Page 42 - Prnt21 magazine Jan-Feb 2023

| Marketing | Direct Mail
Malcolm Auld says research shows mail gets the most attention, so why aren’t marketers giving it more attention?
It is called “Jicmail Attention Pilot Study” and the results are essential reading for marketers looking to improve their results.
ATTENTION RATE
Unsurprisingly, mail has the highest
most marketers haven’t realised that when it comes to direct or unaddressed mail, the media is the message. A piece of mail is a complete advertisement. There is no other content within the mail to distract the reader, such as exists with online advertising or a newspaper for example. For that simple reason alone, mail always gets high attention rates.
The Jicmail research revealed that on average consumers spend two minutes with a direct mail package, and almost 40 seconds with unaddressed mail. This is far more time than consumers spend with advertising in any other media. The next closest media is a 30 second TV commercial, with digital channels a long way behind, as per the chart below.
But when you apply a value to attention, it becomes even more interesting. While direct mail usually costs more to create, it almost always has far higher response rates than any online advertising. So, the cost per lead or cost per sale is usually cheaper than other channels.
Mailing wins eyes
attention rate of any media. Yet,
y old boss said, “It took millions of years for David Ogilvy humans’ instincts to develop. It will said, “On the take millions more for them to even average, five vary. It is fashionable to talk about times as many changing person. A communicator
people read the headline as read the must be concerned with unchanging
body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
The headline is the most important part of any marketing message,
for it must grab the prospect’s attention. If it fails to do so, the rest of the message is irrelevant – your money has been wasted. One of
the first documented models for structuring advertising that is still taught in universities today is AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. The model was proposed in 1898
by Elias St Elmo Lewis. This model describes a series of steps or stages that customers follow when making purchasing decisions. The model has remained unchanged, though there is AIDCA, which adds “Conviction” to the model.
A STRANGE LOT
We’re always trying to find new labels for models or techniques that have worked for decades. We don’t like to think that marketing practices remain relatively constant, despite changes in technology. We want toappearinnovativeandatthe forefront of change, even if change is unnecessary, or
the new label doesn’t improve on the existing practice.
After all, consumers haven’t changed. As advertising creative legend Bill Bernbach
person. With the obsessive drive to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, to take care of their own.”
Which leads me to the recent discussions around attention
in advertising – particularly in relation to online advertising. Marketers are trying to define what warrants as having achieved attention, as against viewability.
By way of definition, “viewability” of an online advertisement is defined as “at least half the advertisement
is viewable on screen for at least a second”. That’s not a lot of viewing. Further, only 70 per cent of online advertising is viewable, while only 9 per cent of online advertisements are viewed with intent.
Recently Jicmail conducted some serious research, validated by PWC, about the attention consumers give different media.
TIME SPENT VIEWING
15 15sec
12 12sec
9 9 sec
6 6 sec
3 3 sec 0 0.0sec
13.8
7.5
5.2
2.4
1.7
1.6
1.3
1.2
1.7
1.9
2.8
TV
YouTube
Social
Digital Display
OOH
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