Polestar has printed over four million inserts for five different industry sectors in support of the Direct Marketing Association Insert Council's project which has established that the traditional printed advertising insert not only complements online marketing but can stimulate it by encouraging magazine and newspaper supplement readers to visit advertisers' web sites.

Each printed insert gave the reader an option to go online if the consumer was interested in the product advertised and the research has revealed very positive results for the participating advertisers, with an average 52 per cent response rate and one advertiser recording online hits as high as 70 per cent.

Polestar Account Director and DMA Insert Council member Jeff White comments: "We were delighted to help the DMA Insert Council and it is great to see that the printed insert is in fact a trigger to generate further consumer interest, leading potential customers online to the advertiser, particularly when in the current tough market conditions, the role of inserts can be underestimated and their effectiveness devalued."

This research was the first of its kind to be carried out in the UK with such high volumes involved. The advertisers represented retailers, charities and the cosmetic industry. Polestar inserts over 3 billion items per annum across its UK print sites.