USPS creative team wins six marketing awards

The top honor in an international advertising competition is included in the half dozen awards recognizing outstanding creativity and promotional campaigns by the U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Service, working with its design team, Draftfcb, received the highest recognition for a marketing campaign for the “Ship It, Win It” sweepstakes. The platinum MarCom Award recognized the creativity of leveraging a partnership with eBay to promote Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes, offering customers a chance to win USD 10,000 to spend on eBay. The sweepstakes received a second MarCom Award (gold) for creative design as well as a silver award from POP Times magazine’s “Design of the Times” competition.

The MarCom Awards are an international competition for marketing and communications professionals, recognizing concept, writing and design of a marketing program. The Design of the Times Awards competition recognizes the in-store marketing industry’s best displays and retail promotions. Entries are judged on creativity in design, engineering, the ability to enhance brand image and the realization of sales and marketing objectives.

The Postal Service and its creative team also won MarCom awards in the following categories:
• Direct Marketing/Point of Purchase (platinum) for a partnership with Shutterflly.com. Customers applying for a passport at a Post Office received a luggage tag with a promotional code redeemable for a free photo album on Shutterfly.
• Point of Purchase Campaign (platinum) for the holiday 2006 display materials in Post Office lobbies.
• Marketing Campaign (gold) for the college football promotion that featured the NetPost suite of services and USPS.com on five campuses. Students who participated in the promotion received a free Premium Postcard featuring their campus scoreboard and customized postage sample of the school colors and logo.
• Employee Training Manual (gold) for presentation materials and notebooks on the Postal Service’s move to standardize all retail centers in Post Offices.
• Creative Design (platinum) for the use of Customized Market Mail. This direct mail piece, shaped like a peach, promoted Postal Service products and services as business solutions.
The “Postal Service Peach” also received a silver Echo Award in the business to business/business and consumer services category. The Echo Award is presented by the Direct Marketing Association International, recognizing strategy and breakthrough creative design.

The Post Office Channel, linking Post Offices across the country by satellite, was honored with a bronze Telly Award in the non-broadcast/government relations category. The internet channel provides information on products and services available to customers. More than 13,000 entries were submitted for the award from all 50 states and five continents.

“The goal of every promotional campaign or advertising piece we produce is to make customers aware of the value and variety of products and services we offer,” said Anita Bizzotto, Postal Service chief marketing officer and executive vice president. “Whether it’s online or in person, the Postal Service is always looking for new ways to make doing business with us quick, easy and convenient.”