Direct Marketing - good news

Bellwether report finds that direct marketing, that traditional mainstay of the marketing mix, is tipped to become increasingly prominent this year.

Use of the channel will increase in 2011, while total employment of marketing disciplines is expected to slump by 5.4%. Online and search marketing are the two other notable risers.

Elsewhere, it emerged that Nissan is planning to eschew the one night stand above the line campaign approach in favour of a take it slow CRM-led campaign to drive sales of its new Micra.

The reason is simple, while fear and uncertainty is abound, and budgets remain under scrutiny, then marketing chiefs under the watchful eye of finance directors opt for surety.

Direct response channels such as DM and digital offer accountability and targeting at, relatively speaking, less cost. All boxes that cautious companies unsure about the impact of the VAT increase and rising unemployment require ticking.

There have been several predictions that 2011 will be the year traditional media returns to the fore, regular columnist for this newsletter Mark Thomson, media director at Royal Mail said as much last week (perhaps hopefully, given the stake his company has in this being the case).

Marketing and finance chiefs are being cautious at the moment as uncertainty over the state of the economy prevails. They are making the right choice in opting for what they know best but they must also be bold by remaining flexible and innovative.

The "ouch" stories today

Lloyds Banking Group could reportedly be forced to drop its Halifax brand, divest 1,000 branches and lose 10% of its current accounts, under measures that may be suggested by the Independent Commission on Banking. If enacted, such demands would in effect mean unwinding the bank's acquisition of HBOS - a move which would anger shareholders given the losses incurred from the move in 2008

Goldman Sachs has revealed that it suffered a total of $13.5bn of losses from 'investing and lending' during 2008's financial crisis, up from the $8.5bn of losses it reported at the time. The revelation was made as part of an internal initiative to increase transparency over how the bank conducts its own investment activities, following accusations it had put its own interests ahead of customers'.

Julius Baer Bank's former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands, Rudolf Elmer, is reportedly planning to disclose the details of 'massive potential tax evasion' to WikiLeaks. Mr Elmer will hand over the offshore bank account details of British and American individuals and companies, including 'approximately 40 politicians', tomorrow. He is due on trial in Switzerland in two days for stealing information.

Todays news - not looking good for the banks again

Moneysupermarket.com has appointed Barclaycard’s advertising head, Paul Troy, as its director of consumer marketing. The site is looking to consolidate its position as the most visited price comparison site in the UK. According to Experian Hitwise, it had a 53% share of all visits to comparison sites in December 2010.

FSA paid PwC a total of £7.6m for the investigation into Royal Bank of Scotland, according to The Guardian, yet does not even have a report of its findings it can publish following political pressure to elaborate on its decision to clear to bank of any wrongdoing. The newspaper has also revealed the watchdog offset the bill with a £4.7m 'special levy' imposed on RBS for the extra regulation the bank was required to have following its government bail-out.

The Treasury is currently negotiating what the Daily Telegraph describes as a 'secret deal' with banks that would see them increase lending to small businesses and home owners by more than £200bn, in return for the government acquiescing to their bonus plans. Among the measures lenders would have to introduce to comply with the deal would be lower rates on mortgages for first time buyers, and smaller deposit requirements.

Sunday Times has reported that a number of credit card companies are yet to implement government guidelines to clear customers’ most expensive debts first. Card providers were expected to sign up to a voluntary code of practice and implement a 'positive order of repayments' before the end of 2010. Lloyds Banking Group and the Post Office are expected to adopt the changes on 17 January 2010