The study, The Time We Spend With Mail, involved collaboration with several measurement partners, including Kantar, PwC, and AI driven video analytics company Lifestream.

The research stage saw JICMail rolling out full attention measurement across its entire panel of 1,000 households per month. At the same time, Lifestream provided directly observed mail attention data with which to validate the panel findings, while PwC scrutinised the mail efficiency calculations that JICMail generated, to compare delivery of time spent to other media channels.

The study found that mail is a high attention media channel, with the average direct mail item generating 108 seconds of attention across 28 days; business mail 150 seconds; partially addressed 64 seconds; and door drop 46 seconds.

Lifestream data has validated these time-spent figures self-reported by the core JICMail panel with an in-home video analytics exercise that has proven a high degree of accuracy among panellists in reporting the time they spend with mail in the home.

JICMail said mail attention is strongly linked to commercial effectiveness. There is a x2 to x3 multiplier for time spent with commercially effective direct mail items and a x3 to x5 multiplier for door drops.

Commercially effective mail items drive a range of effects including purchases, footfall, discussions, and voucher redemptions.

Most notably, however, the study found that mail in turn generates a huge amount of digital attention for brands’ owned channels. The average mail item that prompts advertiser website visits does so for five minutes a session on average.

Location in the home and contextual relevance were found to be key drivers of mail attention. The living room and kitchen are particularly high mail attention environments, with charity, medical, and government mail often found in the former, and retail and restaurant mail often found in the latter.

Using a methodology reviewed by PwC, it has been found that it costs just 7 pence to generate a minute of consumer attention with Door Drops, and 11 pence for direct mail. Mail is accordingly more attention efficient than social display, digital display, and TV advertising.

JICMail engagement director Mark Cross said: “Appreciating that attention is a ‘hot topic’ for all planners, we were determined with this work for mail to find its rightful place in these considerations.

“The results in this report are nothing sort of stunning, deserving high attention from planners across the disciplines.

“The journey of mail around the home accumulates unparalleled levels of largely solus time spent with mail, triggering multiple minutes across the marketing funnel and offers the prospect of a high attention effectiveness multiplier. Rewarding the time spent with mail is now a key planning metric.”

Last week, JICMail released its data for Q1 2023, which cover its standard metrics of reach, frequency, and mail lifespan.