The figure is contained in The Top 100 Mailers 2009 report published by sister titles Marketing Direct and Marketing. The report covers the 12-month period between July 2008 and June 2009.
The survey, based on data from Nielsen Media Research, features the 100 brands that spend the most on direct mail and includes some of the UK's best known companies such as BT, Tesco and Virgin Media.
Telecoms and broadband giant BSkyB tops the league of spenders, with £31.8m spent on direct mail in 2008/2009, up 79% on the year before.
Although overall spend by the 100 in 2008/2009 was down 9.9% on 2007/2008, nearly half the brands in the Top 100 Mailers 2009 report increased the amount they spent on direct mail to existing and potential customers.
Telecoms providers have taken the place of financial services as direct mail's key user base - three out of the top 10 spenders were telecoms companies as competition over broadband and voice services intensified.
The increase in BSkyB's spend is partly attributed to the firm's marketing push of its HD television service. Mail accounts for more than a fifth of BSkyB's marketing spend, according to the report.
BT also grew its spend on direct mail, by 36% year-on-year. But the telecoms giant has said it is "concerned" about the postal strikes and Matthew Dearden, its director of retail consumer marketing, says the brand is exploring other direct response channels.
"We use direct mail because we believe in it and we need [Royal Mail] to continue to provide the service. If it becomes unreliable we will have to look elsewhere," he said.
Financial service brands, once the bedrock of direct mail marketing, reined in their use of the channel as the credit crunch struck and financial brands reduced their marketing activities overall. Ten out of the top 30 users were financial brands, but seven of these reduced the amount they spent on direct mail.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
