Large fall in spend by top 10 direct mail users

by Nikki Sandison, Marketing Direct 21-Jan-09, 08:00

LONDON - The total direct mail spend of the top 10 companies from all sectors in November 2008 was the same as the finance sector alone spent the previous year, reflecting the wider economic slowdown and reduced reliance on direct mail as an acquistion channel.

The top 10 companies for all sectors spent £11.1m on direct mail in November 2008, compared to £18.2m in the same month the previous year, according to Billets Media Monitoring data.

The finance sector alone spent £11.5m on direct mail in November 2007 but this dropped to £5.9m in November 2008.

Paul Ryan, data controller at Billetts Media, said that the fact that the all sector top 10 spend is about the same as the finance sector the previous year is a clear indication of how budgets are being squeezed.

BSkyB topped the all sector list spending £1.7m on direct mail with 3.6m mailings. It was followed by Damart on £1.4m and The Book People on £1.3m.

Also making the top 10 were Axa Sun Life, Royal Mail, British Telecommunications, Children with Leukaemia, Saga Group, Salvation Army and Virgin Media.

Axa Sun Life was number one on the finance sector list spending £1.2m on direct mail in November 2008 with 1.7m mailings. It was followed by Saga Group on £744,000 and Halifax on £719,000.

The previous year DFS was number one on the all sectors list spending £3.2m with 4.4m mailings, while Halifax topped the finance sector list spending £2m with 4m mailings.