Ask not what the USPS can do for you; ask what you can do for the USPS.
By now you’ve heard and read all the chatter about the USPS shutting down mail delivery on Saturdays. You may think, “Great, just one more step towards the end.” While many efforts have been made internally to cut budgets and find ways of increasing revenue, such as green teams and Mailing Services Promotions, it is a grassroots effort that caught our attention.
With the thought that mail is essentially the predecessor to social media, How We Saved the Post Office (or HWSTP for short) seeks to keep alive one of the more intimate ways of communicating with others. The creator of this project feels a pressing need to continue to have a physical way of sending messages in our ever increasing digital world.
How We Saved the Post Office is helping to raise money for the USPS, one screen print at a time.
Courtesy of Tucker Nichols
By purchasing a print (above) created by artist Tucker Nichols, you can contribute directly to the Post Office. HWSTPO will credit all proceeds earned from the art project to fund future projects involving the United States Postal Service. You can check out the “Good news” section of their website for accomplished projects, as well as any positive news involving mail.
While HWSTPO speaks of reviving mail in a non-business dialogue, we can still apply the concept to direct mail pieces. With more marketers closing in on the digital space, a door swings wide open within the direct mail venue. All that is needed is a bit of creativity. Think of how you respond to mail you receive — wouldn’t you be more touched if you received mail that was inspiring and beautiful, much like artwork in your mailbox? What if the message was personalized, as if the company was reaching out directly to you? As we’ve said before, there is a difference between junk mail and direct mail.
In the end, there is something special about mail, and with more communications being moved online, perhaps people are becoming more receptive to messages sent through the USPS. We’re just glad that a designer and mail-lover is putting in a full-faith effort to support one of our nation’s most unfortunate, but most effective message delivery systems, the U.S. Postal Service.
By +Maggie Young