Royal Mail has finally revealed its blueprint to get brand owners back to the advertising mail market, by relaunching and rebranding its Mail Media Centre to win back share from digital channels.
Chief executive Moya Greene hinted that a shake-up was on the cards back in May, when she spoke at the World Mail and Express Europe conference in Geneva. At the time she said: “We think we can grow our position in that market now, so mail retains a larger part of national revenues.”
The new-look hub is to be rebranded MarketReach and will target “large” clients and agencies.
The postal operator has installed a new media planning team and tools to work with brands directly or to produce white label services for agencies. It has also struck a deal with with Callcredit to provide enhanced data planning services, while a creative service will offer development and production of direct mail.
MarketReach marketing director Antony Miller (pictured) said the aim is to boost “physical direct marketing’s” share of the UK advertising market by “reminding people of the value that physical can offer”.
He added that the suite of services will highlight the route to digital by riding on the coat tails of online channels, which have been growing at the expense of traditional media. Direct mail that drives customers online, using QR codes or digital watermarking, will be promoted heavily.
It is looking to run its direct mail operations along similar lines to a media owner, selling advertising space and helping clients with issues where they do not have the skills.
Royal Mail said it was chasing more of the UK’s £16bn advertising market with the offering, of which around 11% is currently held by direct mail.
However, critics maintain that direct mail is fighting a losing battle. A recent report from WARC predicted mail volumes will decline this year and the IPA Bellwether Report continues to show DM budgets being revised down. Meanwhile, the latest figures from the IAB show online advertising is now worth more than £5bn a year.
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If only they’d done this 15 years ago…oh hang on, I think they did, didn’t they? Right down to the well paid market development managers. I wish them well, but isn’t the advice always going to be to stick something in the post as well as all that social and digital stuff? And unless there is a strong commercial reason for doing that – which has to mean greater flexibility on price – is this really going to fly a second time around? And the market for mail was still growing back then…