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Esquire Flirts With Digital Reality

Posted On: Category: Audio / Video Marketing, Custom Design & Printing, Ideas & Inspiration, Marketing Insights, Technology, Virtual Reality / Augmented RealityPosted By:

Hollywood stars are going virtual, in the latest effort to jazz up the printed word-and wake up consumers who have become inured to traditional ads.

Hearst Corp.’s Esquire magazine will pepper its December issue with markers that trigger interactive video segments featuring cover subject Robert Downey Jr. and other actors, as well as an ad for Lexus. In doing so, Esquire is taking advantage of an emerging technology called augmented reality, which mixes real-life images with graphics or other effects. TV networks use AR to make the yellow first-down lines on football fields.

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Direct mail ‘most effective channel’ for influencing buying decisions

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Direct Mail MarketingPosted By:

Direct mail has been found to be the most influential channel on purchasing decisions, according to a recent study.

ExactTarget’s 2009 Channel Preference Study examined consumers’ use of different marketing platforms in the US and found that 76% of those polled said they had bought something after receiving a direct mail piece.

This compared to 67% for TV adverts, 58% for email and 17% for telephone marketing.

Even among the younger demographic of 25- to 34-year-olds, which are more aligned to electronic communications, 75% had made purchases because of receiving direct mail – this dropped to 62% for 18- to 24-year-olds (but print was still the best-performing channel).

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New Barcode System means less Undeliverable Mail

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Direct Mail Marketing, TechnologyPosted By:

In May, the U.S. Postal Service first allowed pieces with the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) to circulate.

This new system is anticipated to make it easier to track mail at each stage of the cycle, along with making things easier for consumers and the USPS.

The IMB is set to replace the USPS’s existing Planet Code and Postnet barcodes on all domestic mail. It is expected to help the Postal Service reduce the number of undeliverable-as-addressed mailing pieces, now estimated at more than 10 billion per year and costing upwards of $1.8 billion annually

The IMB will be mandatory on all mailings before May 2011.

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