What marketers think vs what consumers do

Marketers may think they know what consumers want, but they are often wide of the mark. The gap between what consumers do and what marketers think they do makes compelling reading. This extract from the latest fast.MAP/DMA Marketing-GAP Tracking Study challenges perceptions on what topics people are happy for companies to contact them about – and the ones that turn them off. It also shows which channels the UK's consumers respond best to.

And that's not all. Managing and maintaining permissions for customer contact is vital. In this extract from the Marketing-GAP Tracker, we home in on consumer opinion on opt-ins and opt-outs.

Read the Marketing-GAP Data Protection study

Give your data a makeover

Your campaign is only as good as the data that informs it. Direct mail that lands on the wrong doorstep or is wrongly addressed can harm the strongest of brands. Keith Jones, head of data services at Royal Mail, advises marketers about polishing up their data – and boosting their campaign response rate – in our four short films on getting more from your marketing data.

Watch Why data quality matters, buying data vs in-house data, Royal Mail’s role as data services provider and building a marketing database.

Once is not enough

There’s so much to see in Lisbon that people keep going back - 75% of people who go there are repeat visitors - but some airline routes to the popular capital were under threat. So this mailer from ANA (Airports of Portugal) had a tough job - to convince its target audience of route planners not to cut flights to Lisbon. Each handcrafted diary, delivered each day, gradually reveals all the city has to offer in the form of diary entries by a fictitious traveller.

It’s extravagant but it's worth it if airlines keep flying to the city.

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News and views

Putting it right is at the top of the agenda for charities and the marketing industry. UNICEF launches a massive integrated campaign using TV, print, digital and outdoor media to publicise its five-year initiative to raise £55m to protect vulnerable children across the globe.

Protecting consumer data is at the heart of the DMA’s launch of new security standard, DataSeal, which will help companies identify suppliers that can be trusted with their customers’ data. 

Read the latest direct mail news and expert opinions