Essential Reading for Marketing & Business Professionals

Thursday 6th November 2008

In this Issue:
* Car Ad Return on Investment
* Should you ban Datasticks?
* Is data costing you too much?

We often get asked "how big should my marketing
budget be?" The latest insights on the cost of
advertising by car makers suggests that there is no
right answer, so wildly do the figures vary!

Yet again it has been a month of dramatic data
losses by contractors to Government. We ask "should
you ban USB datasticks?" And finally we take a look at
the costs of buying or renting data for marketing
campaigns. You could very well be paying far too
much at the moment!

James Pearson - Editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Car Ad Return on Investment

Today's figures showing a falling of 23% in car sales
year on year makes disturbing reading if you work in
the car industry. But, if you are BMW then at least you
should be feeling fairly smug because you are spending just £22
per car on advertising. Whereas poor old Renault have to spend
over 15 times that per car (£389) for cars that are significantly cheaper!
This is according to Billetts a media data analyst firm. The top ten January
to August figures are shown below:

The Top Ten carmakers (by number of vehicles
registered during the period) and ranked in ascending
order by adspend-per-car are:-

1. BMW: £22 Units sold: 75,161
/ Adspend:
£1.637m

2. Ford: £114
Units sold: 219,824 / Adspend:
£24.952m

3. Vauxhall: £127
Units sold: 205,554 / Adspend:
£26.0356m

4. Volkswagen: £155
Sales:120,368 / Adspend: £18.714m

5. Audi: £177
Units sold: 67,575 / Adspend:
£11.930

6. Peugeot: £206
Units sold: 82,886 / Adspend:
£17.050m

7. Honda: £208
Units sold: 60,022 / Adspend:
£12.514m

8. Toyota: £279
Units sold: £ 72,106 / Adspend:
£20.145m

9. Citröen: £310
Units 55,928 / Adspend: £17.335m

10. Renault: £389
Units sold: 68,637 / Adspend:
£26.705m

The average is £233 per car which Honda in 7th place
are the most "average" of all the car makers. One of
the interesting comparisons is Peugeot vs Citroen.
They are, of course the same company
and the model ranges are broadly identical. Yet
Peugeot managed to spend just £206 per car, while
Citroen had to fork out £310!

Overall in the period 1,464,124 cars were sold and
total adspend was a shade under £27M.

Richard Hemmings, Billetts' head of insights,
conceded that BMW's results were distorted by the
marque's high marketing spend in previous years.

He also believes marketers can anticipate lower
media costs in 2009, estimating that national press
rates will fall by an average of 5% and ITV's rates by 15%.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Should you ban Datasticks?

So yet more government data has turned up on a USB
stick, this time left in a carpark by Atos Origin.
Coming hot on the heels of the PA Consulting data
disaster it does rather beg the question "are
datasticks more trouble than they are worth?"

Many of our clients are now disabling USB ports on
PCs to prevent the use of USB datasticks, others are
using encryption and some are relying upon
education. Which is the right approach for you?

Appropriate Measures

The Data Protection Act requires that you take
"appropriate measures"to protect personal data from
loss or damage. But it does not define what those
measures should be. Here is what we would suggest,
depending on the type of data you are holding:

Education

You can rely on education alone and company policies
provided the data is little more than name and
address. As soon as any transactional data, dates of
birth, financial or health information is added then this
approach alone will be inadequate

Encryption

This is adequate for virtually all personal data provided
that there is insufficient information to permit identity theft.
For it is identity theft that represents the greatest risk.
No-one will bother trying to crack
encryption if the data can't deliver a financial
reward.

USB port disabling

In any environment where financial information is
being processed we would recommend taking the
final step of disabling the USB ports to make it
impossible for datasticks to be used.

Are you safe?
PA Consulting and Atos Origin thought that they had
adequate processes in place to prevent data security
breaches. Both turned out to be wrong. The UK
Information Commissioner recommends that
companies undertake annual data privacy audits 
firstly to identify areas of potential risk and secondly in
order to remind staff o their responsibilities in relation
to Data Privacy. At MI our specialist Data Privacy
practice can deliver a highly effective Audit for you that
will ensure your risks are minimised. Our clients
include BSI, The Daily Telegraph, PeopleSoft, nPower,
Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Download our Data Privacy Information Sheet here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is data costing you too much?

In the last three months there has been a dramatic
reduction in the levels of Direct Mail activity. This is
having a knock-on effect on the prices that list owners
are charging. Many providers are offering annual lease
deals for the same price as a single use. So if you are
buying data, now is the time to drive a very hard
bargain or you can use MI's data buying services to
do it for you.

No Commission

At MI we pass on any commissions from the data
owners to you; instead we charge a very
modest data consultancy fee that is not volume-
based. This means we don't encourage you to buy
unnecessarily large volumes of data and we don't
recommend the sources that pay the best commissions.
Instead we focus on finding the right sources for your campaigns
and cherry-pick the very best records for your campaigns.

Save 40%

Our data purchasing consultancy services typically
save our clients in excess of 40% of their data
purchase budget. So if you want to make your Direct
Marketing budget go further, for less,call us now or
email tim.beadle@mieurope.eu.

Call Tim Beadle on 0118 989 6950 to find out more