05.07.2024
Florida-based marketing software firm DirectMail2.0 is pleased to announce it has expanded its tech ecosystem with the acquisition of 40-year-old mailing institution Who’s Mailing What! (WMW), a direct mail performance and insights tracking platform with a database of more than 300,000 scanned and cataloged mail pieces.
The acquisition, to be finalized with immediate effect on May 1, positions DirectMail2.0 as the holder of the largest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-powered direct mail database in the United States, a role that will be pivotal going forward in DirectMail2.0’s mission to continually improve mail response, conversion rate and return on investment through more informed decision making and campaign tracking.
“The acquisition of Who’s Mailing What! is pivotal to DirectMail2.0’s core purpose — to maximize direct mail performance and response to ensure marketers immediately see results,” said DirectMail2.0 Co-Founder and CEO Brad Kugler. “We’re currently building an AI and machine learning direct mail database, DM20.ai, and the WMW catalog will be a huge addition — putting us at over 1.1 billion mail pieces scanned and documented — to bolster our knowledge of how to maximize the return of every direct mail piece. What type of mailer to use and when, what headline to use, the best offer, the most effective imagery, all broken down by industry, geography, season and more — it will all be at your fingertips with DM20.ai, which is currently set for beta testing in Q3 2024.”
Following the merger and acquisition, both firms will continue to operate under their respective namesakes in Clearwater, FL at DirectMail2.0 HQ. Kugler will take on the role of CEO at WMW following the departure of current WMW President Jill Corcoran. Morgan DiGiorgio, current DirectMail2.0 Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will take on overseeing sales and marketing for WMW. Jacob Downing, 4-year operations specialist at Directmail2.0, will become the Director of Who’s Mailing What. Eric Seijo will be VP Technology for both DirectMail2.0 and WMW.
WMW was founded in 1970 by Denny Hatch, who began by collecting the mail he and his friends and neighbors received. Eventually, Hatch’s swipe file for mailers became indispensable to marketers. The business grew and evolved into one of the largest direct mail databases in existence. Categories and searchability were built into the platform, and eventually machine learning was introduced to scan mail pieces for messaging, headlines, offers and other information crucial to conversion.
In the last 90 days, WMW has added an average of over 100 new direct mail pieces to their database per day, with more continually being added. The WMW database currently tracks geographic distribution of each mail piece, assigns a performance score on a scale of 1-100 based on a proprietary algorithm that predicts success, and categorizes mailers into 20 industry categories that are among the most prolific mailers, such as finance, telecommunications, real estate and more.
“Direct mail is the least wasteful, most efficient and most expensive advertising medium — so you better know that what you’re sending is going to work,” said WMW original founder Denny Hatch. “In 1983, as a freelance direct mail copywriter, I heard a luncheon speech by US News & World Report circulation director Dorothy Kerr, who said: ‘To be successful in direct mail, you have to see who’s mailing what, track those mailings that keep coming in over and over again (which means they are successful controls and making lots of money) and then STEAL SMART.’ That was the original ideal behind Who’s Mailing What!, and that mission is still pervasive today — with DirectMail2.0 poised to take up that mantle.”
DirectMail2.0 reached record revenue in 2023 following three consecutive years on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private businesses. Behind DirectMail2.0’s success is its unique direct mail-led approach to omnichannel marketing. By bundling targeted and precise direct mail with 14 other state-of-the-art technologies, most recently adding unique mail attribution tracking as well as inking a partnership with Flowcode to integrate their cutting edge QR code technology into their suite of services, DirectMail2.0’s campaigns are proven to lift response rates 23–46%.
