News

On May 31st, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) announced that it acquired the DMA (Data & Marketing Association).

This year’s National Postal Forum (NPF) was the 50th year of the event. Starting in 1968, the NPF has been the largest gathering of experts in the direct mail and postal industries. This year was no exception and the numbers showcase both the strength of the event, the industry and, of course, GrayHair.

President Donald Trump on Thursday, April 12, 2018, signed an executive order setting up a task force to study the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) and recommend reforms. There is strong support from the Mailing Industry on this effort to help bring to light the issues that the USPS is facing.

It looks like there may soon be a functioning USPS® Board of Governors (BOG). If so, one of the first orders of business is to get 2018 USPS Promotions filed for approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).

We say this every year, but GrayHair will bring our unique brand of excitement to the National Postal Forum in San Antonio, May 6-9. This year will be no different, but compounded. This year we will showcasing a new set of data visualizations in our booth, our expertise in the areas of Informed Visibility and address hygiene and our partnership with a local dog rescue.

Don’t pass up the chance to elevate your mail program with precision, transparency, and data intelligence! You put an enormous amount of time, effort, and money into your communication strategy, and a successful mail program is central to that strategy. Inducting your valuable mailings into a black hole and hoping for the best won’t produce desired results.

On March 22, U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced The Postal Service Reform Act of 2018: Improving Postal Operations, Service, and Transparency to stabilize, preserve and improve the Postal Service^TM – an essential part of our nation’s infrastructure and economy.

GrayHair is extremely proud to announce that we have won the 2017 Aflac Partner of the Year Award for exceptional service in the Technology/Innovation category. This is the second time that we have won Aflac’s prestigious award.

In case you missed it, the deadline for the Idealliance 2018 Mail Industry Survey is March 31, 2018. There’s still time to provide valuable input!

A leading direct marketing agency was faced with a challenge: it had an outdated mailing list and high expenses related to its constant stream of undeliverable mail. The agency was also concerned that it was losing out on business opportunities.

The solution? GrayHair’s Address Hygiene Services. GrayHair helps mailers improve the quality of their addresses and cut the high cost of mailing.

Outdated addresses increase paper and postage costs. They also keep mailers from staying Move Update compliant and from getting USPS® discounts. GrayHair’s USPS Address Hygiene service uses CASS^TM, NCOA, and leverages ACS^TM across business units to help mailers improve the quality of their addresses.

The details on how we helped this leading direct marketing agency substantially improve the quality of its mailing list are available in our new case study. By working with GrayHair, the agency received an outstanding 4% Nixie hit rate and a COA hit rate of 1.5%. We processed a job of 100 million records for the agency and the impact of our work resulted in $2,227,500 in savings for the agency. Other benefits the agency received by working with GrayHair are discussed in the case study.

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The Postmaster General’s Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) introduced its Product Management Team this month. The team’s purpose is to “ensure USPS mailing and shipping products and services continue to add value and meet customer needs.”

This month, Mail Entry and Payment Technology began hosting weekly webinars to provide education on the new Enterprise Payment System (EPS) and to answer questions about migration and enrollment.

With the introduction of the new Green & Secure Alternative Move Update Method, the USPS® announced a change to the census-based assessment start date so that both items can be implemented on the same date.

On January 9, 2018, the USPS® published a Federal Register Notice proposing a new "Green & Secure" alternative method to meet the Move Update standard for eligible First-Class Mail® and USPS Marketing Mail Letters and Flats that meet the requirements for Full-Service or Basic mailings. The USPS is doing this to reduce handling costs of Undeliverable as Addressed (UAA) mail by minimizing the cost or processing return mail. Comments on the proposed method are due by February 8, 2018

After more than 43 years of USPS® service, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer James P. Cochrane will retire in February of 2018. Cochrane’s retirement was announced by Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan in a January 2 memo. She noted that Cochrane has had “a lasting impact” on the organization and the mailing and shipping industry.

On January 24, 2018, Megan J. Brennan, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer, announced internally that Jacqueline (Jakki) Krage Strako will be detailed to the position of Chief Customer and Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, effective February 3, 2018.

On Friday, December 1, 2017, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) issued its findings related to the statutorily mandated review of the system for regulating rates and classes for Marketing Dominant products that was first established in 2006 by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). Throughout the last year, the PRC performed a comprehensive review to determine if the existing Market Dominant rate and classification system achieved the nine objectives and 14 factors established by Congress under PAEA.

The U.S. Postal Service® will deliver more than 15 billion pieces of mail this holiday season. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the Postal Service™ also expects to deliver 850 million packages – an increase of over 10% compared to last year.

Although in January 2017, the USPS® announced a name change from Standard Mail to Marketing Mail™, mailers have been instructed to continue using “Standard Mail” through 2018. Pallet placards, tray and sack labels will continue to use STD Mail designation.

For the first time since 2011, the Sears Wish Book has been sent out. Add to this the Toys R Us catalog, the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book and many other catalogs that have filled mailboxes across the country and you’ll see that the old has become new.

The Irresistible Mail Award has a new name – The Next Generation Campaign Award – and a new focus. This year the award will celebrate campaigns that take advantage of Informed Delivery to communication with their consumer audience.

The Administration finally nominated three candidates for the USPS® Board of Governors. The USPS has been operating without a Board of Governors since December 2016. The USPS Board of Governors is comprised of 11 positions: nine presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed Governor positions, which also includes the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General.

Although the site will remain active, as of November 10, 2017, no new content has been added to the RIBBS® web site. RIBBS has transitioned to PostalPro™, which leverages a powerful search functionality, intuitive navigation and a modernized, mobile friendly design. The PostalPro project was accomplished through a partnership between the USPS® and the mailing industry. To continue receiving recommendations, each page in Postal Pro has a feedback tab for users to provide feedback.

Following Hurricane Maria, the USPS® mail carriers were hailed as heroes. With power outages and Internet connections nonexistent, 99 of the 128 post offices in Puerto Rico continued to deliver mail providing much needed connections and comfort between island residents and their families around the world. Since the beginning of October, the Postal Service™ has been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news.

The U.S. Postal Service™ filed Market Dominant and Competitive Price Changes with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on October 6, 2017. These filings were approved by the last member of the USPS Board of Governors (BOG) last November prior to his term expiring. The prices will go into effect on January 21, 2018, pending PRC approval.

The USPS has been discussing the need for product management leadership with the industry for some time. As a result of these discussions, the USPS has added three new positions to its Product Team and announced it at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) August meeting.

As mentioned in our previous issue of GHS Informed, the USPS® is changing the method for measuring compliance for meeting the Move Update requirements to a Census based approach. The change is going into effect on January 21, 2018 to coincide with the next Price Change. Assessments will begin March of 2018, based on February data, for any pieces over the threshold of 0.5%.

The old MERLIN® machine is being retired and replaced by scans off of Mail Processing Equipment (MPE). The USPS will use scans from MPE to determine whether addresses for First-Class Mail® and USPS Marketing Mail® letters and flats have been updated within 95 days of the mailing date. Compliance will be measured across a calendar month at the Mail Service Provider level.

Every year, mailers have the ability to take advantage of various USPS promotions, which provide mailers with discounts and incentives to make use of new and innovative business technologies, such as color transpromo, direct mail starter and tactile, sensory and interactive mailpiece engagement. What’s being offered in 2018? Nothing.

2018 doesn’t bring the same opportunity for mailers to participate in promotions. So what does this have to do with a Board of Governors?