Everyone talks about the economic and migratory issues around Brexit but what could it mean for Direct and Digital Marketers in Ireland and the UK.

We contacted a number of members in the IDMA to understand a collective view of what Brexit would mean for the industry and here is a summary of that feedback.  

 – Would the new GDPR regulations due to be fully enacted May 2018, still apply to a Brexit UK. It’s a tough one to call but imagine a UK brand manager who also has responsibility for Ireland and the need to apply two sets of DP rules to there DM campaigns.?

The collective view here is that the UK would apply legislation in line with the new EU GDPR therefore falling in line with overall EU data protection legislation and this has been further supported by the UK DMA in recent weeks.

 – Would the UK border and visa controls lead to a marketing skill shortage in the UK therefore driving international marketing corporations to relocate to a country like Ireland, where the variety of DM skills can be sourced and scaled with fewer working visa or border control issues.?

The collective view here is that this could occur particularly around Digital Marketing where allot of skilled staff are sourced from EU countries and in particular the newer member states of recent years.      

 – Would consumer protection regulations differ between the UK and EU therefore forcing UK brand managers to apply different sets of rules to a UK and say Irish campaign.?

The feedback here was a resounding Yes as the UK political system would not agree on a set of rules that would fall in line with EU rules.

What happens sterling as many Irish marketers are very interlinked with either UK parent companies, clients or service providers.?

The view here is that sterling will weaken against the euro for a period of one to two years and then make a steady recovery but if you have clients paying you in sterling your revenues may drop in the short term particularly if your overheads are in euros. Alternatively if you are sourcing supplies to feed your DM campaigns from the UK such as print, data or envelopes the cost of such supplies will decrease.  

The IDMA has taken no position on Brexit we just wished to provide a summary view from Direct Marketers on this important forthcoming referendum so we hope you have picked up some knowledge from this short exercise.

All the best

Lorcan

www.idma.ie

P.S. The new Irish MPS is available to download for paid up members of the IDMA and if you are not a member you can license the data on an annual basis. Contact lorcan.lynch@dataxcel.ie for more information