Looking Back, Looking Forward.
We like to focus in this blog on advice and insight for our readers, but every once in a while, we’ll make an exception. We think this topic deserves that: We’d like you to know that Digital Dog Direct turned 40 this year.
Yes. We are 40.
We were founded in 1978 as SHM Mailers. Remember 1978? The first “test-tube baby” was born that year. Jimmy Carter was president. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas was 70 cents. First-class postage? 15 cents. ZIP codes had been introduced just 15 years earlier. ZIP+4 codes were still five years away.
In fiscal 1978, the U.S. postal service delivered 96.9 million pieces of mail. (In fiscal 2017, it was nearly 149.5 million pieces — down from 154.3 million in 2016.)
Direct mail exploded as we came on the scene. In 1980, it accounted for $7.6 billion in total advertising in the U.S. By the time the ‘80s were over, it accounted for nearly $22 billion.
According to U.S. Postal Service studies, American homes received an average of 4.5 pieces of third-class mail per week in 1977. By 1987, that number had doubled, and outstripped all other classes of mail. Today, we no longer call it “third-class mail.” It’s “Marketing Mail,” and that tells you everything. More than 78 billion pieces of Marketing Mail were delivered in fiscal 2017.
Our president, Ken Maisel, purchased SHM in 2007. In the summer of 2011, we rebranded as Digital Dog Direct. That same year, we opened our new state-of-the-art facility in a renewed and reinvigorated effort to provide incomparable service to the digital marketing marketplace.
We are proud of our past and embrace our future.
Today, DDD is a premiere multichannel marketing partner for organizations ranging from local New Jersey-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies. From concept to completion, we’re with you every step of the way to offer response-generating and cost-saving solutions.
You might wonder how 40 years of continuous service stacks up in the business world. Consider this: The average age of an S&P 500 Company today is just 20 years. (Back in the ‘50s it was 60 years.) Rapidly changing technology is considered the driving force. That’s why we make a point of keeping up.
What are the rising trends in direct mail marketing today? How can you make the most of them to help secure the future of your business, or your clients’? We can help you with this, and much more.
Get in touch today and unleash the power of Digital Dog Direct.
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