Nigel Copp, CEO
‘5 minutes with…’ is a series of short Q&A’s with our team, to help you get to know them better. Here is Nigel Copp, CEO. Find out more about KPM’s print superheroes.
1. What do you love about your job?
I’ve worked in DM forever, my friends said I was the stamp licker from the mailroom – the glue was tasty back then! But what I love about the job is simply when we deliver great DM.
Mail has been my way of delivering client messaging for a long time. Although methods have changed the direct delivery of personalised messaging is as effective as ever. In fact, with GDPR and digital overload, it’s gaining more momentum; it really is the best way of engaging an audience.
I also love it when clients win work using DM, especially when we are involved from concept to delivery. We know what works and enjoy making things happen.
We recently partnered with a client to deliver a retail campaign. They received double-figure % engagement on the first drop date, using creative and vouchers to drive people to store. This was on a campaign to over 40,000 addresses so we are all very happy indeed.
2. What type of challenges do you help clients to overcome?
We are acutely aware that clients need ROI on any communications. Even though DM pack costs are more expensive than digital they undoubtedly enhance the experience. As consumers we like touchy-feely stuff, you can pick it up, read it, keep it for later, tear bits off – in some cases eat it or even feed it to the cat! I haven’t seen the cats licking e-mail recently…
When you deliver value to clients/prospects they will feel value too. We do practice what we preach. Our sister company kpm Media publishes magazines; they have grown their subscriber base using high-quality print. Yes, it’s expensive but yes, we really value our subscriber base and what they want to receive – which increasingly is print!
3. Where do you see the future of direct mail?
The DM industry has suffered for several years, with some big organisations and lots of SMEs failing to survive. Less capacity in the market should help to maintain price and value in the work that we produce.
Our business has grown in the last 12 months which is certainly the opposite of where we, and the market, were going in the previous 2-3 years. Uncertainty regarding GDPR, which we have invested in with our own GDPR guru, has given rise to lots (and I mean lots) of bad advice – including some high-level bloopers from large organisations that should know better.
DM is a simpler route. With more changes to come next year with the ePrivacy Regulation I believe it will be a struggle to justify prospecting via digital.
Sadly, all this uncertainty has been driven by the ICO and changes in the Regulations. Instead of developing training and certifications for our market the ICO have chosen to go the route of employing penalty toting teams to strike fear, which in some cases is justified… However, when we receive emails from suppliers asking if they can contact us, bearing in mind we are their customer, something is wrong.
Stick with DM – that’s my tip!
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