Working Parties
Working parties are formed to support the three pillars of our strategy; Operational, Sales & Marketing and Education. They are made up of members of the mail industry who are experts in their area, and each provides a unique value to the SMP with individual roles and objectives within the community such as consulting, advising and innovating. They are tasked with assuring that SMP members get the most out of their membership, and creating equal opportunities for everyone in the mail industry.
Below is the current list of working parties:
Operation
The Mail Innovation Group (MIG)
Chaired by Danny Cook (Managing Director at Go Inspire), this group provides a forum for ideas and innovations which promote and enhance the role and value of mail (direct and transactional) in customer communication.
Not only evaluating and proposing innovative ideas relating to products and processes, MIG also works to champion a framework which facilitates innovative ideas generation within organisations developing and deploying customer communications. As such, we hope to be an enabler for change as well as directly driving innovation through suggestions and ideas generated by our members.
MIG also acts in a consultative capacity for Royal Mail initiated innovation to ensure initiatives have industry support and relevance. As such, Paul Davison represents Royal Mail within the group to support. As a key part of driving innovation, MIG seeks to introduce young and innovative thinkers in our organisations to Royal Mail in a forum in which they can present ideas and innovations for review and discussion.
The Incentives Group
Chaired by Isla Munro (Managing Director of The Dragonfly Agency) to lead strategic value and added conversations to the Testing and Innovation programme (TIS) from Royal Mail.
The group review and discuss current incentives and share ideas from industry on how we can help each of the three mail groups with their objectives: Advertising Mail – how we can help to deliver growth for this channel; Business Mail – how we can help to retain mail volumes; and Publishing Mail – how we can help to win more share from other channels to this area. The group review processes and brainstorm solutions to improve the incentive administration.
As part of the remit, the group will also explore JICMAIL in order to drive a more intelligent approach and greater understanding of the parameters of mail as a marketing channel. By working together as a sub board, we hope to deliver a mutual joint benefit of driving more customers to use mail as part of their marketing mix.
SMP Carriers Group
Chaired by Nigel Maybury (Non Executive Chairman of the Mailshop), this group was created to facilitate the coming together of representatives of the SMP, Access Operators and Royal Mail, allowing them to convene on a regular basis to discuss, debate and resolve issues and ideas.
Specifically, the group has discussed short term tactical or technical issues, in relation to the current mail industry service, as well as products and processes, medium term implication of new rules and regulations and long-term market developments and forecasts.
The group meets around twice a year and focuses on issues such as forecasting and trays. Royal Mail faces daily challenges due to the current level of inaccuracies of forecasts vs traffic that it receives, and 1400 large letter sortation is reducing profitability, increasing tray usage and shipping air. The SMP members role has been to compile detailed evidence on the tray issue, for example.
Mail Presentation Advisory Group (MPAG)
Chaired by SMP Board Member, Kerry Holden (Mailbird Organisation Ltd), MPAG is an operationally focussed group, primarily tasked with the collaborative improvement of mail presentation processes, along with the cooperative resolving of mail presentation issues.
The group looks at issues which affect how mail is prepared; how it gets into the Royal Mail network; how it is processed; how it is delivered. These issues range from the availability of consumables to logistical issues such as how to maximise tray fill, right through to overcoming the barriers to entry for products such as Mailmark.
MPAG operates in an advisory capacity, providing proposals and recommendations to Royal Mail, in order to tackle the common issues that affect key stakeholders in the mail production process – whether that be Royal Mail itself, Access Carriers or Mail Producers.
Sales and Marketing
Sales & Marketing Working Parties
Chaired by SMP Board Member, Gemma Mitchell (Paragon CC), the Sales & Marketing Group acts as the team behind promotion and retention of our membership through improving communications like newsletters and social media and organising events, workshops and networking occasions. They will be responsible for acquiring new members by deciding how to make membership attractive through incentives, benefits and generally enhancing the experience we provide, while also supporting current members with valuable sales and marketing insights and sharing cases studies that demonstrate best practices in mail that those members can implement in their own business.
Education
Education Working Parties
Chaired by Sophie Grender (Director of New Business at Marketreach) the Education Working Party will focus on upskilling our industry and sharing knowledge and research that’s accessible by all. They will decide how and when to communicate best practice in mail including encouraging members of the industry to be more sustainable by educating them about the topic and providing them with assessment tools.
Sustainability
The Sustainability Group
Chaired by Lucy Klinkenberg-Matthews, Head of ESG at Paragon, this group’s goal is to galvanise collaboration across our industry and its value chain, to tackle climate change and social inequality. Climate Change is now a primary driver for all stakeholders and an existential risk to our business models, and our way of life. In short, we want our industry to help save the world! That is a tall order!
Sustainability is also a massive opportunity for our industry; to change the conversation, to change the way we do business, to grow and to collaborate. Our work will focus on providing stakeholders the knowledge, tools and confidence to accelerate our industry’s pathway to Carbon Net Zero.
We will work to standardise methods of carbon measurement and reporting, both for businesses, and lifecycle carbon assessments for printed products. We will work to engage with our joint supply chains to identify opportunities and drive innovation. We will work to educate brands and agencies on their role in reducing the environmental impact of their campaigns. We will work to promote the sustainability credentials of print and help stakeholders communicate with transparency and confidence on sustainability whilst avoiding greenwashing.
We will provide guidance and support on wider sustainability topics that are becoming more important such as Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Nature & Biodiversity and Social Value. We will deliver the solutions to allow our industry to help build better business and a better world.