In a forthcoming exclusive interview in Catalog Age: The Show Daily, outgoing Direct Marketing Association president/CEO Bob Wientzen, who will retire from the New York-based organization this summer, says he regrets never having the funds at DMA to do a “Got Milk?”-type ad campaign to promote direct marketing in the mainstream press and media. Well, the DMA might not be able to pull off such a campaign, but the U.S. Postal Service on April 19 launched a modest version of its own.
The program, which will appear in major marketing and business publications, attempts to demonstrate how influential mail can be in a multichannel marketing campaign. The campaign will be presented in three segments: “awareness,” which launched the program, “consideration” (getting customers to consider making purchases direct) beginning May 3, and “purchase” (to create an offer that’s immediate and compelling to drive purchases), starting June 7.
The overall campaign is called “Be Here,” to symbolize direct mail’s connection with the customer.