Worldata List Price Index Reveals Fall 2012 Lead Trends

Worldata's Fall 2012 List Price Index, the barometer for trending of all list pricing, tracks the changes in list rental pricing each season. The index shows significant price drops in two of the permission-based email list categories: Consumer files and medium-large business files. Consumer email is at an all-time low price point for any category tracked by List Price Index.  The availability of email list rental files continues to grow while the overall economic conditions remain flat in terms of growth.  This abundance of availability is helping to drive down the overall CPM's of email rental files.

This quarter is the second time that pricing for data purchases are being tracked.

For more than 30 years, the Worldata List Price Index has served the direct and interactive marketing community as the key source for the pricing and trending of all list rentals. The Index is reported quarterly, providing a comparison of list prices during any given 12-month period and tracking price fluctuations, as cost per thousand (CPM), for lists in various categories.

"In economic periods where growth is minimal, those companies who control large datasets elect to make them available for rental by non-competitive marketers. The additional revenue that these data owners can enjoy helps to offset other areas of business, which may not be growing. This increased overall availability of data helps to drive down the CPM's in the overall marketplace," said Ray Tesi, senior vice president of Worldata. "Permission-based B-to-C email lists saw the largest price drop this quarter and it is no coincidence that this was during a large presidential election time. The surge of available data in the consumer email category was directly related to the election cycle."

The most recent Worldata List Price Index reflects price variations from Fall 2011 to Fall 2012. The lists evaluated are grouped into categories, such as Consumer Merchandise Buyers, Donors, Databases, Business Magazines and more. Information such as Average Price, Lowest List Price, Highest List Price and Exact Dollar Change are provided. Through charts and graphs, year-to-year price fluctuations can easily be distinguished in this index.

The comparison of lists in this Fall 2012 List Price Index to the Fall 2011 List Price Index of a year ago reveals noteworthy trends not only in individual categories, but in media types as well, as exhibited below:

Worldata continues to closely track International data:

• Permission-Based International Email remains the highest priced list rental category at $388/M - which is a $13/M decrease from Fall 2011.
• The price has dropped 3.24 percent since last Fall, and $13/M from last quarter.

The Straight Average Graph (Chart 1) in the Worldata List Price Index examines the average cost per thousand (CPM) of the lists we have grouped in each category. Triple bars are used in each category for easy comparison of Fall 2010 and 2011 prices to Fall 2012 prices.

• Permission-Based Consumer Email takes the lead as the lowest-priced category, with an average list price of $74/M. This is a $7/M decrease from its price in Fall 2011 and the lowest priced list category in the history of the List Price Index.
• The second lowest priced category of Fall 2012 at $84/M is Donors.
• Permission-Based Medium-Large Business Email files show a straight average CPM of $248/M, maintaining its position as the highest-priced domestic category for list rental this quarter, although it is a $4/M decrease from Fall 2011.

The Straight Dollar Change Graph (Chart 2) shows the precise dollar amount that the average price for each category has changed within the specified 12-month period.

• The largest price decrease from Fall 2011 to Fall 2012 occurred in the Permission-Based Medium-Large Email category, which dropped $13/M from Fall 2011 to $388/M.

• The largest price increase that occurred from Fall 2011 to Fall 2012 was $5/M, which was seen in the Databases/Masterfiles category.

• The Attendees/Members and Newsletters categories both saw the next highest increase in list price, $2/M to $132/M and $162/M respectively.

The Straight Average Percent Dollar Change Graph (Chart 3) takes into consideration the percent change in price for each category.

• The Permission-Based Medium-Large Email category reflects the largest percent decrease at 8.64 percent.
• The highest percentage increase occurred in the Databases/Masterfiles category with a 4.5 percent increase.

Worldata and its group of companies are the recognized leaders in direct and interactive marketing solutions, specializing in: Email and Postal List Management, List Brokerage, Custom Marketing Solutions, Database Marketing Services, Email Transmission and Tracking, Data Hygiene and Processing, Change of Address, Merge/ Purge, Lead Generation and Banner Advertising. More information about Worldata can be found at www.worldata.com or by contacting Ray Tesi, senior vice president, at 800-331-8102 or via email at rtesi@worldata.com.

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