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The European Letterbox Marketing Association (ELMA) has unveiled its third pan-European census of door drop media covering 22 markets and 180m households. The research found that the door drop market in Europe continued to recover from the recession with an increase of 2.2 per cent to 115 billion items in 2012. However, pressure on costs resulted in media spend falling marginally to €3.9bn; a decrease of 0.7 per cent compared to 2011.
Croatia was the only country to see an increase in the average number of door drops from seven to eight per week. The large economies of France, Germany and UK (244m items) all increased use of door drop, balancing the stabilisation and slight decline of volumes in the CEE and Scandinavian markets. UK households (left) receive five door drops per week.
The largest volumes by country in 2012 continued to be Germany (23bn), France (21bn), Italy (12bn) and The Netherlands (11bn). The UK is ranked fifth with 7.2bn.
ELMA also looked at spend on door drop as a percentage of total advertising spend. The Nordic region, on the whole, allocates more spending to door drops with Denmark at 15 per cent, followed by Finland (11 per cent), France (9.6 per cent) and Norway (8.1 per cent). The lowest advertising spend on door drops is in the UK surprisingly (1.5 per cent), followed by Poland (1.8 per cent) and Germany (two per cent).
ELMA president and managing director of TNT Post DoorDrop Media UK Mark Davies (left) says: “The ELMA census confirms that the door drop sector in Europe has recovered from the recession but is experiencing pressure on price despite a welcome increase in volume.
“Our new data highlighting spend on door drops as a percentage of total advertising spend is illuminating and shows that the sector has to work hard to make its argument for a fair share of the advertising budget.
“Recent research from Experian, where 52 per cent of household decision makers said door drops were the most important source of research about their purchases, followed by the internet at 24 per cent, shows that door drop remains one of the most effective tools for marketers. It is our job to re-educate marketeers across Europe of the effectiveness and cost benefit of using door drops.”
