The drumbeat of direct mail’s demise seems to have been unending the last several months.  Banking services, credit cards, automotive, and catalog mailings are declining faster than you can say “Dow Jones.”  But is it really all doom and gloom?  Don’t recessions have a way of bringing out innovation and opening up never considered paths for marketers?

 While I’m certainly not claiming that we have seen the bottom, you are starting to see direct mail used in some rather interesting areas:

•  Homeowners insurance.  A financial service product still using direct mail to acquire customers?  It’s true.  According to Mintel, homeowners insurance mailings increased by 19% in 2008.  Consumers are looking for ways to save money.  Insurance providers are looking to grow/retain market share.  It’s a match made in marketing heaven.  Insurance companies have long played the rate game via DM on the auto side but there is clearly now an opportunity to use some of those same strategies with another necessary policy – homeowners insurance.  I would guess that we’ll start to see some of the same upticks for DM in other necessary insurance categories such as life insurance, disability coverage, and stand-alone health coverage (especially given the job losses nationwide).

• Professional sports.  Long the standard for the Field of Dreams quote, “Build it and they will come.”, this recession is taking a bite out of professional sports franchises big and small.  (RIP Arena Football League 2009 Season) The list of sports teams offering recession/stimulus ticket plans and offering season ticket refunds to folks who lose their jobsis getting longer by the day.  As direct marketers though, these marketing groups are using direct mail as a channel to communicate about these plans, events, and offers.  Just in my neck of the words, niche teams like the Chicago Slaughter and Chicago Red Stars to the more mainstream White Sox and Bulls are using postcards, letter/OE packages, and targeted inserts to get the word out.  Could it be that once these franchises see how much value they get in return for using these tactics, the switch could be permanent? 
• Casinos.  The allure of easy money has an appeal like few others.  While DM has been a steady channel for gaming operations for years, the shift to even richer DM-based offers appears to be growing.  Given the plethora of gaming options now available in most states (pari-mutuel, casinos, state lotteries, online), the competition is more fierce than ever for a customer’s gaming dollar.  Casinos have taken notice and responded with a variety of new offers and more frequent direct mail to specifically targeted segments.

While direct mail is not the one-stop shop for direct response marketing that it was once, it’s appeal and usefulness to well-targeted audiences is still very much relevant in today’s troubled times.