WRITTEN ON March 17th, 2009 BY mark AND STORED IN Leaflet Distribution, Targeting

Tags: Leaflet Distribution, Round Level Targeting

Three of us at LinkDirect made the trip down to London recently for the 2009 DMA Door to Door Conference. During an enjoyable day with some interesting contributions from a wide range of industry experts, some common threads emerged.

The Your Choice Preference Scheme, whereby householders can opt out of receiving unaddressed mail delivered by DMA D2D members, as well as recycling initiatives such as the new BSI PAS 2020 standard for Direct Marketing, formed an integral part of the keynote session.

Two further sessions dealt with targeting issues in quite different ways and it is clear that the Round Level Targeting initiatives that have been on the table for almost two decades are now being taken far more seriously.

The conference heard how successful certain trials had been and how possible it was to home in to the target market with increasing accuracy given the precision of Round Level and other forms of sub-postal sector Targeting.

The common theme in all this was minimizing wastage. DEFRA want the industry to minimise waste at source - i.e. not print too many copies in the first place. Your choice helps identify those who may be least receptive to receiving unaddressed mail and, therefore, arguably less responsive to such campaigns. To remove these addresses from distribution lists would appear to be of benefit to the advertiser, the distribution company and the environment.

Targeting, and particularly Round Level and sub-sector Targeting, is a no-brainer for advertisers and distributors and goes some considerable way to address many of the environmental challenges currently facing the medium.