A glimmer of good news for print in the latest Bellwether report from IPA/BDO, which shows that a significant number of companies are planning to increase marketing spend for the first time since way back in 2007.

This ties in with the highly unscientific ongoing survey carried out at Francis Towers, which involves observing the number of inserts in The Week magazine (increasing), along with the volume and quality of direct mail on the doormat - a recent example being an attention-grabbing circular mailer from HSBC. And it was good to see the RHS choosing to use a brightly-designed one-piece mailing to drive ticket sales for the upcoming Chelsea Flower Show for the second year running. It certainly worked for me.

Overall, more than 33% of the 300 companies surveyed for the Bellwether report have set their planned spend for 2010 higher than last year, viewed as a "clear sign" of renewed business confidence. Unsurprisingly the main boost is for digital marketing channels such as online and search engine spending. Sales promotion and direct marketing spend is flat, but that has to be better than further cuts to anticipated outlay.

The comments from Andy Viner, head of media at accounting group BDO, make it clear that measurable ROI on marketing spend is increasingly to the fore, so print suppliers need to be suitably proactive in demonstrating to clients that print can provide proven results. What's more, when used in combination with digital marketing channels print can improve the effectiveness of those online campaigns too.