Valpak, the company with the blue envelope mailer, announced Monday that 1,000 consumers will find a $10 cash prize in their Valpak Blue Envelope in February, expanding on the company’s Instant Win program.
It’s a way for local and national advertisers to drive sales growth and brand awareness in local neighborhoods and nationwide markets across 41 million households with an average income of $130,000. Studies show the Blue Envelope has a 92% open rate.
Valpak Chief Executive Officer Chris Cate says the company does a lot of promotions throughout the year, “but this is the first time we’ve put cash in the envelope. We feel that $10 will be a nice surprise for someone.”
Valpak will display a creative message on the outside. Inside of the Blue Envelope, consumers will find details on how to cash in on $500 by sharing a photo on Valpak’s Facebook page.
Cate called Valpak “an audience targeting company” when explaining the 2023 outlook for digital and data services that enables its technology to find the correct audience to match consumers to advertisers.
Valpak historically has done well during recessionary times. Consumers need to save money, and advertisers need to put more effort into bringing consumers into their ecommerce or retail stores.
“By the end of this year, we expect to mail more than 500 million envelopes -- about 41 million homes monthly,” Cate says. “We are growing investments in direct mail, and technology and data platforms.”
The company also plans to work on improving its one-to-one messaging to consumers.
“We are investing between 10% and 15% more this year,” Cate says. “The investments will go toward printing technology, data and platform enhancements, and sales tools and support systems.”
The data enhancements include analytics and audience measurement to inform advertisers on the success of campaigns. “We will give more insights into advertisers on their customers,” he says. “It means building out our intelligence systems.”
As for the Blue Envelopes being mailed in February, there’s even something for advertisers inside the envelope: a 10% off coupon for brands to advertise with the company, said Valpak CMO Mandy Febus.
Febus also says Valpak runs social on platforms like LinkedIn and on search engine advertising on platforms such as Google to promote its business. Consumers also will see some ads on television to help promote clients
Valpak released results from a survey of 1,500 U.S. adults to understand their priorities for 2023. While health-related issues such as losing weight, eating healthier and exercising more are the top priorities, saving money also ranked highly, with 36% of all consumers saying it was one of their new year resolutions.
Consumers also said products and services that make them happy and comfortable are their most important priorities when making purchases.