27th February 2013
The Direct Marketing Association has conceded that it can't substantiate its claim that unsolicited mail generates over £25 billion of postal sales per year. The lobby group now thinks junk mail is worth millions
to the UK economy.
It was one of the main arguments in defence of unsolicited mail. Every time the junk mail industry got a bad press the Direct Marketing Association would contact journalists to provide them with facts and figures
about advertising mail. The most striking statistic was invariably the one about how much advertising mail is worth to the economy. The exact figure varied from £16 to £25 billion but the story was always the same: people may despise junk mail but the industry makes a massive contribution to UK Plc
.
Interestingly, the claim also appeared on the home page of the Mailing Preference Service - the industry's opt-out scheme for addressed junk mail. This made it possible for a registrant who took offence of the statement to challenge its validity and lodge a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.
From £25 billion to millions
The complainant first queried the figure of £25 billion with the Direct Marketing Association, who confirmed that the statistic was based on research done by the Read Group in 2010. Exactly how the Direct Marketing Association arrived at a figure of £25 billion remains unclear; the research it quotes actually estimates that 'direct mail' contributes no less than £43.7 billion to the UK economy annually. What is clear is that the research cannot be scrutinised and that the Read Group, nowadays called The Data Agency, has a vested interest in promoting advertising mail; it is one of the largest companies within the industry. The company's chief executive, Mark Roy, is also the chair of the Direct Marketing Association's Data Council.
Surprisingly, the Advertising Standards Authority initially refused to deal with the complaint. The advertising watchdog argued that the complainant should provide evidence that the industry's claim was wrong and that it was not up to the Direct Marketing Association to prove its claim is right. An appeal against this decision was successful and the subsequent investigation quickly learned that the industry's claim could indeed not be substantiated. The lobby group conceded that it didn't have the specific figures to hand
and has duly changed the text on the Mailing Preference Service website "to make the information sound more generic". Visitors to the website are now informed that UK consumers generate millions of pounds of postal sales per year
.
Deja vu
It is not the first time the Advertising Standards Authority has forced the Direct Marketing Association to remove a false claim from the Mailing Preference Service website. In 2011, the lobby group had to admit that it was unable to substantiate its claim that registering with the opt-out scheme can remove people's names from up to 95%
of direct mail lists.
The Direct Marketing Association has not commented on the Advertising Standards Authority's ruling.