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John Townshend, creative partner, Rapier (clients include Virgin Media and Lloyds TSB)
"The truth is that agencies that do direct mail made contingency plans years ago, knowing that Royal Mail has this industrial relations record. Most of our clients don't use Royal Mail."

Vonnie Alexander, client partner, Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw (clients include Toyota, Waitrose and Age UK)
"Email will be key for many clients this year who may have previously only considered direct mail. We have also looked at alternative distributors for door drops to reduce any over-reliance on Royal Mail. If anything the strikes accelerate the demise of the traditional reliance of post as clients pick up their pace on online and other alternatives."

John Hiney, managing director, Carlson Marketing (clients include Coca-Cola, Anchor, Muller and Hyundai)
"We have several large scale campaigns going live over the next month or so. It's too late for major changes in delivery but we have had to build more flexibility into how we use digital comms channels and our contact centres to manage the resulting impacts on response."

Gavin Wheeler, managing director, WDMP (clients include Aviva, Thomson and Starbucks)
"We've got a B2B campaign breaking on 4 November, going to professionals in the City. We're sending it by courier and it's not that much more expensive than Royal Mail. But generally speaking, postal workers striking is like turkeys voting for Christmas. A third will be made redundant by next year with the drive online."

Chris Barraclough, founder, BEC (clients include Nectar)
"We've had no campaigns pulled yet. But hardly anyone mails with Royal Mail anymore. Our clients use DHL, TNT, etc - different firms for different things."

Ben Stephens, managing partner, Stephens Francis Whitson (clients include More Than)
"Everyone was hoping the strike would be averted at the last minute and now are having to put contingency plans in place for what is a busy period for brands. I don't think you can switch channel at the last minute and you have to ask just how realistic are couriers for large-scale mail campaigns.

"We're playing a waiting game at the moment to see what the effect the backlog of mail will have and what the length of the strike will be. We've had no campaigns being pulled at the moment but there are a lot conversations with clients going on."

PS: How the etailers are copingAmazon.com, Boden, M&S, John Lewis and House of Fraser have all said they will be using couriers to get deliveries through as normal. Lovefilm, the DVD rental company, plans to continue using Royal Mail but the FT reports that it will offer compensation to customers whose deliveries are badly delayed. Gifts and gadgets vendor Firebox.com uses City Link for some of its deliveries and has increased the business it gives to the courier company. Ebay has negotiated special rates with four courier companies for people who use the auction site to sell goods.