I was interested to see Capital One is pulling the plug on direct mail for acquisition, an unsurprising cost-cutting measure perhaps given the $1.4bn loss reported by the company in Q4 2008. Predictably there have been whoops of joy amongst marketing luvvies who view cold credit card direct mail with the same distaste they reserve for queue-jumping or cruelty to kittens. But these are often commentators who have never had responsibility for achieving hard results. By which I mean securing a precise and accountable number of sales per campaign over and above a control.

Contrary to some of you, I never thought Capital One produced junk. Their mailings were always about the product, focusing on key product benefits. They got to the point and didn't pretend to be about something else. As far as I know, they didn't willfully mail people who were bad credit risks or who had no propensity to respond.

Direct mail still has a role to play in acquisition. It can 'interrupt' in a way email, online advertising, a facebook presence, virals etc sometimes struggle to. Putting all your eggs into one search basket is a risk, too. And mail is individually targeted, unlike DRTV. It can drive customers online and make them pre-disposed before they reach a comparison site. It has space to explain more complex products, like financial ones. The role of direct mail will certainly have to change if it is to become a prompter and will need to integrate with these other media. But to slightly older, more affluent consumers - the ones with the money - it probably has a job to do.