The UK’s Direct Marketing Association has reported that direct marketing budgets increased during the fourth quarter of 2010, in the face of budget cuts for other forms of marketing.
The figures from the IPA/BDO Bellwether report show that while total budgets were declining in the back end of last year, direct marketing grabbed a greater share of marketing spend and actually grew in real terms.
Our take on the report is that it reflects the growing trend we have seen during the recent economic downturn to shift greater spending onto more measurable, responsive and timely marketing tools such as direct marketing, direct mail and online spending.
For example November 2010 saw a noticeable increase in Google search activity related to buying business or consumer data and at the same time we saw a marked increase in enquiries about our B2C mailing lists.
