The growth of direct mail, spurred by marketers’ desire for maximum accountability of their advertising pound, continued through the second quarter of this year, according to data released by Britain's Direct Mail Information Service.

According to the Royal Mail-funded body, direct mail expenditure rose 3.4% year-on-year in Q2 to £545.29 million ($863.31m; €775.98m), while volume rose 4.6% to 1,424 billion items.

Spearheading this growth are the travel, charity and leisure sectors, upping their aggregated mailing activity by 27.9%. Manufacturers, traditionally cautious toward the medium, boosted their mail volumes by 24.5% to 32.01 million pieces; although this was dwarfed by the financial sector, a long-time mail aficionado, which continued to put its money where its mouth is by mailing 292.07m items, 23.5% up year-on-year.

Comments DMIS managing director Jo Howard-Brown: “The figures show that direct mail continues to grow steadily. The increase in consumer direct mail only goes to underline the fact that the consumer is spending more and more money through the medium, and advertisers are clearly seeing a return on investment.”

Data sourced from: BrandRepublic (UK); additional content by WARC staff