It would appear that the hypothesis that Internet advertisers are
distinctly different from direct mail advertisers is false. It seems
to be the consensus of marketing experts that while in some cases the
Internet steals dollars from traditional marketing overall it is
proving to be a complement to catalog or direct mailing efforts.
Increasing numbers of advertisers are using both Internet and direct
mail, including catalog merchants.
In the process of seeking to rank users of each medium I spoke
directly with representatives of the Direct Marketing Association, the
Advertising Research Foundation, the research department of the United
States Postal Service, several advertising agencies specializing in
direct mail, several marketing research experts, two direct mail
lettershops and a three business librarians.
All agreed that there is significant crossover between Internet and
direct mail advertising and , unfortunately, all agreed that there are
no public data on who the major direct mail advertisers are by
company. The USPS has data by company but it is proprietary.
There is a ranking by agency and that is appended below.
Anecdotal evidence from these experts describes direct mail
advertisers (other than catalog merchants) as credit card companies,
telephone companies and magazines.
Specific company names that were often mentioned were Dell, AOL,
Publishers Clearinghouse, MBNA, Capital One, National Geographic,
Time Inc.
The ranking of direct mail advertisers, I am told, varies greatly by
region and also by time of year. Many advertisers used quarterly
mailings.
The closest thing to a ranking is a list of “Blue Chip” direct mailers
from the American List Council. It too, is given below. There is
ample information on Internet advertising.
In 2001 the Direct Marketing Association predicted that $1.9 trillion
would be spent on direct marketing -- catalog sales accounting for
$113.4 billion and direct mail spending $46.8 billion.
"Various trends in the industry may bolster the demand for printed
catalogs. Rather than stealing dollars, the Internet may prove to be
the printed catalog’s greatest ally.
Many catalogers are expanding their customer base through the
Internet."
“Expenditures by the leading national advertisers bear this out. Each
of the top 100 advertisers in the United States uses unmeasured media
(which includes direct mail, promotions, couponing, catalogs and
special events to name a few) and magazines…. Of the 14 media tracked
(including unmeasured as a single medium) the top-100 advertisers use
an average of 12 media in their campaigns. Of their total spending,
unmeasured media accounts for 45 percent.”
White Paper: Direct Mail and Catalog Industry
sponsored by Banta Corporation
http://www.banta.com/tech/catdm.pdf
“Marketers and media planners are now presented with new opportunities
and new challenges. With more media options, many of them offering
reach to business or consumer special interest segments, marketers are
discovering that they can target their message more effectively by
using a variety of media. Increasingly, marketing through one medium
compliments advertising in another.”
Source: Advertising Age, Competitive Media Reporting, Wilkofsky Gruen
Associates
Direct Mail Drives The Net
“Combining the power of direct mail with the speed of the internet is
a winning combination for many companies. Cahners' Variety magazine
uses direct mail internationally to attract subscribers. Recently
they started including the address to their subscription web page in
their direct mail. Response has increased 20 percent. A third of
responders are subscribing through the web site, and their response
time has been cut in half.
“The Wall Street Journal, the only newspaper to find success in
online pay subscriptions, uses direct mail to offer free trials of
its online version.”
http://www.mailcci.com/past_issues/index.asp?issue=032001.asp
WSJ: Study Says Marketers Shifting Toward Internet, Direct Mail
5 countries: U.S., Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France
Direct mail will grow to 13.3% in 2003 from 12.8% in 2001. Interactive
marketing, which includes such tactics as e-mail marketing, Web-site
design, internet advertising and cellphone ads, will command a 7%
share in 2003, up from 6.1% in 2001, the study predicts. "The shifts
indicate a significant change in the way expenditure is being used,"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum20/979.htm
In 1999, the number of advertisers using Unmeasured Media was 100,000
who spent $3,911 million, a 44.6 share of total.
Those using the Internet numbered 87,000, spending 365 million, for a
0.5 share of total.
Clinical Analysis of the Direct Mail Market july 2001
http://alc.com/pdf/final_study_consecutive_pgs.pdf
Here are the top Internet advertisers according to Ad Age ranked by
measured media spending per medium in 2001
INTERNET
1 Ebay $45.4
2 General Motors Corp. 44.3
3 Providian Corp. 29.3
4 Amazon.com 27.7
5 AOL Time Warner 27.2
6 Barnes & Noble 26.0
7 Bank One Corp. 25.9
8 Classmates Online 24.3
9 Vivendi Universal 22.2
10 Dell Computer 21.0
adagehttp://www.adage.com/page.cms?pageId=914
CMR, leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing
communication information, paints a slightly different picture from Ad
Age based on the first half of 2001.
“Online ad spending dropped 10 percent for the first half of 2001
compared to first-half revenues in 2000, according to the latest
figures from CMRi, the Internet division of a
CMRi estimates that Internet ad spending for the first half of 2001
totaled $1.5 billion. Yahoo continued to drive overall Web site
revenues with a total of $197.3 million in the first half of 2001,
compared to $194 million for the same timeframe in 2000, an increase
of approximately 1.69 percent.
