Posted November 9 2009

After a meeting between staff and management, the Communication Workers Union agreed to a "period of calm" which will allow two months of further talks about modernisation of the organisation.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: "Royal Mail services will be free of any disruption up to and through the Christmas period."

It comes after research from ExactTarget found that more than three-quarters (78 per cent) of online consumers have at some point provided a company with their address details so that they can receive direct mail messages.

The 2009 Channel Preference Study also found that the channel fared best in a number of customer surveys.

Almost half (49 per cent) of respondents said that they would prefer to receive marketing messages from brands that they have had no interaction with through direct mail campaigns, higher than any other medium.