To better understand the effects of physical media, Canada Post and True Impact conducted research using Electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking. The researchers developed two integrated, non-branded campaigns with the same creative and messaging applied consistently across each campaignâs physical and digital media formats. The results indicate that direct mail consistently outperforms digital ads, drives consumers to act and improves brand recall by 70 per cent.
To better understand the effects of physical media, Canada Post and True Impact conducted research using Electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking. The researchers developed two integrated, non-branded campaigns with the same creative and messaging applied consistently across each campaignâs physical and digital media formats. The results indicate that direct mail consistently outperforms digital ads, drives consumers to act and improves brand recall by 70 per cent.
This paper sets out to demonstrate the effectiveness of consumer direct mail in Great Britain, illustrated by its rapid growth rate and increasing share of advertising expenditure. The importance of direct mail, both now and as an advertising medium of the future, has been influenced by better targeting through individual lifestyle analysis. It also meets the demands of the marketer of the nineties, being very cost-efficient, flexible and more measurable that other forms of media. There are various ways of measuring the effectiveness of consumer direct mail, including the traditional direct response device. One of the most accurate methods is through research which is gathered on a continuous basis by RSGB's Mailmonitor panel survey. The RSGB Mailmonitor panel monitors the volume, targeting and the response of all consumer direct mail campaigns in Great Britain and provides a valuable insight into trends, both for the industry as a whole and for individual campaigns.
Advertising expenditure in traditional media has risen faster than inflation during the period of analysis, with the exception of 1980 and 1981. Surveys and analyses show that expenditure in direct mail and various forms of sales promotion were about equal to those in the traditional media. The increase in advertising expenditure varied from 5.6 to 22 per cent during the period. These variations may be explained by two factors: -1 the demand for advertising space, determined by advertisers; and -2 the supply of advertising space, determined by the media. The demand for advertising space is determined by corporate profitability and the general business cycle. The rapid introduction of new products, as well as more positive attitudes towards advertising, also affects the demand for advertising space. The supply of advertising space was affected by the gradual expansion of the direct mail medium as well as by the abolition of the 15 per cent commission system in 1980. This abolition forced the media to become more actively self-promoting.
There has been for several years a lot of speculations in Finland on direct marketing and direct mail advertising. Many advertisers have seen direct mail as a new possibility to reach their target groups more efficiently and at a lower price than by using the conventional media advertising. On the other hand many media have seen the situation as one of the future threats. At the same time there has not been any research figures neither on the volume of direct mail or on people's reactions on it. That is why the Finnish Newspaper Publishers Association decided two years ago to carry out a series of surveys on direct mail. This very short paper is concentrating on the panel survey carried out by Finnpanel Oy.
Direct Mail is an advertising medium which has grown rapidly in the last decade and, in Britain, is the third largest in terms of advertising spend but it is one in which research expenditure is disproportionately small. Measurement of the medium poses a number of complex methodological problems; this paper presents data from a number of research projects, both continuous and ad hoc, which have been conducted in order to begin developing an adequate research base for a medium of this importance.