Larry Riggs

• Agencies

  Q&A: The Outlook for Direct-to-Consumer Pharma Advertising

  Direct-to consumer ads have run in magazines and on television for many years. But how is the market evolving?

• Sound Business or a Way to Keep Post Offices Open?

  A year after the U.S. Postal Service launched its Every Door Direct Mail program, the USPS has pulled in more than $153 million in revenue from small local businesses it’s convinced to market through the mails.

  The program is a saturation mail service that charges as little as 14.5 cents per piece,–lower than comparable standard mail rates — and lets small local companies send as many as 5,000 pieces per day without requiring a postal permit, according to the USPS.

• Agencies

  World Vision Steps Up U.S. Mailings

  Christian humanitarian organization World Vision is stepping up its direct mail donor and acquisition efforts in the United States.

• Brittanica Abandons the Hardcover

  After 244 years as a hardcover, Encyclopaedia Brittanica is going all online. How will this affect its marketing?

• Does Postal Reform Boil Down to a Turf War?

  There’s a lot of agreement in our industry that the U.S. Postal Service could get along without its large staff and number of facilities around the country. Service would not suffer appreciably if the USPS made these moves.

• Agencies

  Hearst Tests Personalized Onserts Featuring QR Codes

  Harper’s Bazaar is testing onserts that address subscribers by name and feature QR codes that click through to an advertiser web site.

• Agencies

  Canadian Food Bank Doubles Direct Mail Efforts

  A Canadian hunger charity plans to double its direct mail campaigns to supplement online fundraising.

• Agencies

  What UPS-TNT Merger Could Mean for Postal Service

  Is United Parcel Service’s proposed $6.8 billion acquisition of TNT Express just another corporate mega-merger? Could it create such a large and well-heeled behemoth that could endanger postal corporations abroad, or maybe even the U.S. Postal Service eventually?

• Using Insert Media to Stretch Direct Mail Dollars

   

  The recent increase in postage rates and looming U.S. Postal Service cutbacks mean marketers who rely on direct mail must find more cost efficient ways to use the medium.

   Insert media can be one viable option. Inserts ride along with a variety of distribution partners in everything from fulfillment packages and catalogs to billing statements and sample packs.

   

  Some insert media fast facts:

• Agencies

  DRTV to Grow Significantly: Q&A With Eicoff’s Bill McCabe

  Chief Marketer recently spoke with Bill McCabe, the newly named president/CEO of direct response television agency A. Eicoff and Co. (a unit of Ogilvy & Mather), to get his take on the rapidly evolving world of DRTV and how it fits in with other forms of electronic media.