Government having 2nd thoughts about "private right of action" in CASL

Part of the next phase of Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL) has been postponed in the face of nervous lobbying by industry.According to a report in the Globe and Mail, the federal government has frozen the provision as of July 1 allowing consumers to take individual legal action against businesses for violating the act. And the government has asked that a parliamentary committee review the legislation; this may wind up doing away with individual lawsuits, although retaining other provisions and prosecutions already in force. 

CASL came into effect in 2014, requiring marketers to have consent to send electronic messages to consumersand  empowering the CRTC to impose fines of up to $10 million for businesses offending the act. Starting in 2015, marketers had to ensure their apps wouldn't infect recipients systems with malware. The July phase this year would have allowed people and organization to take violators to court and seek damages.

Publishers and industry associations were among those lobbying against imposition of some aspects of the law such as "private right of action" because it complicates normal and longstanding direct mail practices on which magazines have relied.However one part of the law that will continue to take effect on July 1 is the end of a three-year grace period for companies to prove they have consent to contact everyone on their marketing lists.

Magazines Canada consolidates DM, digital and retail promotion efforts

Magazines Canada has merged three of its circulation campaigns and, beginning this fall will promote for its members Canadian Magazines Everywhere -- direct mail, the digital newsstand and Independent retail promotions. Participants in the combined program, promoting delivery of magazines on many different platforms, including desktops and tablets, will contribute one print ad and active participation in promotional e-mails and/or social media (previously they had provided their subscriber list to MC and contributed two print ads.)

"By integrating our marketing efforts, this project will leverage the strengths of each program and create better efficiencies and results. Running one program instead of three also means that your contributions are simplified," [said a bulletin to members].

The deadline for signing a participation agreements is September 3, 2013. 

Magazines Canada has enjoyed considerable success in its annual cooperative direct mail marketing campaign since its launch in 2003. Its most recent Buy 2, Get 1 Free campaign, which ended in February, had about 190 titles participating  with over 100 available in both print and digital (most pdf replicas through the MC partnership with Zinio). The DM campaign has sold more than 10,000 subs annually (the biggest result was 2009, with 14,600.) In the past three years, that totals 267,000 copies delivered.

However funding has become tighter in recent years, necessitating the consolidation of promotional efforts. The various campaigns are largely subsidized by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) as well as through support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Canada Post, Consumer Intelligence Group and CDS Global. 

Direct mail is hanging in there

Though there's a lot of grumbling about the increasing cost and decreasing response rate of direct mail in magazine circulation offices, the fact is that most magazines rely on this audience-building tool at least part of the time. Part of the reason is that there is nothing that has turned up, yet, to replace it.

A recent report by the [U.S.] Direct Marketing Association says that while direct mail response rates have dropped nearly 25% over the past nine year, mail campaigns still draw better than digital channels or e-mail. Direct mail gets an average 3.4% response to a house list; email 0.12%. When the higher costs of direct mail are taken into account, cost-per-sale is about the same for direct mail, email and paid online search.

“Even though direct mail is less effective in driving response than it was a decade ago, it still is among the best media for generating overall response,” says Yory Wurmser, DMA's director of marketing and media insights. “This points to its likely continued role as an important medium in the marketing mix, even as the cost effectiveness of digital channels suggests that they will continue to gain budget share.”

"Sorry to bother you about money": Taddle Creek sends up circ

The always-cheeky twice-annual Taddle Creek continues to poke fun at the audience-building conventions of the mainstream magazine world by reproducing its direct mail package on its website, complete with the outer envelope, a hilarious cover letter, a flyer and order form. All are intended to lampoon the various devices and language that circulators use to lure in readers.  

Keeping the joke alive is, not coincidentally, in service to a special offer that ends November 6 of $15 for two years.

"Odds are you’ve heard all kinds of good stuff about Taddle Creek’s recent junk-mail subscription campaign. If you used it to subscribe—thanks, and enjoy! If you tore it up into little pieces and sent it back, well, you weren’t the only one.

"But if you weren’t lucky enough to have one of the other magazines you subscribe to sell Taddle Creek your address, fear not! Now you can view the magazine’s junk mail on-line, including envelope, letter, and flyer." Even better, you can take advantage of the special subscription offer without all the annoying paperwork.

