The United States Postal Services Needs To Innovate And Fast

In a time with so much technological advancements, I’m trying to understand the USPS’s failure to bring about new services and / or to work on making their existing services better.

Since I rely on the United States Postal Service, and believe that more people should send physical letters more often – especially since they are more intimate, personal, I’m going to use this blog, from time to time, to suggest ideas in which the USPS could use to get back on the road to profitability.

The following stated is an initial idea in which I feel as though the USPS should consider implementing in the future:

The first tech strategy play for the USPS, should be a virtual puzzle game in which the puzzle pieces are rewarded at the moment a piece of mail is scanned at a post office. And people would win prizes for solving certain puzzles first, and / or competing a puzzle first.

In order for individuals to play they would have to sign up for a personalized game page, which would either take place on a modified USPS website, or on a separate website owned by the USPS.

On such a site, the individuals signing up would provide all the relevant info. That would be needed to claim prizes. And they would be able to choose to receive the virtual puzzle pieces only on the game pages or also via a mobile app.

The puzzle pieces that would be given out players would be based on the coded stamp that is scanned at the post office. For instance, if the stamp has the code: ulc/c3, the puzzle piece would be given for the upper left corner of the puzzle being player. If such a piece is already present, the center 3^rd piece located from the top, bottom, left or right side of the puzzle would be filled in. However, if all of such puzzle pieces are filled in, the puzzle piece assigned would be randomly selected… or assigned to another puzzle if the player is playing more than one puzzle at a given time.

Some puzzles would require individuals to solve phrases, or solve picture puzzles to win the puzzles featured prize. Other puzzles would require individuals to fill the entire puzzle in before the prize is rewarded.

Partner puzzles would also be available… in order to participate, players would have to sign up for the same puzzle on their game pages, and indicate who will be partnering with them.

Every time each partner is listed on a scanned envelope, in both the sender and the receiver sections of the envelope, the partners would receive a puzzle piece for their shared puzzle.

The USPS could also allow companies to advertise in such prize puzzles by sponsoring the puzzle. And the companies would be to choose whether to go with the picture puzzle strategy, the word phrase puzzle strategy, or a mixture of both when advertising their service and or product.

The amount that companies would pay would be based on the number of puzzle piece slots that would make up the puzzle.

Once a puzzle is solved an alert would be sent to all the participants, and such an alert would feature the solved puzzle in its entirety. The alert would also feature a link that would take individuals to a discount offer, that is if the company pays a premium for such an add on.

To raise money to pay for upgrading the USPS’s website and post offices’ software and or hardware, the USPS could offer future sponsors generous discounts towards future puzzle sponsorships, in return for such companies to open up early accounts. The early accounts would require companies to deposit a set amount in order to, to obtain the lowest offered discount, and would be given a chance to pay more for a higher discount.

I have another strategy in mind that would add more value to such an idea. However, if I discuss such on this blog, such a disclosure could jeopardize the herein stated idea in its entirety, with such being said, if the USPS is interested in learning what such an added strategy is, a representative can send me an e-mail with contact info. (Preferably e-mail or address information) to: jasonwalker@inmatescribes.com , and I will send such info, free of charge.

Magazine Ads Need To Be More Relevant, In Order To Be Effectively Viewed

– The only effective ads that I currently see being placed inside of magazines are contest based ads. Which are the ads that are relevant to the title and/or contest of a magazine article, and are strategically placed inside/ in between the pages of the article, or after the article.

– Other than contest based ads, I have failed to find many relevant ads other than perfume/cologne strips.

– I believe that magazines should create more relevant ads by creating better ad strategies. The following are three of my suggestions:

(1) – Use the magazine cover or table of contents…

(2) – Create an entertainment/ game page that direct viewers to advertisements.

(3) – Make the back cover ad more noticeable.

(1): The front of a magazine in my eyes is the most noticed/viewed part of a magazine. Therefore, it seems to be one of the most neglected ad spaces – especially since most magazine covers aren’t being utilized as an ad space.

– I can understand why most magazine companies are cautious about using the front page of a magazine for showcasing advertisements – especially since they don’t want to dilute or disrupt the main advertisement area for selling the magazine. However, I believe the benefits that come from such an ad strategy would far outnumber any adverse effects that would come about.

– There are many ways to place an ad on the front cover of a magazine, that wouldn’t adversely affect the selling point of the magazine. Yet, my favorite would be to use removable adhesive attachments, which when left attached or removed from the magazine cover, they would not change the cover scheme of the magazine. In other words, the top portion of the adhesive attachment would be identical to what’s depicted in the area of the front cover where it would be attached.

– The advertisement, coupon, etc. would be located on the underside of the adhesive attachment.

– I believe magazine companies should use the adhesive attachment strategy, also, to place advertisements in a creative way upon the magazine’s content page(s).

(2): I’m like a lot of magazine readers when it comes to enjoying doing crosswords, word searches, etc. Therefore, I’m surprised that magazine companies haven’t used the popularity of such games to direct readers to advertisement pages inside of magazines.

– Magazine companies should create game pages that feature popular games such as Sudoku, crosswords, word searches and so forth. Make such game pages detachable, and create certain games in a way in which players would have to view ad pages in order to fully play the games.

-For instance the word search game would only feature the word search box on the game page, and players would be instructed to turn to certain ad pages, to locate the words in which they are supposed to view within the word search box.

– The word search words would stand out from the other words within the advertisement, because the word search words would be a different color than the general words.

– The magazine companies were to deploy such an ad strategy properly, they would be able to guarantee advertisers more views, and friendlier views, and such an ad strategy would create more ad revenue for the magazine company.

(3): Since I rarely view the back cover of magazines, and can’t think of a good reason for most magazine readers to intentionally look at the back of a magazine. I believe that such “back end” ad placements are mainly a waste of money for advertisers; therefore, such should be the cheapest advertisement area of a magazine, if it isn’t the cheapest.

– My best advice on such a matter, would be for a matter, would be for magazine companies to create and use sense provoking adhesive attachments, and strategically place them on the back of the magazine.

– The most logical senses that can be provoked, in order to convince the reader to look at the back of the magazine would be touch, sound and smell. Therefore, I will write an example focusing on the most obvious and easiest adhesive attachment to create (touch).

– The touch provoking adhesive attachment would be a different texture on its top than the feel of the magazine. And such an attachment would be placed in an area of the back of the magazine where people will generally touch.

– In my opinion, magazine companies should be better utilizing the spaces on physical magazines, in order to bring about more revenue from advertisers. And most importantly, the advertisements would be memorable.