2004-05 Annual Report - Australia Post

Letters Australia Post Annual Report 2004/05 Report of Operations
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help our business customers
successfully reach their
customers.
This year we also helped
community groups to make
the most of direct mail through
a major sponsorship of the
“Our Community” website
(ourcommunity.com.au). The
website is a valuable information
resource for Australia’s 700,000
not-for-profit and community
organisations, as well as a vital
link to Australian businesses,
governments and the general
public. Our sponsorship
involved the development of the
Marketing, Media and Post Centre
on the website. Launched in
February 2005, the website offers
community groups free access
to practical mail marketing and
media tools to help them reach
potential donors or supporters.
The value of mail as a media
channel was also recognised this
year when it was introduced as a
category in an advertising media
measurement survey conducted
by Roy Morgan. The study,
called Single Source, surveys
over 55,000 Australians annually
about their media consumption
habits and the data is used by
advertising and media planning
agencies when making media
planning decisions. This was the
first time anywhere in the world
that mail had been included in
such a survey in this manner.
Nielsen Media Research (NMR)
launched a subscriptionbased,
on-line service called
MailPix in March 2005. The
service enables advertisers to
evaluate competitive strategies
and creative approaches by
providing images of all direct mail
campaigns received by over two
thousand Australian households.
In the 2005–06 financial year,
NMR will also include mail in
its AdEx survey, which tracks
advertising industry spending.
The AdEx data will help
advertisers and their clients
compare the level of mail usage
with other major media channels.
Impact Mail
Impact Mail, a service introduced
in October 2004, is helping to
boost the effectiveness of direct
mail campaigns by allowing
greater freedom and flexibility in
the design of direct mail items.
The new service means direct
mail items can be designed or
produced in virtually any shape
and do not require an envelope.
To access the Impact Mail service,
customers need to lodge a
minimum of 300 letters of the
same size.
Easy Mail
Easy Mail is a convenient service
used by small to medium-sized
businesses for the printing,
preparation and lodgement of
their promotional mail. Customers
can choose to use any or all
of Easy Mail’s services, which
include printing, collating, folding,
addressing, enveloping and
barcoding of mail. The service is
currently available at 12 locations.
Geospend
Our consumer data and media
products business, Geospend,
achieved revenue growth of
20 per cent this year. Geospend
maintains a lifestyle database
that is rentable for direct
marketing purposes and contains
the demographic, lifestyle and
product preferences of over
1.9 million Australians. In
2004–05, Geospend distributed
13.5 million records (up 17
per cent) for direct marketing
purposes, which generated
an estimated 42.7 million mail
articles (up 31 per cent).
Geospend also offers a range of
services to help households and
businesses changing address
– and assists businesses that are
affected by customer moves.
This year, Geospend supported
1.63 million Australian households
that changed address. Use of the
Mail Redirection Service declined
by 4 per cent, mainly as a result
of stabilisation in the property
market, while there was a 6.3
per cent increase in the number
of households using the Mail
Holding Service.
MAILROOM SERVICES
Decipha
Our subsidiary company Decipha
increased its revenue by 23.2 per
cent this year, largely as a result
of gaining major new clients in the
wealth management, insurance
and financial services industries.
Decipha offers mailroom and
document workflow services to
organisations that receive high
volumes of incoming documents.
The company is equipped to
meet current and emerging client
demands for secure preparation,
conversion and delivery of
correspondence – in physical
or electronic formats. Decipha
has clients in a range of sectors,
including financial services,
government, insurance, utilities,
travel, manufacturing, health,
transport and communications.
THE FUTURE
Consistent with international
trends, the letters market in
Australia is not expected to return
to robust volume growth. There
will be continued pressure on
letter volumes from electronic
media, but we do expect letter
volumes to increase marginally
over the coming year. Our aim
is to maintain volumes in the
transactional letters segment
while continuing to increase
volumes in the promotional
segment. We anticipate a lower
return on the letters business
in 2005–06 as revenue growth
remains modest and the cost
of running the letters business
continues to increase (with the
expected addition of another
200,000 addresses).
We will continue searching
for new revenue-generation
opportunities by working
even more closely with major
mailing customers, promoting
the effectiveness of mail as
a communications medium
and looking for new product
opportunities. In the coming
year, we will launch new letters
services that are designed to help
companies acquire customers.