FEDweek IT

The Postal Service has been trying to ramp up its direct mail business by educating marketers on a new kind of technology available to them that can tie in with print mail – augmented reality.

Augmented reality ties in because a mail recipient could, for example, scan a QR code with a smartphone and be directed toward a website or application, which is exactly what USPS did recently when it mailed a promo for its new augmented reality app to every household in the United States. The promo includes instructions on where (Google Play and iTunes) to download the app and how to use it.

When a user scans one of the 156,271 blue USPS mailboxes throughout the country with the app, a new layer is superimposed with dynamic elements mapped to the mailbox – in one case transforming it into an igloo with an animated penguin with a stack of presents.

USPS is using the campaign to sell stamps but it really wants marketers to get creative and think about what they could do with direct mail tied in with a mobile component, which could give a campaign stronger impact and produce a lot of valuable data and potentially get people to buy something on their phone in an instant.

“Mobile technology is enhancing physical mail in some pretty remarkable ways,” said Nagisa Manabe, chief marketing and sales officer for the Postal Service, adding, “Augmented reality, QR codes, and one-click buying technology are changing the way consumers interact with major brands.”