MKTG Services, an affiliate of CBC Companies, launched its first cooperative mailing program in April. Though it is too early to gauge response, the firm is accepting participants for its second co-op program.
The Valores de Correo, or Values by Mail, cooperative mailing program went in April as the result of a survey of insert media brokers to determine what types of prospects their clients most wanted to reach.
“Brokers were asked eight questions regarding demographics,” said John Ahern, senior account executive, insert media division at MKTG Services, Newtown, PA.
The survey included questions on geographic area, age, household income, education, gender and ethnicity. Results indicated that many brokers had clients wanting to reach the Hispanic market. MKTG applied the findings to its Compramos, or We Buy, database of 8.8 million Hispanic consumers compiled from active buyer sources such as Spanish-language television, catalogs and other direct response offers.
Valores de Correo mailed to 500,000 Hispanic consumers, 80 percent female, with household incomes of $40,000-plus and 100 percent direct mail buyers. The program costs $45/M.
The initial mailing had 14 inserts including from book clubs, music clubs, Oreck, DirecTV, magazine subscription offers, skin care, coffee clubs and AOL. The inserts were in both Spanish and English. Though he did not have details, Ahern said some participants have seen results.
“It's early, but some mailers are saying there has been response,” he said.
Valores de Correo will mail for the second time in October. Ahern then looks to take it quarterly.
MKTG is promoting another co-op mailer, this time targeting teachers at home address, to launch this summer. The Educational Values K-12 Teacher Insert Program was born out of MKTG's compiled database of about 2 million teachers of kindergarten through 12th grade.
“I went in and selected the teachers who are married, are homeowners, have children 0-18, who have made a direct mail purchase in the last 30 days at home address and came up with about 100,000 names,” Ahern said.
The prospect list for the program is 79 percent female with household incomes exceeding $50,000. The program costs $55/M.
The idea is that participants in the mailer will reach targets both as consumers and teachers. MKTG contacted brokers and went to educational mailers, which tend not to work with brokers directly. The company's educational list group operates out of its Boston office and is contacting users of its databases about the program, Ahern said.
MKTG hopes to have 12-18 inserts in the co-op mailer.
“Typically your 10th insert is your break-even point, and everything after that is profit,” he said.
The mailing will drop in late July or early August, an opportune time based on MKTG's research.
“We were told by mailers that use the teacher database that the best time to mail to teachers is the summer when they have had enough time to decompress after school ended, but still have enough time before the new school year starts,” he said.
If the program is successful, MKTG will expand it to mail twice yearly — once in the summer and again at holiday break, Ahern said.
MKTG is eyeing other markets to launch more cooperative mailers in the future, he said.
Kristen Bremner covers list news, insert media, privacy and fundraising for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
