DM, Data and Beyond

Mark Roy

John Jay Daly, the Godfather of Opt-Out, died in Washington D.C. on August 27th of a blood infection. The man credited with pioneering DM opt-out in 1970 was also a popular D.C. spin doctor and, in an earlier incarnation (while working at the US National Institute of Drycleaning), John claimed credit for expanding dry-cleaning facilities in the former Soviet Union. Good to know that the Cold War was also a clean war, is it not?

I’m not sure it was necessarily Mr Daly’s intent, but by giving rise to the Age of Opt-Out, he did transform campaign planning worldwide by forcing marketers to better target their offers towards those consumers demonstrating the greatest interest and propensity to purchase.

That’s a considerable legacy indeed – particularly as DM (or ‘advertising mail’ as our American cousins call it), still accounts for 21 per cent of total US advertising spend and generated US$702 billion in economic activity States-side in 2008.

Yet almost 40 years on from Mr Daly’s pioneering efforts, how disappointing that only 47 per cent of US mailers use any form of suppression file, according to the American DMA. As I noted on this blog back in March, perhaps it’s little wonder then that 19 State Legislatures across the United States currently have ‘Do Not Mail’ registries on their agenda – such is the volume of mis-addressed and unwanted mail swamping American households. Because with DM volume totaling 101.9 billion items and an estimated 40 million Americans changing address last year, that’s potentially one hell of a big offer mis-matched and ‘return to sender’ junk mail swamp.

My views on the UK’s own rather shoddy suppression rates and attitudes to consumers are well documented. But compared to our American cousins, we’re paragons of best practice virtue.

So keep up the good work, everyone. We Brits may yet do Mr Daly proud as responsible direct marketers.