Since the launch of JICMAIL in January 2018, Wholesale customers and Royal Mail have worked together to bring added insight on the value of mail to the market.

JICMAIL is an independent organisation whose purpose is to provide gold standard media audience measurement and research, helping advertisers realise greater value from their investment in mail. It provides insights on a broad range of key areas including:

• How the mail channels are being used in detail through measurement parameters such as formats, frequency of activity and reach;
• How individual mail products are used by recipients in their homes;
• How consumers interact with mail pieces over a 28-day period and what commercial actions the mail items drive.

JICMAIL captures information on Door to Door, Advertising Mail and Business Mail postings through an independently managed consumer research panel, operated by Kantar Media Ltd.

Introduction of JICMAIL Levy

Following representations from the industry and posting brands, we have been approached by the board of JICMAIL to explore the feasibility of Royal Mail acting as a collection agent of a levy from advertisers to support the future funding of JICMAIL. This levy would replace the existing subscription model applied by JICMAIL and provide greater transparency to advertisers of associated costs. Such a proposal is likely to operate in a similar way to the ASBOF levy that Royal Mail already collects on behalf of the industry, to finance advertising self-regulation carried out by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Royal Mail, with the support of the postal industry, is looking at how it could implement and operate such a request across its group services to enable its implementation.

JICMAIL Circulation Data

In 2018, at the request of JICMAIL, Royal Mail agreed to amend its Advertising Mail terms and conditions to allow the sharing of volume posting data, by brand, with Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, for the purpose of providing insight information to the market on advertising trends in line with other media channels. The sharing of this data operates on the basis of a brand having the ability to opt out if they wish to do so.

Following feedback from the industry on the current process of capturing opt out data, we are reviewing this process and considering recommendations from the industry as to how it could be simplified. This includes moving the accountability for recording opt out information, currently with mail producers, to Access contract holders, so that opt out preferences for posting brands are passed to Royal Mail via a simple form.

Royal Mail anticipates that all other elements of the current solution will remain unaffected by this review. 

Next Steps

We will keep you updated about this initiative as it progresses and if you have any queries, please contact your Account Director.