Direct: COI and DMA report hike in direct spend

Its spend on direct and relationship marketing has been surpassed by
digital and is now the COI's second-biggest marketing channel. It
increased its spend on digital work from £22.4m in 2006-07 to
£35.3m in 2007-08.

Broadcast accounted for £17.6m of its spend, up from £13.7m
a year earlier, while PR and sponsorship investment also rose. The
report shows an advertising media spend of £156.9m, up 15.4% on
the previous year.

The direct marketing industry has also received a boost to its
confidence from trade body the DMA, whose 'Economic Impact Analysis',
unveiled last week, stated that spend on direct marketing had increased
by 9.8% year on year.

This appears to contradict the IPA's Bellwether report, which claimed
that budgets for the medium were 'revised down to the greatest extent in
the survey's history'.

However, the Bellwether is a quarterly indication of marketing spend and
the downward spiral may simply be an indication that the effects of
economic uncertainty have only recently had an effect on the direct
marketing sector.