There’s a lot of noise around the new recommendations about restructuring or even banning the use of the electoral roll. The government seems to think that the commercial exploitation of the UK’s voter roll has now gone far enough. This is probably driven by a number of factors ranging from privacy and data security issues through to green considerations. There’s no doubting the fact that data security is rising up the agenda as more and more seems to get lost, and from the green perspective, the DM industry uses vast amounts of paper which for the most part (around 95%) ends up either in the bin or recycling boxes.

In return, the DM industry is having to argue that it needs the electoral roll to produce targeted advertising and to clean and validate mailing lists. The industry is also drawing attention to the fact the local authorities earn income from the sale of electoral roll data.

I find myself torn two ways. As a direct marketer I relish the ability to reach highly targeted individuals with a relevant and timely piece of communication. But on the other hand, I can’t help feeling a sense of shame at being associated with an industry that pushes thousands of tons of unwanted paper through peoples’ letter boxes.

I think the reality is that DM is overused as an acquisition medium. And it’s not as though the direct marketing industry is short of communication channels for acquisition marketing. Alongside print and broadcast, digital media now offers direct marketers a communication channel that has all the right characteristics and none of the negatives: it is highly targetable, it puts consumers in control - they get the information they want when they want it and finally, online direct marketing has to be greener than paper based direct marketing. I sense that the government understands these factors and finds itself having to try ever harder to push a recalcitrant body in a new direction.