How Can Marketers Effectively Use Ad Mail?

Advertising mail presents multiple opportunities for people to engage with brands and can remain in the home for an average of 17 days, a study into the role of mail in the home has revealed. 

Royal Mail MarketReach’s investigation into how mail is interacted with after it lands on the doormat found that mail is filtered, handled, shared, discussed, kept and filed away for longer than previously thought. In addition, the study, which involved observing more than 800 hours of video footage, found that door drops remain in the home for an average of 38 days.

The study also revealed that four in ten people (39 per cent) have a dedicated display area for mail in the home. Of those who have a dedicated display area for mail, 51 per cent said this could be found in their kitchen. 31 per cent displayed their mail in the living room and 18 per cent displayed it in the hallway.

In shared households, the research found that 35 per cent of promotional mail is passed on to others. Since people living in shared households tend to be younger, this has particular implications for mail. The IPA Touchpoints research (2014) found that 15-34 year olds are:

· 42 per cent more likely to find mail memorable

· 27 per cent more likely to welcome it

· 71 per cent more likely to trust advertising mail they receive

· 21 per cent more likely to have switched a supplier as a result of mail

than the UK population as a whole.

The findings which are part of Royal Mail MarketReach’s 18-month research programme, The Private Life of Mail, which brings together unprecedented insight into the role of mail in people’s homes, hearts and heads, plus the impact this has on advertisers’ ROI.

The research shows that mail helps keep brands top of mind. Multi-media campaigns including mail were 27 per cent more likely to deliver top-ranking sales performance and 40 per cent more likely to deliver top-ranking acquisition levels than campaigns that didn’t include mail.

Marketing industry leaders recently joined forces with Royal Mail MarketReach for the ‘MAILMEN’ campaign to promote The Private Life of Mail and demonstrate that mail has a vital role to play in the today's digital world and continues to be a powerful weapon in the marketer’s armoury. The campaign contains an advert featuring Robert Senior, Worldwide CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Group with the following line: “Charming. Persuasive. Motivating.  And for once I’m not talking about myself.”

Jonathan Harman, Managing Director Royal Mail MarketReach said: “As it flows through the household, a single piece of mail represent multiple opportunities for people to engage with a brand, reminding them of it and reinforcing its values, and ultimately becoming part of everyday life. 

“Observing over 800 hours of video from our ethnographic study, we noticed that in some cases mail occupied an amount of overall daily time comparable to that of other media. In fact, the latest IPA Touchpoints survey shows that adults read their mail on average for 22 minutes a day- more than magazines at 14 minutes per day.”