After a year of immense uncertainty for brands, annual door-drop volumes and spend have witnessed major declines, according to the DMA’s Annual Door Drop Industry Report 2021, but customer engagement remains high as the power of print continues to resonate with consumers.
According to the report, about two door drops were delivered to customers on a weekly basis and, on average, one person in the household saw it and, for an average of three times, interacted with it. In 2015, the average door drop frequency stood at 4.22 per household.
Revenues over the past year year fell significantly due to the pandemic, from £214m in 2019 to £143.5m in 2020, while door drop volumes similarly fell year-on-year from 4.1 billion in 2019, to 2.7 billion last year. In 2019’s report annual volumes were over 5.4 billion, meaning volumes have halved in just two years.
In the first half of 2020, the outbreak of coronavirus and full UK lockdown led to many major advertisers’ puling all their door-drop activity and this effect was particularly felt through the whole of the second quarter.
While things recovered to some extent in the second half of the year, uncertainty over local and national lockdowns, as well as businesses that had no option but to close their doors, meant volumes remained lower than expected.
DMA director of insights Tim Bond said: “While the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the door-drop industry, reducing overall volume and spend, the power of print has continued to resonate. Insights from Jicmail – the audience measurement scheme – highlight the continued and, at times, increasing power of print in engaging customers and driving commercial actions.
“Looking forward to 2021, we expect these metrics to make a strong recovery, but organisations will no doubt still be impacted by the ongoing pandemic. One thing is certain in uncertain times: whether it’s engaging new customers or fostering loyalty in existing ones, door drops continue to be an effective, tactile and scalable marketing channel.”
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