Inserts and third-party inserts industry report H1 2013

Introduction

Welcome to the DMA’s first ever combined Inserts industry report. This is the first time anyone has measured the combined number of media and third-party inserts placed in the UK.

The DMA now measures inserts placed into newspapers, newspaper supplements, magazines, catalogues, statement mailings, product dispatch, directories, brochure requests and customer letters. This is an exciting list of opportunities that shows the ever-diversifying world of inserts.

So what does this growing list of opportunities mean to the industry?

Most obviously there are a plethora of opportunities for marketers to choose between. Test campaigns include not only a wide range of titles, but also a wide range of distribution methods. Targeting within insert campaigns is tighter than ever before.

There is an explosion of creativity that can be seen in the interesting formats and creative being used. Gone are the days when everything is A5, 2pp (single sheet) – today we have super-sized inserts, backing boards, bound-ins, tip ons, multi-page catalogues and even video in print.

Finally brands are increasingly using their insert capacity to do swap deals with each other (an area not covered here).

The industry is in a time of change. Some big, core advertisers reduced spend in Q1 & Q2 2013; this is shown in the year-on-year volume drop in this report. However there are lots of new advertisers testing (and importantly rolling out with) insert campaigns. While test campaigns are never as big as established spenders, these campaigns are important to the long-term growth of the channel.

Plus technology, for a long time a foe of the inserts industry, is fuelling a lot of the good news. Ecommerce is a massive success sector in 2013 with online grocery, furniture, clothing and wine companies seeing major growth. Plus offline to mobile technology is a growing and increasingly important part of many campaigns, making inserts an integral part of the modern marketing mix.

So, while at face value the first half of 2013 shows decline, there is enough positive news coming out of the industry to be bullish about the future of inserts.

Parry Jones
Director, The Insert House
Member, DMA Inserts Council

James Bartys
Sales director, trt media sales and itransact
Member, DMA Inserts Council

Inserts and third-party inserts industry report H1 2013