±±¾©Èü³µpk10

A great DM list is like a great album. A CD that presses all the right buttons will be enjoyed again and again, with increasing levels of pleasure and satisfaction. No matter how many subsequent new releases come out, to eclipse that already established favourite will be very difficult.

The list sector shares many of these similarities. Banker lists are marketers' soul-mates and new lists have to compete to be seen as anything but pretenders or covers of the original. But, with new lists continuing to enter the market every month, the slowing speed that these enter the consciousness of list users is an issue that many say is becoming a concern. New lists should offer new opportunities, but some feel they are shunned for banker lists which do the job, but not much more.

Too niche

This is just one of the concerns that many list managers - even those who repeatably sell the same data - say the industry must re-evaluate.

Jeremy Saul, list and sales manager at Holistic List Management, is one who says he still sees lists that have been on the market for three or more years, but clients and more seriously brokers still haven't heard of them. "New data is getting left on the market," he argues. "Clients are missing out because it's hard to even suggest testing this data if it's been on the market unused for so long."

Why this might happen is debatable. The quantity of new lists may be an issue - although some say they peaked a year or so ago. But the other issue is that some might be just too niche for their own good. Just some of the lists added to the market in the last few months include the 'Pampered Ladies' list of 20,000-plus hair and beauty salon users and the Magnetic Health buyers list of people buying magnetic bracelets and necklaces. "One data owner we met," adds Saul, "had been told by another manager that they could make £1m from their 70,000 database. This sort of exaggerated claim has contributed to a flood of new lists out there, which subsequently fail to be used."

Lack of testing

But being niche may not be the issue, according to some, because if new lists are finding it harder to reach the market, it's because it reflects something far more worrying - that testing is being curtailed too, the usual way new lists get absorbed. "In the current climate, people are simply not testing, and sticking too rigidly to their core, banker lists," argues Gerry Scott, managing director of HLB. "It's incredibly important that new lists enter the market because they increase the potential for learning," she adds. HLB has recently had success with two lists - one from the Really Useful Theatre and the other from concert ticketing company Way Ahead. Both are being used by the less obvious financial services sector to find a better link to people.

So what is the true picture on new lists - in terms of using them, spotting them or marketing them? It's a complex picture. From the brokers' point of view all say they crave new lists - which should then create demand from clients. "We're hungry for it, the old favourites have been there too long and new lists aren't coming on fast enough," says Mark Arnold, director of list broking at Prospect Swetenhams. However, while he is ravenous, persuading clients to eat them too is harder. "A broker's job is to look for new lists," he adds, "but client perceptions of new lists can be difficult to overcome. They tend to look at the products people have bought and discount them, rather than looking at the characteristics of the people that have done the buying."

Checking data quality

But there are other issues besides this - not least in the area of over-zealous marketing of new lists. If new lists are to flourish and earn the confidence of their users then they must be more accountable, argues Mike Chantry, managing director of Hilite Marketing Services, which manages 120 lists on an exclusive basis. "We're regularly approached by list owners who offer us exciting sounding lists to manage. They pitch them as 50,000-plus names that have all spent more than £50. They sound exciting, but some get carried away with the truth, and in four out of five cases these new banker files fail miserably."

Since 2002, Hilite has run NCOA and GAS mortality health checks on all new lists offered, finding in some cases a 22 per cent goneaway level of supposedly zero to six month recent buyers. "We also run the file against known buyers in the list sector," adds Chantry. "A low score (a below 10 per cent match) is a good sign that the list is not as described, and should be treated with suspicion." Just from doing this Hilite estimates that 80 per cent of "dead wood" is revealed - names that otherwise wouldn't be found out until a marketer had wasted money using them for a real campaign.

"The bad news," he continues, "is that we still see many of the lists we reject finding their way on the marketplace."

The responsibility to run these checks should be the list broker's, especially for finding the true source of lists. "There are far too many lists coming to market under the 'new lists' banner that are really amalgamated data from various hidden sources already used by a client," argues Ian Boichat, managing director of data consultancy Ventura Media. However, while some may mislead, if this fact is actively marketed, Saul believes that reactivating old, unused lists is effectively the same as launching a new list, as they are new names. Holistic's newest list under management is that of International Masters Publishers (IMP), one of the world's largest mail order companies, a list of 1.5 million responsive mail order buyers in the UK. Holistic is adding new selections to revitalise it, and says this is one way to allow marketers to put their faith into a different list.

The beauty of a refreshed list is that as a lapsed but nevertheless well-established piece of data, it normally gets around the main problem with new list take up - the age old problem of having a high enough volume of names. For a list to go mainstream, it needs something like 200-400,000 names for roll-out options and most new lists (which are niche by their nature) seldom hit that total. This is one of the reasons why one of the most recent high volume new lists is called 'The Gallery', which holds details on mail responsive people from an amalgamation of different catalogues, including Laura Ashley, Boden, Twinings Direct and Lands End Direct.

Volume challenges

Because testing lands often at the door of the creative agency, this also acts as another barrier - simply from the additional numbers of people being involved - that also affects how likely a small new list is likely to have any impact on a campaign. "We don't want to say that the development of new lists doesn't have an important role to play, but the sticking point is the statistical validity of samples," says Olivier Janus, planning director at EHS Brann Discovery. "We want to be 95 per cent confident a sample size's response will be repeated, but as a best practice you have to make marketers aware that there could be real variance between the sample and actual results."