“Among all parent companies, General Motors led Internet spending with
$25.4 million for the first half of 2001. Closely matching GMs
expenditure and aggressive push in advertising is Ebay Inc. with $24.4
million. Also topping the list of advertisers are Internet parent
companies Amazon.com Inc. and Classmates Online Inc., spending $16.2
million and $15.1 million respectively.”
http://www.cmr.com/news/2001/091001.html
Online Ad Spending by Company First Half 2001
General Motors Corp $25,415,811
Ebay Inc $24,356,260
Amazon.com Inc $16,200,820
Classmates Online Inc $15,108,190
JP Morgan Chase & Co $14,914,052
Barnes & Noble Inc $14,368,801
Verisign Inc $13,711,014
AOL Time Warner Inc $13,333,416
Providian Corp $12,769,892
Bank One Corp $11,187,960
Source: CMRi's AdNetTrackUS
Top Online Ad Spending by Brands First Half 2001
Ebay.com Auctions $18,815,966
Amazon.com Store $15,810,022
Classmates.com $15,108,190
Barnes&Noble Store $14,368,801
Casino on Net $10,863,412
1-800-flowers.com Store $10,648,142
Network Solutions $10,324,609
Nextcard.com $9,848,709
Homestore.com $9,695,668
Dell Factory Outlet $8,545,254
Source: CMRi's AdNetTrackUS
Not among the top ten listings but obviously big players are Walt
Disney and Microsoft.
“A survey of advertisers by Gartner found that during 2000, only two
of the top 20 advertisers in the U.S. spent more than 1 percent of
their overall budgets online. Those two were Walt Disney and
Microsoft, which have their own online properties.”
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/13400.html
Nielsen ranks Internet advertisers by “impressions.” An impression is
counted as the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing.
Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance Top 10 Advertisers Month of April 2002
Top advertisers, ranked by impressions, are based on data from
AdRelevance, Nielsen//NetRatings' advertising research service. Top 10
Advertisers by Company
Advertiser*
Impression s (000)
1. Columbia House Company 3,263,795
2. Amazon.com, Inc. 2,735,691
3. eDiets.com, Inc. 2,274,717
4. Barnes & Noble, Inc. 2,066,874
5. Bank One Corporation 1,879,390
6. Netstock Corporation 1,697,105
7. USA Networks, Inc. 1,630,320
8. Classmates.com 1,560,353
9. Dell Computer Corporation 1,383,808
10. Citigroup Inc. 1,357,267
*Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on an
advertiser’s own Web property.
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_020520.pdf
Top Online Ad Spending by Industry Class First Half 2001
Retail $299,404,537
Media & Advertising $261,440,066
Financial $177,879,435
Computers & Software $149,753,786
Local Services & Amusements $143,964,572
Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts $68,016,488
Automotive, Automotive Access & Equip $66,261,445
Telecommunications $42,318,614
Government & Organizations $39,589,868
Insurance & Real Estate $38,961,553
Source: CMRi's AdNetTrackUS
The American List Council Blue Chip Roster of Successful Direct
Marketing Clients (alpha order)
• American Civil Liberties Union
• American Express
• Amnesty International USA
• Bank of America
• Bloomberg L.P.
• BMG Direct
• Bookspan New York
• Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence
• Catholic Digest
• CFO Magazine
• Citicorp Credit Services
• Condé Nast Publications
• The Conference Board
• Covenant House
• Crain Communications Inc.
• Dell Computer Corporation
• Doubleday Select, Inc.
• Dow Jones & Company
• Eddie Bauer
• Emmis Publishing
• Foreign Affairs
• Gevalia Kaffe
• Golfsmith
• Habitat for Humanity International
• Harry and David
• IdeaMall, Inc.
• IDG Communications
• Jackson & Perkins
• The McGraw-Hill Companies
• MCI Worldcom
• Meredith Corporation
• MicroWarehouse
• National Audubon Society
• National Seminars Group
• Neiman Marcus
• Nickelodeon
• PC Connection
• Prentice Hall Direct
• Primedia Consumer Magazines
• Reader’s Digest
• Saveur Magazine
• Smith & Hawken
• Strong Capital Management, Inc.
• The Vermont Country Store
• Viking Office Products
ADVO Inc. is the nation’s largest full-service targeted direct mail
marketing services company. ADVO has annual revenues of more than $1
billion and ranks as the single largest private customer of the U. S.
Postal Service.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/10/25/1025dm.html
Direct Response Agency Report May 2000
Prepared for: The DMA Agency Leaders Group
Rankings based on agencies reporting fees and commissions on a
capitalized basis plus revenue from internal production capabilities
Agencies Total Billings 1999
(In Millions)
1. Brann Worldwide 2679.6+
2. DraftWorldwide, Inc. 2196.0+
3. The Sales Machine Euro RSCG NA
4. OgilvyOne worldwide 1625.5
5. impiric 1962.9+
6. Rapp Collins Worldwide 1887.6+
7. Digitos 813.7+
8. Carlson Marketing Group 864.5
9. Grey Direct Marketing Group, Inc. 764.6
10. McCann Relationship Marketing Worldwide 667.2
11. FCB Direct Worldwide 600.3
12. Harte-Hanks/DiMark 603.2
13. CommonHealth 426.1
14. ThompsonConnect Worldwide 110.4
15. Targetbase Marketing 376.5
16. Campbell-Ewald 284.1+
17. ChoicePoint Direct, Inc. 241.1
18. Grizzard Communications Group 199.3
19. Lowe Lintas Direct 253.5+
20. Brierley & Partners 194.9
Footnotes:
+ Agencies submitted adjusted figures for 1998.
Source: DMA Research Department, May 2000
http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/registered/research/ar00bill.shtml
Search strategies: “direct mail”; Internet advertising; “direct
marketing”; USPS
Combined with advertising, advertisers, top, major, largest,
statistics, reports, trends, users
Searches within the sites of the following organizations:
AdAge
Ad Forum
The Advertising Council
Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF)
Advertising Mail Marketing Association (AMMA)
Advertising Research Foundation (ARF)
AdWeek
American Advertising Federation (AAF)
American Business Press (ABP)
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM)
Association of Directory Marketing (ADM)
Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
Business Marketing Association
Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
Pitney Bowes
Advo
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Nellie Bly
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