Direct Mail volume and expenditure continues its rise, according to the latest official figures from the Direct Mail Information Service.
Latest figures for July to September 2002 show that direct mail volume was up 7.7% on the same quarter last year to 1.21 billion items.
The volume of business to consumer direct mail was up 8.7% whilst business to business increased by 4.5%.
Total direct mail expenditure for this quarter was £553.9 million - an increase of 8.5% from the same period last year. Of this expenditure, Postage made up 42% with £234.6 million while production accounted for 58% at £319.4 million.
Not surprisingly financial services and home shopping remain the largest mailers with volumes of 212 million and 143.9 million respectively. Whilst year on year financial services has only grown by 2.7%, home shopping has shown an increase of 17.2% on the same quarter in 2001.
The media, utilities and health sectors saw a decrease in volume year on year. The media sector saw the biggest drop with a decrease of 17.7% to 58.6 million items from 71.2 million in the same quarter last year.
Analysis shows that volume growth across all socio-demographic groups continues to rise. In this quarter mailings to both ABs and DEs increased by just over 12%.
As with quarters 1 and 2 mailings to the 16-34 age group declined again this quarter, by 14.5% while all the other age categories saw an increase. The largest increase, 20.4%, was in the 45-54 age group.
Commenting on the figures, DMIS Managing Director, Jo Howard-Brown says "Another successful quarter for Direct Mail. The medium continues to go from strength to strength and if the trend continues we will see another record year for Direct Mail".