John Evans is head of intelligence at DM agency Clark McKay & Walpole and list buys for clients including Carphone Warehouse. He says he needs to find new lists that offer some failsafe mechanism in order for them to be attractive. "We all know that good lists get used all the time, and many mediocre lists slip through, but new lists must still offer a win-win situation. They must at least sacrifice on price - as they are unproven - because we need know we haven't invested too much if it fails."

List pooling

Lifestyle companies like Experian help by offering pre-validation services - taking new lists and then looking at it from the point of view of its penetration, consumer types, hierarchies, social types and the rest. "Here we at least see if a list looks like it will be useful rather than have brokers rely on their gut feeling," says Peter Thompson, sales director at Experian Marketing Services.

However, as even Thompson argues, it is not the volume list owners who are responsible for a proliferation in new lists but the existence of lots of smaller ones which are more difficult to validate.

"The larger data owners are the ones who are becoming more consistent - releasing new variations and selections," he says.

How to give the smaller files more scalable use is what has turned many to the pooling model, and Arnold argues the most exciting new list in recent years has been the Transactis file. Transactis was set up a year ago by the former managing director of Abacus, Chris Morris, and differs from the Abacus-type transactional data model by adding demographic and lifestyle information from Consodata and CACI to the buying data of top catalogue companies. To qualify, a catalogue owner must have 200,000 0-18 month buyers. On their own, these might not be large enough, but together the file comprises 23 million transactions distilled into 18 million regular buyers. So far, the list is kept to having just the UK's top 40 join.

"Niche lists do work, and I wouldn't want to say otherwise," says Morris, "but they don't have the roll-out volume. The problem for new lists in today's marketplace is that marketers have scorecards of existing customers based on transactions and want to translate some of this onto new data or prospects and for this they need sufficient coverage. Individually, each one of our catalogue members could sell their lists, but together they are much more powerful." Capital One is just one company which Morris says is using the file with "spectacular" results because the list is finding new ways for a financial services company to categorise prospects.

New lists are the lifeblood of the DM industry - they provide new intelligence about people and new ways to target even if they are ultimately the same individuals targeted before. It's clear though that the speed at which new lists are absorbed into the market can be shouldered jointly by clients, list owners, managers and brokers throughout - and not often is it said that everyone has an equal role to play. As Saul concludes "Everyone wants new data. Sometimes you have to know where to go to get a good list, but it's normally worth it in the end."

HOW NEW LISTS SUCCEED

CHRIS GREY, managing director, TRG Strata

"New lists are always hard to get into mailing schedules, but not impossible. However, everyone in the buying chain needs to play their part. When a manager brings a new list to market they need a concerted awareness campaign - and this doesn't mean a mass mailing. They should be targeting all brokers and clients who they feel the list would perform well for. At the same time, any good broker worth their money should always be looking for new lists to test. They should be receptive to pitches but be able to make informed decisions on whether to test. The last link in the chain is the client. They should realise that marketing campaigns are moveable feats and should always be looking for new data to back up their banker lists." However, they can only make informed decisions if they have been provided with the right information from their broker."

IRIT REED, director, Caspian Partnership

"The problem with new lists sometimes is that data from an unrecognised source can be more difficult to sell as there is more of an education process to go through in order to persuade clients to test. However, while it's easier to bring branded data onto the market, the downside is that a broker's own perceptions of a brand can influence their opinion of whether or not it is a good list to recommend to their clients. Overall, it is important for mailers to spread their risk and look for new ways to reach potential customers. It is equally important to add that very few lists bring new names to the market - they are the same consumers, just sourced in a different way."

LINDSEY JOHNSON, managing director, Avongate

There's been a huge proliferation of lists on the marketplace. Ideally list owners should be employing a small or independent list management company that is passionate about succeeding with the lists it represents. Extending the DMA's list accreditation scheme to cover consumer lists will provide in-depth information on the cleanliness and success of all lists and will solve the issue on untested lists. It will also encourage media agencies and buyers to look at DM as a media route and buy lists because many media buyers are still put off by the fact that lists are the only media not properly audited. Those with anything to fear will be those list owners with lists that should not be on the marketplace anyway.

ONLINE AND PAPER DIRECTORIES

All consumer lists available to direct marketers are listed in the LADS paper directory, but for more up-to-date changes to list prices, selections, and changes from managers and brokers there is the List Link website - www.listlink.co.uk. Each day List-Link receives new and updated information from list managers and owners on new, retired or changed lists. Information is stored in data card format and list managers and owners are prompted to submit regular information to the service to keep marketers up to date with new data and existing data developments. ListLab and AWA Media are just two high profile companies that use it on behalf of their clients.

NEW BUSINESS LISTS?

When it comes to B2B lists, 'new' definitely means new selections according to Sam Gray, database product manager at Thomson Directories. "The Office of National Statistics says there are 3.5 million business addresses, but we and other business data providers all hover around the 2 million mark, and have done so for the last few years," she says. "What's vital is new areas within this, so we have lists of those working at home, which come from data exclusive to us." Thomson has more than 2,000 business headings and can categorise by such factors as number of employees, how long a business has been established, the premises type and the the name of the decision maker. "The newest area is in good email lists, and we now have 300,000 business leader email addresses which we launched in 2003," she says. "Because this is additional data it means clients can have more scope selecting their data as the integrity of this is the same as that from the main OSIS file. With our Business Search Pro product for instance, you can take the whole file or just search for specific fields and requirements," Gray adds.

txt2email

You can send a copy of this article to a friend's email account by texting this message, 'MxD 1014 'recipient's email address', to 82058. Text messages are charged at standard network rates.