentally-friendly direct marketing campaigns. For more details visit www.haymarketbusinessevents.co.uk/greenDM or call Susan Hayes on 020 8267 4350.
Door drops under threat
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Comments
Chris Petterson - 19/10/2007
We find ourselves, again, grappling with the compromise between effective targeting & maximum exposure .. but unusually blaming the service provider rather than the marketer … we didn’t blame BT for telemarketing or Microsoft for email spam so why are the “serial offenders continue to deliver” the problem? Isn’t that what the marketers have instructed them to do? [ Clearly as an SP, I may be a little biased ] Junk mail is frequently substituted to mean DM, leaflets or both & whilst we here, lets include Free Sheet newspapers into the mix …Junk Mail is surely unwanted post, not leaflets, the irony being that RM are legally obliged to deliver addressed post, unwanted or not. If we are concerned about environmental waste then surely by volume, paper consumption & transport costs then newspaper impact vastly out weigh direct mail with leaflets insignificant by comparison? As marketers, we should all be creating efficient campaigns with compelling customer centric propositions rather than ‘carpet bombing’ poor creative & unattractive offers through chanels, just because they are cheap to use – this holds for email, DM or Door Drops.