Oh, say can you see by DM’s early light…

In New York this week to speak at the iDi Marketers Forum, so this blog is probably best read accompanied by Springsteen and a generous slice of Mom’s home-made apple pie.

DM (or ‘advertising mail’ as our American cousins call it), accounted for 21 per cent of total advertising spend and generated US$702 billion in economic activity States-side in 2008. Impressive stats, certainly, yet according to the American DMA, only 47 per cent of US mailers use any form of suppression file.

Perhaps it’s little wonder then that 19 State Legislatures across the United States currently have ‘Do Not Mail’ registries on their agenda – such is the volume of mis-addressed and unwanted mail swamping American households. Because with DM volume totalling 101.9 billion items and an estimated 40 million Americans changing address last year, that’s potentially one hell of a big offer mis-matched and ‘return to sender’ junk mail swamp.

Similar problems exist here, obviously, where the threat of opt-in regimes hovers ominously over not only the UK but the entire eurozone. With privacy regimes tightening in many countries in response to endemic data gaffs, as an industry we’ve certainly got to both lift our game - all the while remembering that government departments are still, collectively, #1 on the data breach hit parade.

Will report back from across the pond next week. In the meantime, have a good one…