WRITTEN ON July 8th, 2011 BY chris AND STORED IN General, Leaflet Distribution, Targeting

Tags: bbc, door drop marketing, junk mail, panorama

Link Direct has written to the BBC Director General Mark Thompson demanding a right to reply following a BBC One Panorama programme which it claims fundamentally misrepresented its industry.

Chris Roxburgh, a director of the Merseyside based door drop firm, said he is furious about the contents of the Panorama programme ‘Why Hate Junk Mail?’ broadcast on Monday July 4.

“This programme was fundamentally flawed, clumsy, ill informed and unbalanced,” he said. “I am demanding from Mark Thompson the opportunity of putting our industry’s side of the story as a matter of priority to try and correct the damage this programme has done to a sector than supports 280,000 jobs and contributes £27bn to the UK economy.”

Mr Roxburgh said a major and damaging misjudgement of the programme was the decision to crow bar a study of ‘junk mail’, or advertising mail in the industry’s more balanced language, into an investigation into scam mail.

“This was an appalling journalistic misjudgement,” he said.  “Our sector has nothing whatsoever to do with scam mail and it is outlandish and deeply damaging to us that we were thrust into the spotlight with this criminal activity. Immediately we were tarred with the negative connotations of criminality and the lines between junk mail and scam mail became far too blurred.  A Panorama investigation examining the scourge of scam mail would have a far more sensible and legitimate programme. To drag door drop into this debate however was utterly wrong and has smeared us by association.”

Mr Roxburgh said the environmental case about unaddressed mail was very poorly made.

“The programme’s presenter Tom Heap as a specialist in this area really should at best know better and at worst feel embarrassed for such shameless scaremongering,” he said. “The use of Cornwall Council as a case study presented a totally false picture of the industry. Cornwall is one of the worst councils in Britain for recycling hence why it was putting so much unaddressed mail waste into landfill. In fact the industry has made huge strides in recent years to improve its green record. Today 75pc of all advertising mail is recycled, since 2003 the volume of advertising mail being sent to landfill has plunged by 80pc and now advertising mail represents just 0.4pc of the average household’s waste. Moreover the vast majority of leaflets are made from recycled paper already. And furthermore the industry has actually moved on enormously with technology. This enables it to target leaflets much more accurately ensuring households receive mail relevant to their interests and tastes. This cuts down massively on the number of leaflets that need to be printed and therefore dramatically reduces waste.  These critically important factors were totally misrepresented it this deeply flawed programme.”

Mr Roxburgh said the tone of the programme from beginning to end was quite shockingly biased against advertising mail.

“From the very beginning Tom Heap’s script trotted out the same hackneyed arguments against  ‘junk mail’ and what an expensive, environmentally damaging nuisance it is,” he said. “It was clear he had made his mind up about our industry before the programme had started. As a result his negative opinion was presented as fact and little airtime was given to our sector to robustly defend itself.

“Where was the balance? For example where was the business that needs advertising mail to win custom, to pay its bills, staff and taxes? Where was the consumer who has benefited from offers and information in advertising mail? In 2010 17m responded to mail marketing and the industry is worth a staggering £27bn, so it is irrefutable that consumers are benefiting in huge numbers. It is therefore quite unbelievable that more airtime was not given to show these benefits. Particularly so when we are in a recession and mail marketing is one of the most important and effective marketing tools for many businesses and charities to attract business and raise money.

Mr Roxburgh said the programme was further misleading as it omitted to mention that householders can opt out of advertising mail by signing up to the Your Choice service.

“Already a very large number of households are signed up for this, so if you do not want advertising mail you do not have to receive it. To not mention this was a glaring error and again piled more negativity and bad feeling towards our sector.”