An avalanche of transactional statements drop through our letterboxes on a monthly basis. Until recently, they were bland, functional documents - simple designs with black text spelling out the all important, and occasionally depressing, details. However, these dull versions of functional documents may soon be a thing of the past. An increasing number of mailings now feature full-colour personalised messages from brands offering recipients lucrative promotions. You could argue that this kind of document, known as transpromo, is direct mail (DM) in disguise. However, unlike DM, its use is infrequent, despite predictions from some quarters that there would be a rapid uptake.

Several reasons have been mooted for this. Firstly, the reces- sion has hit the finan- cial sector particularly hard and investments in the type of printing and data technology needed to deliver transpromo documents have been put on hold as volumes drop. Another problem is the rise of online statements, with increasing numbers of customers opting to view their accounts via the internet. Some cite environmental considerations, but others have been offered financial incentives by their bank to switch to online statements.

As a result, you might think that digital press manufacturers, software providers and mailing specialists would want to steer clear of transpromo. But the reality is, they are as enthusiastic as ever and there is a feeling that once the economy begins to pick up, so too will colour transpromo.

Numerical evidence

The figures about transpromo's potential are compelling. According to Pitney Bowes, more than euro2.8bn (Pounds 2.4bn) worth of possible advertising space on bills and statements is unused - the advertising value of this represents 24% of combined annual direct mail spend. Pitney Bowes also found that the UK market offers the greatest transpromo opportunities - it represents 50% of the total European credit card market.

Research by lnfotrends, on behalf of HP, further backs up the view that a transactional document is a powerful tool for marketers. Around 90% of these types of documents are opened and read by consumers, compared to 7% of direct mail communications that are opened. It's also a document that requires maximum attention because it contains valuable information. DM can't claim the same draw.

"With transpromo, you can communicate on a truly oneto-one basis," says Gareth Parker, product manager for professional print products at Ricoh. "It's an intelligent and timely document and can lift response rates up to as high as 6%. That's way above the industry standard for DM."

Ricoh has been able to push into the transpromo market with the Pro C900 Series.