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No one would argue that 2003 was a testing year for the list industry. The threat of EC legislation curbing unsolicited electronic marketing became a reality in December and downward pressure on list prices continued to squeeze margins. Economic uncertainty caused clients to think twice before embarking on prospecting campaigns.

But despite the doom and gloom, the vast majority of list companies are reporting significant increases in volumes traded and healthy turnovers.

In addition, more list suppliers now own email databases, suggesting that the medium has finally come of age.

There are always a few surprises to league tables and this year is no exception. A number of well-known names have disappeared from the radar screen. HLB, which topped the List Brokers table last year, doesn't feature.

This is because it is owned by Omnicom and releasing figures could contravene the US Sarbanes Oxley Act, which prohibits the disclosure of financial information. On the other hand, several names make their debut, including list managers Holistic List Management, Evolution Direct Marketing and RSA Direct.

In other cases, names have been folded into sister brands. Highbury Direct Media, which came first in last year's List Managers table, now forms part of Wyvern Direct Response, a division of Highbury Wyvern Direct.

Dudley Jenkins, which was second in the 2003 List Brokers table, is included under the Wegener Direct Marketing umbrella. Following their merger in September, The Prospect Shop and Swetenhams appear as Prospect Swetenhams.

List management success

Once again, list managers are outstripping brokers and owners by reporting a healthy 20 per cent rise in business. Brokers show a 12 per cent improvement while owners appear to be struggling with a 0.1 per cent rise. Turnovers appear generally buoyant. Experian and D&B dominate the list owners sector, boasting £27.4m and £18m respectively. Overall, Tri-Direct is the strongest performing broker and list manager, delivering a combined turnover of £16.27m.

Thomson Directories tops the List Owners table for the third year running, showing a 169 million climb in names traded, primarily as a result of signing new licensees. But data business and new products development manager Sam Gray cites deregulation of directory enquiries as a major contributor to the firm's success. "The move has created a wealth of opportunities for the list industry," he says.

Thanks to more aggressive marketing tactics, The Preference Service has doubled the volume of names traded to 69 million, securing it a place in the List Owners top 10. The organisation has also migrated into the list managing arena.

Elsewhere in the tables, Go Direct Marketing has seen a 50 per cent leap in business, making it one of the most successful list brokers of the past 12 months. Managing director Windsor Roberts says customer care rather than emphasis on the bottom line is the secret to successful list selling.

"It's not rocket science. It's about getting inside the mind of the client, understanding why they want data and being able to take an intelligent approach to sourcing that material."

Diversification seems to be the name of the game this year, with more companies cropping up across all three tables, namely Wegener Direct Marketing, Prospect Swetenhams and Electronic Direct Response. This reflects a growing trend to manage, broke and own data, rather than focus on just one sector.

Judging by the hefty surge in email volumes, consumers are warming to the concept of electronic direct marketing. List owners report an average 19 per cent increase in email names. Managers and brokers are performing less well, however, revealing modest increases of 7.3 and 6.9 per cent respectively. Encouragingly, more companies than ever own email databases. The rise is greatest among list owners, where some 21 firms have ventured into the medium compared with 15 in 2002.

Once again suppliers have flagged up their chief concerns (see graph below). Not surprisingly, the impact of existing and impending data legislation is top of the list. The latest law to rock the industry, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, has curbed the freedom to market by the internet, email, fax, automated calling systems and SMS. Meanwhile, the new opt-out clause in the Electoral Roll is making its mark. Figures released by Experian reveal 27 per cent of people registering to vote in 2003 opted-out of marketing (see News, page 8 for more details).

Suppliers are divided over the issue. On the one hand, legislation is helping to flush out rogue list traders and raise the quality of lists.

This is fostering a richer dialogue, thinks Dennis Publishing List Solutions sales manager Nerys Church, because consumers are opting-in to relevant content they genuinely want to receive on a regular basis.

"Email marketing especially will boom under new legislation because client confidence in data will rise."