A mere $15 gets you two years of Taddle Creek (four issues!), and you can pay with your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, or via PayPal. You’re welcome."

The text of the cover letter is a classic. And this is probably the only magazine in the world which would include a grammatical mea culpa in its direct mail for using the phrase "most unique" in a previous mailing.

Magazines Canada partners with Consumer Intelligence Group for annual DM sub campaign

Magazines Canada has struck a partnership with private sector firm Consumer Intelligence Group (CIG) to help run its annual Buy 2, Get 1 FREE subscription campaign. The direct mail campaign has been a prominent program in support of member magazines, but has been under some pressure  in terms of funding. The most recent year's campaign was half the size -- in terms of delivered DM pieces -- as previous years and as a consequence saw a 36% drop in sold subscriptions.

The 7th B2G1F campaign will run September through February 2012, with CIG handling specialized list and data services.

The Consumer Intelligence Group is a relatively new player (launched in 2010) in the list marketing, data management and analysis field. The two partners in the firm are Tim Leys, formerly with Generation 5 and Kevin Klein, previously with the Cornerstone Group of Companies, one of the biggest players in list management and fulfillment for magazines.

The DM campaign at one time distributed more than 1 million free-standing brochures via addressed admail and magazine polybag outserts; this was supported by print ads, search engine marketing, e-mail promotions and social networking. In 2009, 191 titles signed up. Sub sales were about 14,000.

In the 2010-11 campaign, only 500,000 pieces were distributed in two tranches though, for the first time, it allowed people to subscribe to either print or digital editions from among the "nearly 200" participating magazines. As of March 20, the campaign had sold about 9,300 subs or about 64% of the previous year's results.

British mags association head warns of damage from soaring bulk mail prices

McIlheney

To quote South Park, blame Canada. A "modernization" campaign is roiling the British post office, the Royal Mail, led by the former head of Canada Post Moya Green, who took over last July. The latest move has been to remove price controls from all parcels more than a kilogram in weight and from second class pre-sorted bulk mail.

But Barry McIlheney, the chief executive of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), in a story in MediaWeek, says that he has "serious misgivings" about a measure that will double the permitted prices on bulk mail and have a significant impact on magazines.

"At a time when the Government is looking to the creative industries as a driver of economic growth, this is a shortsighted move.

"Price increases of this level are tantamount to imposing a penalty tax on magazine publishers who are being forced to pay for Royal Mail’s inefficiencies."

McIlheney said that publishers could be forced to cut circulations and direct mail volumes and reduce future investment in subscriptions. The new measures, provisionally approved by the postal regulator Postcomm, would, if fully implemented be a short-term fix for long-term damage.

One of Green's remits from the British government is to sell off parts of the Royal Mail to help reduce the national deficit. In November, the Royal Mail reported a £66m loss in its letters division, its first significant loss for eight years.Ironically bulk mail, used by publishers and direct mail companies, has been the only source of growth -- forecast to grow to more than 7 billion items next year and be half of the mail items dropping through letterboxes. 

Green has called the modernization campaign "absolutely vital" and has warned that mail volumes may fall by as much as 40% over the next five years.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free subscription campaign from Magazines Canada now includes digital editions

Magazines Canada is now launching its 6th annual "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" subscription campaign. The campaign differs from earlier versions:

• The campaign mail drops via addressed admail, polybag outserts, print ads, search engine marketing, e-mail and online promos and social networking will now go out in two tranches -- one in November for gift-giving season, one in January -- for a total of 500,000 pieces.
• This year the deal also offers digital subscriptions

The  campaign is being promoted on Facebook and Twitter (CdnMagsB2G1FREE). 

Last year, the program signed up 14,626 subscriptions, an increase of 89% over the previous year. 191 titles took part. 

U.S. publishers wonder if their magazines will stand up to the "droop test"

Magazine publishers in the U.S. -- particularly those whose recession-hit magazines are a bit thin for lack of advertising -- are concerned about whether or not they will pass the U.S. Postal Service's "droop test", also called "deflection standards". According to a story in Audience Development, American Business Media (which represents b2b publishers) says the penalties will be severe, starting next fall.

