Inserts

Inserts Industry Monitor

The release of the 2007 volume figures shows that inserts remain a dominant force within the complex media marketplace. Against a backdrop of a tough advertising market in 2007 the monitored inserts market experienced a decrease of 7% year on year. Across the monitored market there were 6.7 billion inserts. The Q1 2008 monitored volumes, at over 1.5 billion items, show an annual decrease of 13% compared with Q1 2007.

Please see the 2007 and Q1 2008 volumes summaries for further details and an outline of the factors that have influenced these volume fluctuations. Factors include increased targeting and the weekday reduction in volume within some of the major newspaper publishers due to changes in printing technology, resulting in overall reduced capacity.

The DMA are collating the 2007 third party insert volumes. Once these figures are released the volumes will then be reported on a quarterly basis, in conjunction with the Inserts Monitor for newspapers and magazines.

The List and Insert Manager can assist in maximising the efficiency of third party insert activity. If you haven't already taken advantage of this comprehensive planning tool, take a look now. If you have a programme which should be listed then please contact the DMA.

Environment

Environmental issues continue to be at the top of the Council agenda. The objective is to implement initiatives that encourage advertisers using media inserts to operate their campaigns in accordance with industry environmental best practice guidelines, thus achieving the maximum use of recycled paper for insert print and increased application of consumer recycling logos on inserts, helping advertisers to achieve their corporate and social responsibility targets.

The Council's target is to ensure that by the end of the calendar year the top ten inserters will be carrying recycling messages such as ‘Read, Respond, Recycle' along with a WRAP logo on all of their insert activity. Ultimately, our aim is that ALL clients carry a recycle logo on their paper based marketing. We are pleased to announce that the Council's environmental initiatives have recently been endorsed by Defra.

The Council is collating research on how green the industry currently is, in order to quantify future success. If you have not already reported back, please contact us to let us know what initiatives your company has undertaken to ensure that your insert activity is environmentally responsible.

Research

Inserts Council research is currently being conducted in order to better understand just how offline activity is driving online response and to what extent. The findings will be released towards the end of the year.

Awards and Events

A sub committee has been formed with the objective of increasing and improving the quality of entries within the inserts category at the DMA Awards.

Events are planned for the autumn in Manchester and London, focusing on the role of inserts within the current economic climate as well as promoting winning case studies. Please look out for further details of our events on the DMA website or contact us if you would like to get involved or suggest specific topics for us to cover.

Council Membership

We welcome several new members to the Council and would also like to extend our thanks to the outgoing Council members who have made such valuable contributions over the years.