Royal Mail holds DM “sale” for clients

Royal Mail is to offer advertisers a 20% discount on direct mailings in an attempt to increase use of the channel.

The two-month “DM sale” aims to encourage brands to trial the use of direct mail in their campaigns and encourage existing users to include it in planned activity.

The discount will be available on new and additional mailings sent next March and April over and above the “normal levels” sent in previous years.

News of the offer follows the autumn postal strikes that caused severe disruption to companies’ direct mail campaigns. The actions led many observers to predict Royal Mail, which was already handling about 10% less mail each year before the strikes, would lose customers to rivals as well as hasten a shift from physical mail to email.

Royal Mail media director Mark Thomson says the initiative is a “new approach” for the postal service and brings the channel in line with other media channels that are being “underpinned with incentives”.

“Advertisers and agencies are under pressure to deliver more for less,” he says, adding that he wants advertisers who do not use direct mail “to discover for themselves the benefits” of the channel.

The Direct Marketing Association has estimated that the strike action could have cost businesses £10m in lost, postponed or cancelled direct mail campaigns.

The offer will be on new or additional Mailsort 3 letter volumes as well as the postal service’s sustainable mail product.