On 16 December 2024 we wrote to you with an update on progress regarding exploration discussions of a postal industry solution to meet the needs of the ISBA advertising industry led initiative, Origin Measurement platform. I am pleased to announce that we have agreed a solution with Access customers. 

Establishing a Postal Industry Solution

Many of you have been involved in workshops facilitated by Royal Mail Wholesale over the last 8 months. These workshops were designed to explore the requirements of Origin and identify potential industry solutions to enable this data to be collected, as well as identifying any potential changes required to existing industry practices to enable the solution to be implemented.

As a reminder, data is only required for advertisers who subscribe to the Origin programme and therefore it is not an industry wide requirement such as JIC Mail. In summary the high-level requirements for the postal industry from Origin revolve around two key areas.

1.     Data sharing: To supply Origin with monthly campaign data for participating brands, including advertiser name, campaign name, volume, expenditure, and reach and frequency metrics (these latter two metrics would be supplied by JIC Mail); and

2.     Levy collection: To collect a levy from an advertiser who is subscribing to the Origin solution. This levy relates to their postage media spend and would be paid to Origin on a monthly or quarterly basis. This levy is proposed to cover the cost for advertisers. to receive the basic level ‘core’ report. The levy amount, which is set by Origin, is 0.1% of gross media spends (those channels that are measured by Origin only. This Levy would be Vatable.

The Agreed Solution

We hosted two further customer workshops on 7 January and 28 February, at which several potential design solutions were established. These have been explored subsequently through further dialogue with partners like Origin and JIC Mail to understand feasibility.

The final agreed solution is set out below:

1.     Data Sharing: Upon receiving notification of a participating brand from Origin, Royal Mail would make Access contract holders, through which that brand posts volume, aware of the brand details. The Access contract holder would then supply Royal Mail with the specific SCID and UCID information (the UCID information alone would be accepted where SCID data is not available) for this brand. Alternatively, if an end brand notifies an Access contract holder directly that they have opted in to participate in Origin, the contract holder will make Royal Mail aware.

We will supply a monthly file of each participating brand, including the brand name, volume, spend and campaign name to JICMail. This will enable JICMail to apply reach and frequency data specific to each brand’s campaign. Where specific reach and frequency metrics are not available in JICMail’s data set, they will apply a relevant sector average metric. JICMail would then supply this file to Origin for uploading into the Origin system.

2.     Levy Collection: Royal Mail would apply the Origin levy to all invoices that the relevant SCID/ UCID for the participating brand relates to. Contract holders’ weekly Access invoices will contain one line item for each account number, displaying the overall Origin levy applicable to all associated volume within that invoice.  So that Access customers can have sight of how the levy applies to each participating brand, within Dockethub, a new report will be made available to show the breakdown of the levy, which you will be able to download on a weekly basis.

We will work with the industry and the Origin team to produce a set of guidelines for participating brands which will outline what actions they need to undertake with their supply chain partners to ensure smooth adoption of the above processes. This would, for example, include a requirement for the brand to communicate with their postal services team that a levy is to be collected. Royal Mail will also work with Access customers to establish what support you may require in helping deploy this solution so that we can brief partners such as Origin on what support they need to provide.

We will also engage with the Strategic Mailing Partnership to drive compliance levels in the completion of the Mailing Reference field of the eManifest so that campaign name is captured.

Next Steps and Implementation

Based on Access customer feedback and reflecting that the postal solution needs to be built and tested by Origin, a technical go live date in late 2025 is the most realistic timeframe for this programme. 

We will issue a formal contract change in due course which will give effect to the changes needed within the Access Letters Contract, providing 190 days’ notice for Access contract holders to implement the changes. This approach is designed to provide a definitive earliest go live date to Origin which will provide them with certainty around IT development build work and prioritisation.

We would like to thank Access customers for participating in the workshops and designing a solution that will enable data on the mail channel to be included in the Origin platform.

We will of course keep Access customers updated on the build timelines with Origin and provide clarity of final go live dates on receipt of this information from the Origin team.