Royal connection boosts Party Pieces trade in names
Party Pieces, a mail order party products website run by Kate Middleton’s parents, is profiting from the sale of clients names and addresses to third parties.
The money making scheme, widely practised, sees the names and addresses of paying customers sold in bulk to companies keen to target their own wares at particular demographics.
Party Pieces core users, affluent mothers, are thought to be particularly appealing to buyers ranging from book clubs to insurers.
Their names will typically be sold to a middleman, such as Listbroker, prior to being sold on. The going rate for such data is said to be around £120 per 1,000 records.
That target audience has ballooned following William’s wedding announcement, their website traffic saw a 15 fold increase following the news.
A spokesperson for Listbroker said: “With consumer data, the terms are single use data… it’s never sold permanently because the quality of data can deteriorate very rapidly.”
The trade is legal under the Data Protection Act, so long as the business includes an opt out clause in customer communications.