Direct Mail’s Value in a Multi-Touch World: A Podcast Conversation with Valpak CRO Jay Loeffler

Author: Nicole Ovadia, VP Forecasting and Analysis, BIA Advisory Services

Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting a Leading Local Insights Podcast with Jay Loeffler, the Chief Revenue Officer of Valpak, to discuss a media channel that always comes out as the top revenue generator in my advertising forecast – direct mail. Jay has been with the company for over 17 years, which makes him a highly respected expert on direct mail.

As a little background, when I look at BIA’s U.S. Advertising Forecast, both past, present, and future, direct mail has a dominant foothold in the number one position in terms of advertising revenue. For 2024, we estimate that direct mail will earn about $37 billion. This is a 0.5% increase over 2023 and a few billion more than will be spent in local mobile advertising. One of the first questions I asked Jay was how direct mail maintains its role in a multi-attribution advertising landscape and his answer was revealing.

Jay explains that direct mail is playing a pivotal role in a post-COVID era where consumer behaviors are heavily influenced by economic factors all while Gen Z is rediscovering the allure of physical mail. From his perspective, and this is key for broadcasters to hear in particular, direct mail acts as a “complimentary force” to OTA and digital campaigns, with a focus on bridging the gap from browsing to conversion using technologies like QR codes, Google Analytics, and call tracking. Jay explains their priority is to deliver tailored content and deals that resonate with consumers across various demographics.

It was fascinating to learn that Valpak builds on strategic partnerships and harnesses insights from over 500 million data points on households to precisely target their audience. This year in particular, direct mail may be an important opportunity for local advertisers as political crowd-out is a big concern.  

Three soundbites that stood out to me throughout my conversation with Jay were attribution, decluttering, and savings and how they all work together for the benefit of local advertisers to deliver value in today’s digital environment. Overall, so many interesting takeaways worth hearing and opportunities for collaboration for local media. Enjoy our full podcast conversation here.

Plus, get fresh insights into the thoughts and plans of local business owners in a new survey published by Valpak. You can quickly download the findings here.