UK to lag US in DM expenditure growth for 2006

by Daniel Farey-Jones Brand Republic 10-Jan-06, 07:00

LONDON - The UK will trail the US in direct marketing expenditure growth this year, according to a survey from data services company Alterian.

The survey showed that 53% of UK marketers and marketing service providers questioned expected expenditure to increase in the next 12 months. The figure is down slightly on last year's 55%.

In the US, 70% of respondents thought expenditure would increase, up from 64% last year.

The survey also asked which areas respondents felt presented a headache. In the UK, 55% said data hygiene, 51% said customer insight and analysis, and 39% said privacy laws.

In the US, the same list was also topped by data hygiene with customer insight second.

David Eldridge, Alterian CEO, said: "It's very interesting that data hygiene is still such a concern in the UK. You might expect that marketers would be focused mainly on campaign response analysis, ie the back end, but they are very much more focused on getting the front end right."

Another notable finding from the survey was that 60% of respondents said they did not have a full understanding of current and anticipated data legislation and best practices. A third, or 34%, said they did, and 6% said that they outsourced the responsibility.

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