Falling prices

Downward pressure on price margins remains a key worry. Prices for volume transactions continue to fall owing to the rise in the number of questionable list suppliers trading at ridiculously low unit rates. This represents a serious headache to professional operators such as PDV, which runs the online lottery site, www.thedailydraw.com. The site attracts around 50,000 new names each month, which are fully aware that membership is dependent on receiving regular marketing.

The quality of the data is reflected in its market price, but eCRM director Nick Fuller claims quality can lose out to economy: "Some advertisers are happy to achieve recruitment from whatever media source necessary at the lowest price. Often they ignore data quality and whether the data observes legislation. This means when buying solely on price, firms that maintain higher standards are disadvantaged."

Worldwide economic uncertainty continues to dent client confidence, so much so, that most are focusing on retention rather than acquisition.

The shift has hit suppliers of B2B data the hardest. According to the Direct Mail Information Service, B2B volumes dipped by 1.8 per cent between July and September, the first reported fall in 10 years of growth.

But the tide may be turning, according to RSA Direct managing director Rosemary Smith. She predicts that clients will return to prospecting in the coming months.

"Clients are regaining confidence and this will filter through to the list industry. The question remains how issues such as offshore competition and tougher data legislation will harm any new-found optimism."

Several respondents have noted a shortage of new names on the market.

Some, such as ListLab marketing manager Emma Linzell, blame an overall fall in the level of mailing activity across key sectors.

"Good quality financial names, particularly in the publishing arena, seem to be hard to find," she says.

The rising number of individuals opting out of direct marketing via various suppression files is also causing alarm. A diminishing datapool raises the spectre of small traditional DM firms dropping out of the market or being swallowed up by larger, acquisitive list companies.

As the volume of available names falls, respondents expect to see a rise in demand for highly targeted datapools matched by a fall in the use of large-scale indiscriminate banks such as Jigsaw. But specialised data pools will only become a standard resource once clients overcome fears about sharing data, says Occam senior list broker Liz Moss.

"Convincing key players, such as the financial and home shopping industries, to share data is going to be an uphill struggle. There's a culture of protecting marketing information."

In the current economic climate, bureaux and so-called merge, purge and print companies are branching out into data sales as an additional revenue stream. The data is sold cheap to gain market share but is of dubious provenance. As a result, data quality is being driven down.

So what's the answer? One solution mooted by CACI direct marketing vice president Caroline Kimber is to establish a cartel of list suppliers with sufficient market muscle to regulate prices and quality.

Overall, there's a feeling that the market is reaching saturation point.

With so many new players, list companies are likely to shift towards consolidation to combat competition.

A common gripe is the lack of client understanding about the market.

This, argue suppliers, is breeding unrealistic expectations, which, in turn, is denting uptake rates. Not only are clients failing to note the importance of procuring quality data from reputable sources, they're unable to grasp the significance of deadlines and rapid response.

If client ignorance is to be resolved, then it's the duty of list suppliers to accurately inform. This can only be achieved by employing quality staff.

Being a list supplier isn't just about hiring people with data skills - staff also need to be proficient in account management to offer the right level of customer service and advice.

When Marketing Direct published its first league table in 2002, suppliers cited downward pricing, data quality and EC curbs on marketing among their concerns. Little has changed. The industry has to work within the confines of increased regulation, but the struggle to raise data quality and protect margins goes on.

The message to clients that cheap data is a false economy must be rung out loud and clear. In 2004, it'll be interesting to see whether the advice falls on stony or fertile soil.

