Exciting new dawn for door drops in 2014

2014 will herald the first year in the history of door drop advertising whereby the Royal Mail will be a private sector business, and as it continues to modernise its operations, this should have a positive impact on offline channels like door drop.

The fusing of technology with the traditional print world is trending within direct marketing circles. The door drop specialist, agency and advertiser need to work together to understand how to harness as much interaction with a door drop using smartphone, tablet and web response in order that valuable insight can be gleaned to ensure campaigns evolve. This too will present growth opportunities for vertical markets who embrace the use of technology in their direct marketing communications.

The decline of the Freesheet newspaper network, once standing at 70% of the UK, now half that number has presented the biggest challenge of recent times. Gladly we appear to be through the worst of the economic downturn, when so many local newspapers shut, and the future looks more stable for those publishers who have survived.

In summary, 2014 represents an exciting new dawn in the door drop industry. I expect to witness modernisation from the distributors and with demonstrable positive return on investment, advertisers continue to invest in a medium that becomes more technologically savvy.

By DMA guest blogger Mark Young, Chief Executive, The Leaflet Company and DMA Door Drop Board Committee Chair