Digital to physical: Royal Mail in "programmatic trials"

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http://wordpress.mediatel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Jonathan-Harman.jpgThe Royal Mail is to trial a programmatic offering as it seeks new ways to complement digital media.

Working with a mail producer, media agency and a small group of clients who invest in multiple media channels - all un-named - the UK's third-largest media-owner says it will kick-off the experiment "imminently" with a roll-out potential of a few months.

The trial has been set up to see how online tracking cookies can be matched with postal data to target "high value prospects" with a physical ad rather than through online display or email advertising.




Jonathan Harman, managing director, Royal Mail MarketReach

Speaking to an audience of agencies at a Mediatel breakfast event on Tuesday, Jonathan Harman, managing director of Royal Mail MarketReach, said: "We see mail as a medium that is complementary to digital activity and the great benefit of this approach is that as soon as you identify an individual - and match their postal address and the online activity through a cookie - then you've got the ability to really join up the customer experience."

Targeting an email or online display ad at somebody that has abandoned an online shopping basket is deemed a low-cost way of completing a purchase, however it has a similarly low response rate.

"Although it can be very efficient, there's a limit to the volume of what your new custom could be," Harman told Newsline, adding that the approach would be used much less than display advertising and that only "higher value prospects" should be targeted because of the elevated costs.

As for other media, programmatic trading desks will set the reach, frequency and cost-per-thousand (CPT) rules, although Harman said these are likely to be very different.

"We expect mail to be used less frequently," he said, "but ultimately we will work out the right thing to do through experimentation."

Recent research from MarketReach, the Private Life of Mail, revealed that mail sticks around in the home for an average of 17 days and has a high level of emotional engagement.

"There are good reasons why it's worth investing a bit more," Harman said, but admitted privacy is a "big deal" and if the project makes it beyond trial it must be used sensitively.

"That's why the reach and frequency rules we set will be very important."