LIST OWNERS LEAGUE TABLE

Rank Company Volume Increase or List

traded decrease t'over

2003(m) on 2002 £1 Thomson Directories 1.4bn increase -

2 Experian 816 increase 27.4m

3 Equifax Marketing Services 480 increase 10m

4 EuroDirect Database Marketing 395 same 4.5m

5 CACI 225 same 3m

6 Wegener Direct Mktg 170 increase -

7 PDV 114 increase 2.1m

8 Data Locator 104.6 increase -

9 Consodata 89 increase 12.2m

10 The Preference Service 69 increase 5m

11 Database Solutions 63 increase 2.7m

12= D&B 55 increase 18m

12= LBM 48.2 increase 4.8m

14 Consumersketch 47 increase 1.85m

(previously Psychographics)

15= Dataworks 43 increase 7m

15= Interactive Prospect Targeting 34 increase 3.5m

17 Corpdata 30.1 increase 1.5m

18 Entire 22 decrease -

19 Lifecycle Marketing 19 increase 2.8m

20 Electronic Direct Response 15 increase 1m

21 ListLab 13 increase -

22 Dennis Publishing List Solutions 8.5 increase 0.8m

23 1 Stop Data 8 increase -

24 Market Monitor 6 increase -

25 VNU One to One 4.8 decrease 0.85m

26 Haymarket Direct 3.2 decrease 0.5m

27= Electric Marketing Database Services 2.7 increase 0.55m

28 Prospect Swetenhams 1.3 increase 0.25m

Rank Company % Income % B2C % B2B % Email

list

related

1 Thomson Directories 7.62 0 100 0.17

2 Experian 95 80 20 6

3 Equifax Marketing Services 15 92 8 0

4 EuroDirect Database Marketing 50 100 0 5

5 CACI 60 100 - 0

6 Wegener Direct Mktg 35 90.5 9.5 10

7 PDV 60 100 0 95

8 Data Locator 100 90 10 15

9 Consodata 90 100 0 15

10 The Preference Service 95 100 0 4

11 Database Solutions 85 50 50 10

12= D&B 23 0 100 7

12= LBM 26 10 90 25

14 Consumersketch 80 95 5 5

(previously Psychographics)

