The IPA has expressed its support for a new industry-wide, voluntary levy which will open up access to the core industry JICMAIL (The Joint Industry Currency for Mail) data sets, making them free to use for all companies in the UK.
The move will benefit every user of advertising mail and business mail in the country by democratising access to gold standard data and insight for better business decisions and ultimately, for improved return on investment. SMEs will particularly benefit at a time most needed to support their growth through more effective campaign planning.
JICMAIL is not for profit, owned by the industry for the industry and provides gold standard data and insight that helps improve planning, implementation, and evaluation of mail campaigns. The JICMAIL board includes advertising industry bodies such as the IPA, DMA and ISBA.
Everyone in the advertising and marketing industry with a stake in the value delivery of mail will benefit. New agency and intermediaries wanting access, will need to be accredited by JICMAIL and all existing subscribers have been notified of the changes to their existing arrangements. Everyone is encouraged to register at JICMAIL by 31st March and to get accredited for 2021.
JICMAIL will now be funded by a levy, which is set at 0.3% (equating to a fractional per item charge of £3 per £1000 of advertising mail postage expenditure). The levy will go live at the end of March for Royal Mail Door to Door customers, and for both Retail and Wholesale Royal Mail customers in April. For 2021, the Levy is capped at £5,000 per year for any levy payer but for the typical advertiser spending c£50,000 on advertising mail, the levy will amount to a contribution of just £150.
Belinda Beeftink, Research Director of IPA and member of the JICMAIL board says:
The IPA believes this innovative change to the funding model will provide sustainability for this important JIC.
"At the same time, it will open up access for all agencies across disciplines and across the country, to take JICMAIL into their planning and data ecosystems, transforming their ability to identify the value of the mail channel for their clients based on gold standard audience research data. Integrating JICMAIL data into the IPA TouchPoints Channel Planner has already widened the capability for holistic multi-channel campaign planning based on industry gold standard data and we encourage any member without access, to now get accredited for JICMAIL data to further build value for their clients in 2021."
To find out more visit jicmail.org.uk/about/jicmail-levy/the-new-jicmail-levy/ or contact Mark Cross, Engagement Director at mark@jicmail.org.uk
Last updated 01 May 2024