With so much attention going to social and mobile marketing, it is easy to forget that traditional marketing media – print, radio, TV etc – is not exactly dead. I am starting a series on how those channels are evolving, surviving and thriving.
The USPS continues to help direct mail evolve, and its Deliver Magazine regularly showcases innovations such as those in mail catalogs.
“Appropriately, Benjamin Franklin, considered the founder of the Postal Service,™ is also believed to have been the first cataloguer in the United States. In 1744, he formulated the basic mail order concept when he produced a catalog that sold scientific and academic books.
Amid the longevity, however, catalogs have radically evolved and continue to do so today.
Things like augmented reality, QR Codes, PURLs and digital watermarks have taken catalogs to another level.”
"Direct mail with augmented reality can be tracked, so companies can obtain app download data in addition to traditional response data. The pieces also have an extended shelf life because people keep them to access the augmented reality experience in the future."
I have previously blogged about the augmented reality in the Ikea catalog. Below is video of a MooseJaw catalog for its outerwear.
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