According to a recent post by anonymous blogger Dead Tree Edition, publications that are unusually tall and/or wide are equally at risk of failing the droop test. “Oversized magazines may still be inserted into newspapers, sold on newsstands, handed out at trade shows, and distributed via alternate delivery,” the post reads. “But unless the Postal Service changes the regulations and/or the proposed penalties, the sight of a mailbox containing an oversized magazine or catalog could become extremely
rare.”

The "droop test" determines whether a flat mailed piece will be too flexible and will fall off the automatic postal sorting machines that handle them. For instance, if a magazine 10" or longer bends more than 3 inches when extended 5 inches into space from a flat surface, the post office will charge a penalty; a higher rate. This affects catalogues and other pieces of direct mail, but can also apply to magazines, especially larger, floppier ones.

Is direct mail dead as a source of new subscribers?

Interesting online discussion on the Folio: mediaPRO social network about whether -- or not -- direct mail is dead as a means of finding new subscribers. More interesting that it is largely between two of the best writers and designers of direct mail packages for subscriber acquisition.

The discussion is kicked off by a question from Kenneth Schneider of Houston, Texas, who says:

Those days of brilliant outers, gorgeous brochures, and well-written 4-page letters are long gone. Or are they? Have the realities of the "new" economy made them obsolete? Have years of mailing inexpensive voucher/Statement of Benefits packages forever weaned consumer marketers from packages, mini-magalogs, and bookalogs that actually sell content while capturing the tone and personality of the magazine -- and thus attract a more dedicated and loyal subscriber?

In response, Peter Lebensold of Toronto says:

It seems to me, Ken - and I hope this isn't merely wishful thinking - that, as the "business model" for magazines reverts to its roots (with readers paying a larger share of the shot, and advertisers less), there'll be a regained emphasis on obtaining *quality* subscribers - the kind that pay, convert and renew well ... that generate meaningful "lifetime value" ... that boast the kind of relationship with the magazine that no mere website can duplicate ... and that, in turn, will be that much more attractive to advertisers.

Schneider replied in part:

Business models simply must be rewritten to the new realities of the marketplace, i.e. the expense of conducting a truly significant -- and ongoing -- direct mail campaign must be recognized as part of the production process of business. Getting subscribers on the cheap has grossly failed the publishers who've succumbed to the attractiveness of that proposition. If magazines are going to survive, they HAVE to be "sold" to their target audience -- at a cost that OVER TIME builds a loyal and renewing audience.

And Lebensold responded:

Sadly, no one seems to be thinking "over time" any more: It's all about last quarter and this. It's going to require some changes (or changes *back*) at the top (among CEOs, Publishers, and the like), to encourage today's subscriber-acquisition practitioners to think more long-term. Perhaps a look at the ad-sales numbers might help them along! But I worry that - like educating subscribers NOT to wait for the final renewal effort (in the all-too-well-founded expectation that they'll get a more attractive offer the longer they wait) - it may take a generation. Einstein, I think, once said something about people never really changing their minds; all that happens is that those who used to think one way eventually die.

US postal service has a direct mail sale

Faced with a big gap in its mail stream in the first quarter of 2009, the US Postal Service (USPS) is doing the natural and sensible thing: it's having a summer sale. Canadian magazine publishers who do high volumes of direct mail solicitations for subscriptions would be hard-pressed to imagine Canada Post doing something so innovative.

According to an interview in the website Target Marketing:

After a decrease of 5.2 billion pieces of mail for its first quarter of FY2009, its eighth consecutive quarter with decline in volume, and the anticipation of an equally devastating second quarter, the U.S. Postal Service recently announced its desire to offer mailers a carrot instead of a stick to get volume going. If the proposed program gets enacted, the top 4,000 U.S. mailers will be eligible for a 20 percent to 30 percent discount on their postage bills for mail volume between June 15 and Sept. 15 that exceeds the baselines established by the Postal Service.

Jerry Cerasale, a senior vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, said in a Q & A with the website that there would be at least an indirect benefit to all mailers.

This [proposal] is an attempt by the Postal Service again to grow volume in a slow period, in a period where they believe that they have some excess capacity. If this works, our view is that it will continue.