The survey, commissioned by Lloyd James and conducted by Marketing UK, asked 1,000 senior marketing professionals to quantify the percentage uplift of responses to direct mail that used personalised images and text. The figure of 33.4% is an increase based on the response rate they would expect to get from a campaign.

Sectors ranged from travel and retail to utilities and insurance and it is the first time that Lloyd James has conducted this kind of poll.

"The results were not surprising and it is confirmation that using variable data in direct mail is the right strategy for us to follow," said James Lloyd group sales director Jo Lloyd.

The research found that the retail and travel sector believed that it had more to gain from using variable data. The travel industry believed there would be an uplift of 34% while retail was at just over 30%. But the survey also found that increased use of personalised mailings would not have an impact for the utilities or insurance firms.

"The travel and retail sector share two vital characteristics, which are desirable and emotional products," added Lloyd. "Variable data will play a big role in ensuring that mail-shots stand out by appealing directly to the sensibilities of the recipient."

Meanwhile, Crowes Complete Print has completed what it believes is one of the biggest personalised brochures in the UK for Norwich Union. The firm produced the job on its Xeikon 500D and each of the 6pp A4 documents included 57 variable fields of text and graphics.

Crowes also linked up with ROI Distribution, which enhanced its XRALLE software linking Quark files with Excel data files to produce individual PDF files.

Story by Philip Chadwick