New groundbreaking research conducted by Forethought's parent company, Roberts Research Group (Roberts), in conjunction with two highly respected marketing academics, Professor Peter Danaher and Professor John Rossiter, has found that paper-based communication is more effective when it comes to consumers acting on advertising promotions or for getting customers to pay their bill on time.

Professor Danaher outlined the key findings of the two-year study entitled, A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Channels: Perspectives from Both Receivers and Senders, at the influential American Marketing Association conference in Brisbane on Saturday July 1. The research compares paper based and digital marketing communications in the 21st Century for the first time. It smashes many of the myths about consumers embracing the digital age. While the proliferation of channels such as email and SMS continues, when it comes to acting on financial transactions or other outcomes important to business, paper-based communications are most effective.

Professor Danaher said 'customers voice a clear distinction between how they want to receive marketing communications. The most preferred channels are paper-based direct mail and mass media. The least preferred are the telephone, email, SMS and door-to-door.'

The study was initiated by Roberts, which surveyed 750 companies and 800 individuals throughout Australia, on their sending and receiving communications habits and preferences, especially where it influences key business outcomes (all of those surveyed had internet access and used mobile technology).

CEO of Roberts Research Group, Ken Roberts, said 'Media effectiveness should have always been measured on the basis of what business outcomes it delivers. All contemporary research such as satisfaction and value are now required to illustrate that linkage. Professor Danaher's research is a breakthrough because it assesses multiple media channels for their effectiveness in bringing about business outcomes. The biggest surprise is that the traditional media substantially outperformed new media, leaving us to conclude that there has been way too much hoopla about the digital channels.'

The key findings of the seminal Danaher-Rossiter research include:

• Personally addressed letters, generic addressed letters, and catalogues/ brochures outperformed email for all business outcomes for both promotional and transactional communications (such as billing);
• Both personal and business receivers were most likely to pay a bill on time if received via a personally addressed letter;
• Promotional communications sent via email, telephone or SMS led to lower purchase intentions from both business and consumer audiences, relative to all channels, including paper;
• There was considerable disparity between what senders thought were the most effective channels and what actually were the most effective channels. Across all business outcomes, senders considered television to be more effective than it actually was, and catalogues/ brochures to be less effective than they actually were, for both business and consumer audiences.
• hilst a greater proportion of younger receivers may use the internet and SMS messaging services, their purchase intentions after receiving a communication through one of these channels were no different to the purchase intentions of older receivers who had received the same communication. (This is a critical finding that provides a clear distinction and separation of channel usage and communication effectiveness); and
• raditional measures of communication effectiveness such as awareness and recognition are not sufficient for measuring communication effectiveness because they are not linked to business outcomes. It cannot be assumed that awareness translates to effectiveness (for example, intention to seek further product information or intention to purchase).

Ken Roberts added: 'Most alarming of all was the stark difference between what the doyens of media planning in Australia told us was effective and what the receivers told us. Plainly the industry experts are in need of this kind of study.'

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