The data covering the period from October to December 2021 found that mail continued to cement its position at the heart of multichannel marketing strategies by further expanding its effectiveness at driving advertiser website traffic, product and service information gathering online, and record levels of smartphone and tablet usage.

While 9% of mail, across direct mail, door drops, and business mail combined, prompted a website visit, JICMail said mail also continued to record robust effects for traditional bricks and mortar retailers. The proportion of mail driving consumers in store doubled in comparison to Q4 2020, from 1% to 2%. Meanwhile, 5% of mail drove a purchase, the same proportion as in Q4 2020.

Ian Gibbs, JICMail director of data leadership and learning, told Printweek: “Cyclically, a year ago in Q4 2020 we were in the middle of a lockdown so there wasn’t a great deal of footfall. So to an extent we always expected there to be growth in footfall in Q4 2021.

“But on top of that, there continues to be something about mail being this very trusted, tactile, in-home media in an age of digital saturation and digital scepticism – it clearly does have an effect.”

The data also found that 25-34, 35-44, and 45-54 year olds are all interacting with direct mail more than they were a year ago.

JICMail data is gathered from a panel of 1,000 households every month. The mail activity of every household member is tracked using a diary-based app. Every mail item they receive over the course of a week is captured and everything they do with that mail item over the course of a month is recorded.

Volumes on the JICMail panel increased by 16% year-on-year in Q4, with door drops the biggest growth channel, recording a 30% increase year-on-year. Volumes are now higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 11,984 items tracked in Q4 2021 vs 11,489 in Q1 2020.

JICMail reported that the typical piece of direct mail was interacted with 4.55 times on average in Q4, and shared with 1.12 people per household.

Door drops recorded an average frequency of 3.04 and item reach of 1.05 people per household. Business mail, meanwhile, was interacted with 4.96 times on average and shared with 1.18 people per household.

The average door drop was kept in the home for 5.4 days before being filed or thrown away/recycled, with direct mail kept for 7.4 days, and business mail retained for 9.4 days.

“JICMail continues to be a great source of information to help bust some long-held myths around the mail channel,” said Gibbs.

“It’s been exciting to see the prevailing wisdom that only digital channels can be used to reach young people effectively challenged by the uptick in mail engagement noted among 25–34-year-olds over the 2021 festive period.”

Separately, JICMail has also launched JICMail Essentials, a free to access platform that contains a wealth of mail campaign planning data detailing mail campaign reach, frequency, and lifespan alongside effectiveness predictions according to different commercial objectives.

Cross-media audience cost calculations, top performing mail creative downloads, and A/B testing toolkits by industry sector have all been made available through Essentials “to bring the power of robust mail planning data to advertisers large and small”.

JICMail has also recently launched the JICMail Academy e-learning portal to support the introduction last year of the JICMail Levy.