15= Dataworks 100 100 0 0

15= Interactive Prospect Targeting 98 100 0 95

17 Corpdata 79 0 100 65

18 Entire 25 100 0 5

19 Lifecycle Marketing 70 100 0 4

20 Electronic Direct Response 33 100 0 90

21 ListLab 25 100 0 0

22 Dennis Publishing List Solutions 95 90 10 25

23 1 Stop Data 20 - 99 30

24 Market Monitor 100 0 100 0

25 VNU One to One 100 5 95 45

26 Haymarket Direct 100 5 95 -

27= Electric Mktg Database Services 100 0 100 0

28 Prospect Swetenhams - 0 100 0

Source: Marketing Direct

LIST BROKERS LEAGUE TABLE

Rank Company Volume Increase or List

traded decrease turnover

2003 (m) on 2002 £1 Media & Response Specialists 136.7 increase 6.14m

2 Wegener Direct Marketing 83 increase -

3 Independent Direct Marketing 80 increase -

4 Prospect Swetenhams 75 increase 7m

5 Tri-Direct 72.1 increase 10.7m

6 Cheryl Nathan List Broking 70.7 increase -

7 AWA Media 60 increase 3.8m

8 Go Direct Mktg 50 increase 3.6m

9 List Experts 48 increase 3.2m

10 Hilite 47 increase 4.2m

11 Mokrynski 30 decrease -

12 MM Group 24 increase 1.3m

13 The J Partnership 24 - -

14 Entire 22.6 decrease 1.2m

15 Uni-Marketing 22 increase 2.1m

16 ListLab 20 increase -

17 Electronic Direct Response 20 increase 1m

18 Marketing & Media Solutions 20 increase -

19 Occam 15.6 increase 1.5m

20 Ventura Media 12 increase -

21 EDM Media 10 increase 1m

22 RSA Direct 6.5 launched 0.52m

June 2003

23 UK List & Press Services 3 same -

24 ISIS Direct 1.8 increase 0.18m

25 Evolution Direct Marketing 1.5 launched n/a

Aug 2003

26 BRG Direct 1.2 increase 0.5m

Rnk Company % Income % B2C % B2B % Email

list

related

1 Media & Response Specialists 3.5 88 8 4

2 Wegener Direct Marketing 16 75 25 20

3 Independent Direct Marketing 30 100 0 3

4 Prospect Swetenhams - 70 30 3

5 Tri-Direct 26.8 95 5 15

6 Cheryl Nathan List Broking 100 100 0 0.5

7 AWA Media 75 90 10 10

8 Go Direct Mktg 35 90 10 0

9 List Experts 100 80 20 5

10 Hilite 95 90 10 0

11 Mokrynski 60 100 0 -

12 MM Group 75 70 30 2

13 The J Partnership 45 90 10 10

14 Entire 22.5 98 2 5

15 Uni-Marketing 56 60 40 5

16 ListLab 30 70 30 5

17 Electronic Direct Response 33 100 0 90

18 Marketing & Media Solutions 59 70 30 5

19 Occam 15 100 0 5

20 Ventura Media 100 90 10 3

21 EDM Media 53 100 0 0

22 RSA Direct 80 70 30 5

23 UK List & Press Services 24 100 0 0

24 ISIS Direct 30 100 0 5

25 Evolution Direct Marketing 25 100 0 0

26 BRG Direct 80 90 10 2

Source: Marketing Direct

LIST MANAGERS LEAGUE TABLE

Rnk Company Volume Increase or List

traded decrease turnover

2003 (m) on 2002 £1 Wyvern Direct Response 41.8 increase -

2 Tri-Direct 38 increase 5.57m

3 Prospect Swetenhams 32 decrease 2.1m

4 ListLab 29 increase -

5 Cheryl Nathan List Broking 24 increase -

6 Go Direct Mktg 23 increase 2.8m

7 Uni-Marketing 23 increase 1.6m

8 Mokrynski 20 increase -

9 UK List & Press Services 18.5 decrease -

10 The J Partnership 16 - -

11 Electronic Direct Response 15 increase 1m

12 The Preference Service 15 - -

13 Occam 15 increase 0.85m

14 Consodata 13.4 decrease 0.95m

15 EDM Media 12 increase 0.8m

16 Wegener Direct Marketing 8.5 increase -

17 Entire 8.2 increase 0.45m

18= Holistic List Management 8 launched -

Feb 2003

19= ISIS Direct 7 increase 0.58m

20= MarketingFile 6.5 increase -

21= Intermarketing & Communications 6.4 decrease 0.4m

22= Media & Response Specialists 5.6 increase 0.45m

23= 1 Stop Data 4 increase -

24= Evolution Direct Marketing 3.7 launched n/a

Aug 2003

25= Lifecycle Mktg 3 increase 0.29m

26= Marketing & Media Solutions 2 decrease -

27= RSA Direct 1 launched 0.07m

June 2003

28= MM Group 0.75 increase 0.65m

Rnk Company % Income % B2C % B2B % Email

list

related

1 Wyvern Direct Response 60 50 50 3

2 Tri-Direct 14 92 8 10

3 Prospect Swetenhams 70 30 0

4 ListLab 45 90 10 5

5 Cheryl Nathan 40 100 0 0

List Broking

6 Go Direct Mktg 28 100 0 0

7 Uni-Marketing 44 60 40 6

8 Mokrynski 40 100 0 0

9 UK List & Press Services 76 100 0 5

10 The J Partnership 35 90 10 0

11 Electronic Direct Response 34 100 0 90

12 The Preference Service 5 100 0 0

13 Occam 10 100 0 0

14 Consodata 7 100 0 0

15 EDM Media 47 100 0 0

16 Wegener Direct Marketing 2 40 60 5

17 Entire 10.5 100 0 0

18= Holistic List Management 100 100 0 30

19= ISIS Direct 35 100 0 0

20= MarketingFile 99 45 55 1

21= Intermarketing & Communications 10 100 0 2

22= Media & Response Specialists - 98 - 2

23= 1 Stop Data - - 99 30

24= Evolution Direct Marketing 75 100 0 0

25= Lifecycle Mktg 5 100 0 2

26= Marketing & Media Solutions 10 85 15 0

27= RSA Direct 10 100 0 0

28= MM Group 25 - - 1

Source: Marketing Direct