As Direct Response Returns to Growth, IWCO Expands Creative and Analytics Practices

Although IWCO Direct has made three key hires in the past few months, the company doesn’t consider itself in the middle of a hiring spree. Instead, the Minnesota-based company sees itself as responding to the fitful gains and losses in the direct marketing sector over the past year, while simultaneously anticipating greater client demand. “In 2020, overall mail volumes for IWCO Direct were down too,” said Mike Parker, chief marketing and solutions officer, who joined IWCO Direct in December. “But it varied by industry ... certain sectors like health care, [cable operators and internet providers] and nonprofit were up last year. More importantly, as vaccines have rolled out and things are cautiously getting back to normal, IWCO Direct expects that volumes and spend will continue to grow as the year progresses.” GroupM estimated that direct mail would generate around $13 billion in revenue during 2020—down 26%. The media intelligence unit is forecasting a partial rebound in 2021, with 17% growth before resuming single-digit declines. “I’m surprised more marketers didn’t capitalize on direct mail,” Brian Wieser, global president, business intelligence, told Adweek. “People are stuck at home, so they’re going to see mail more than they might have otherwise. There's been a continued movement away from print. And there were issues with postal service delivery delays.” The big issue that direct mailers have is the secular weakness. Still, Wieser pointed to a potential for upside: The declines are single-digit. As IWCO looks to capitalize on that upside, the company has just added two other hires since Parker joined. One addition is Ken McDonald, who was named vice president, supply chain. McDonald brings two decades of experience in direct marketing to IWCO. He will focus on “optimizing the company’s end-to-end supply chain and finding new ways to collaborate with both suppliers and customers to reduce cost, improve efficiency and generate value while driving profitable growth for the company,” a rep told Adweek. Meanwhile, Ted Grigg joined as vice president, marketing strategy. Grigg’s 30 years of experience as a senior-level executive leading multichannel marketing programs “will contribute significant insight and value to client campaigns.” Grigg’s accomplishments span multiple industries, including nonprofit, health care, technology, financial services, retail and travel, all areas of concentration for IWCO’s growth plans. The hires are also part of the company’s plan to build out its creative services team, Parker said. “Direct marketing is a unique channel, requiring a unique approach to ensure customer engagement and results,” Parkers said. “As such, the next few months will be spent expanding the strategic creative leadership and design work we provide to clients, which is unique in the marketplace given the limitations other agencies have in sourcing true DM creative expertise. “Going forward, we believe that direct marketing cannot exist in a silo [within] other marketing channels if overall marketing ROI is to be maximized,” he continued. “We are investing in our digital media and marketing services and identifying strategies to connect direct marketing activity with digital, social media and email activity to identify and maximize overall ‘omnichannel’ performance.”