Direct Mail Delivering Opportunities to Marketers: A Recap of the USPS and Lob AdWeek’s BrandWeek Session

Recently, Lob had the incredible opportunity to attend AdWeek’s BrandWeek conference in Miami alongside our partners at USPS. More importantly, they invited our COO, Ryan Ferrier, to join them onstage to talk about the power of direct mail as a mission-critical tool in your omnichannel marketing strategy during the session, In-Person Workshop: Delivering Opportunity with the United States Postal Service.

With almost every seat in the room filled, Ferrier took the stage alongside USPS executives Sheila Holman, VP of Marketing, and Thomas Foti, VP of Product, to discuss some of the major initiatives in the USPS’ 10-year plan, as well as incredible insights into how Americans engage with their mail, and, of course, how direct mail fits into a well-rounded marketing strategy.

Here are our top three insights from the panel on Delivering Opportunity with the United States Postal Service:

1. Gen Z engages with their mail almost as much as Gen X and Boomers (and sometimes more)

Please proceed to lift your jaw off the floor–it’s true!

Let’s forget about Millennials for a moment (sincerely, a Millennial) and zoom in on data recently published by USPS in its Mail Moments report. This data indicates that while Boomers still lead the charge in positive perception and engagement with mail, Gen Z actually over indexes in categories like mail relevance and privacy concerns.

What this means for marketers is that the assumption that direct mail only reaches older demographics is outdated and that challenging that assumption through targeted testing could get you one step closer to your goals in 2024.

2. USPS is on the fast track to success with its 10-year plan

From the capstone bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act, which reduces USPS expenses by $48 million over 10 years, to the incoming fleet of all-electric delivery vehicles, and the packaging and delivery of close to a billion COVID test kits, the USPS has been making quick work of meeting the needs of a changing workforce, country, and supply chain. Meanwhile, it’s improved its service performance with 98% of Americans receiving their mail and packages within three days of shipment.

In a busy, noisy news cycle, most of these changes have been lost or swept under the rug, but at BrandWeek, Lob and our fellow audience members were excited and interested to hear more about these developments.

3. The new mantra for marketers is: direct mail is digital too!

For too long direct mail has not had a seat at the table with digital marketing budgets and stakeholders, because quite frankly - it wasn’t ready yet.

As we explored some of Lob’s data from the 2023 State of Direct Mail, it was clear from audience engagement that they were keen to understand how modern tooling could help them to achieve 1:1 customization and attribution on an automated all digital workflow. From QR codes to AI-driven custom content, it was clear that the market is ready to drive new value for their audience through a channel that can now fit as comfortably into their marketing automation stack as texting, email, social, and search/display.

View the session

Want to watch the recording of the session? Find it here!

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