Relief for mailboxes: Deutsche Post will discontinue its “Einkaufaktuell” advertising business with brochures from retailers on April 1, 2024. The reasons for this are the falling advertising expenditures of corporate customers and the increased costs for energy, paper and personnel, the group announced on Monday in Bonn. Since 2003, the brochure bundles have been delivered to up to 18 million households on Saturdays. The programs have long been a thorn in the side of environmentalists because much of the paper ends up in the bin unread. After criticism of the plastic packaging of the bundles of brochures, the Post partially switched to paper bands.
The hiring is not easy, said the postal manager responsible, Benjamin Rasch. “But we have to react to the development that brick-and-mortar retailers in particular are reducing spending on classic weekly brochures for retail advertising.” However, he emphasized that other sectors continue to rely on paper advertising mail – not in bundles of brochures, but in printed advertising letters and flyers. Such letters achieved a high advertising effectiveness. Physical dialogue marketing will remain an important part of Swiss Post’s business in the future.
Environmentalists are relieved
The supermarket chain Rewe announced last month that it was discontinuing its printed advertising brochures. The DIY chain Obi has not been distributing advertising brochures since October 2022. The examples make it clear that demand is falling. The Post also felt the effects, and business with “Einkaufaktuell” deteriorated. Now the company pulled the ripcord.
Environmentalists reacted with relief. “Einkaufaktuell is a symbol for the outdated German throwaway society,” said Viola Wohlgemuth from Greenpeace. “Untargeted print advertising means that vast amounts of paper end up in the bin unread.” That is a waste that cannot be afforded in the fight against the climate and resource crisis. Wohlgemuth advocates rethinking printed advertising in general and reducing it to a minimum. “We need the forests in the fight against the climate crisis and not in our garbage cans.”
The German Dialog Marketing Association (DDV) announced that entrepreneurs are currently readjusting the marketing channels and that cross-media advertising is gaining in importance. “It depends more than before on a creative marketing mix,” said Association Vice President Martin Jacobi. “Current studies continue to concede that analogue advertising has a high advertising effectiveness, so it represents an important addition to the marketing mix.”
