Mailin’ It! - The Official USPS Podcast

Managing One of the World’s Most Iconic Brands

Episode Summary

This week, we're talking with Amity Kirby, Manager of Licensing at USPS, to learn about managing one of the world's most iconic brands.

Episode Notes

From appearances on apparel to toys to non-fungible tokens, the USPS is one of the world's most iconic brands. 

Join us as speak with Amity Kirby, Manager of Licensing at USPS. We'll learn how USPS found its way onto trendsetting apparel, how licensing opportunities can help introduce the USPS to new audiences, and hear about some of our most successful collaborations.

To learn more on licensing with USPS visit: https://about.usps.com/licensing/commercial-program.htm

Episode Transcription

Dale Parsan:

Hey everybody. Welcome to this episode of Mailin’ It, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm your co-host Dale Parsan

Yasmine DiGiulio:

And I'm Yasin de Julio. We've got a great episode for you today. Our guest is Amity Kirby, Manager of Licensing here at USPS. We're going to talk to Amity about how she and her team manage one of the world's most iconic brands.

Dale Parsan:

Yamine, did you know that in the seventies, the Postal Service became the first federal agency allowed to copyright its logos and other intellectual property? 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I did not.

Dale Parsan:

Yeah. It turns out we've been able to license that intellectual property to manufacturers, retailers, and other businesses since the nineties. You may have seen some of that more recent clothing items popping up on social media lately.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I have noticed those. I've also seen Postal Service branding on sporting goods, novelty items, and toys. I actually have a Christmas ornament that is a postal delivery vehicle with the branding on it.

Dale Parsan:

USPS is even dipping into the brave new world of non-functional tokens or NFTs as they're referred to in the cryptocurrency space. But we'll get more into that with Amity later in the episode,

Yasmine DiGiulio:

We'll be talking to Amity about what she does as manager of licensing, how the Postal Services licensing process works. USPS's history of branding efforts and some of the exciting campaigns that are underway and coming up. Welcome Amity. 

Amity Kirby:

Hello, Hello!

Dale Parsan:

To start us off Amity, could you please tell us a little bit about what your job entails as the manager of licensing?

Amity Kirby:

The Postal Service has intellectual property that we own, and those are different types of items like stamp imagery, logos, a little bit of character… All these different entities that we own trademark and copyright to, which is called intellectual property. We go out and sell that to licensees who are manufacturers, and they sign an agreement to use that intellectual property on products that they produce, and then they sell them into retail and into the retail marketplace. So the licensing team evaluates these companies, licensees that come to us, asking to use our intellectual property on products. And we evaluate that. You know, is the collaboration or the licensed product going to extend our brand in a positive way? Does it put the Postal Service in categories, channels, audiences that we're currently not in… Are there creative ways to get the brand out there with this company? Does it make business sense for us to be doing this?

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So why do we do this?

Amity Kirby:

A couple different reasons? Brand awareness is a big issue for us. This is a way for us to reach typically younger audiences that may typically not use the Postal Services traditional products and services. Brand protection is another big issue for us. If we don't use some of these marks, we will eventually lose them from, you know patents and trademarks, and money.

Dale Parsan:

Wonderful. So when considering a licensing collaboration, what criteria do you guys have in mind?

Amity Kirby:

We typically want to do collaborations that put the Postal Service in a good light, that put Postal Service in areas of business we're not normally in reaching those different consumers and those different audiences.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So how do you determine who you wanna collaborate with? Do you typically approach brands or do companies come to you and say, Hey, we've got this great idea and we'd love the Postal Service to be part of it?

Amity Kirby:

It's a little bit of both. It is a huge component of it is selling. So you're out there pitching the brand, you're selling it. You're doing your sales pitch to all these companies, trying to convince them to sign a license with you and basically give you money to put your IP onto their products and sell into retail. But then we have a lot of companies that see the value in the Postal Service brand and have seen some of the really cool collaborations we have done. And they, they come to us directly, you know, they say, Hey, I saw what you did with Vans. And we're really interested in working with you. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

How many product launches and collaborations do you typically work on for one given year?

Amity Kirby:

Ooh, that's a good question. It depends. We have our existing program where we're constantly, you know, with apparel, like t-shirts, we're constantly doing new designs throughout the year. So the licensee can go pitch to apparel companies or to retailers. And in the mix of that, you know, right now we're probably doing an apparel collaboration, you know, once a year. But at this point probably for 2022, I can think of like four or five launches we have coming up, not just in apparel, but in other categories. 2021 was a really phenomenal year for the licensing program and for the organization. And we think we have some great stuff coming out in 2022 as well. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

We'll stay tuned.

Dale Parsan:

I'm excited to learn more about it. Clearly nowadays, where we have social media, smart phones… I'm seeing a lot of these kind of collaborations out there on social media. Before social media thing is how we've been doing this since the nineties. How, how did we go about getting, getting the word out about these collaborations, these potential products and, and license licensee opportunities.

Amity Kirby:

So there are trade shows across the country year round - different industries have trade shows. So you go and you attend those trade shows and have meetings. And then you work through the retailers and the licensees to get the word out. This is, you know, obviously before social media. So it was a lot of trade news. So press releases would go out or stories would go out through the trade, kind of letting people know what's going on. Plus retailers will promote a lot of products themselves.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Do you find that we do more licensing and branding efforts now because it's so much easier to reach a wider audience through social media?

Amity Kirby:

Yes. The industry has evolved tremendously over the last 20 years. Obviously social media and the internet and everything else has given everybody a platform and an opportunity to expand. It's definitely - to the questions you're asking - it's easier to promote and bring awareness and tell people, Hey, look at this, what we're doing, this is really cool! Versus, you know, 10 years ago, when you were relying on trade or word of mouth the internet and social media is beautiful for marketing your brand.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

And especially reaching the younger audiences. As you mentioned since so many of them interact primarily through the digital space. 

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely, yes.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So what makes a potential licensee a good personality match for the Postal Service?

Amity Kirby:

Well as I said before, we want we wanna be working with partners who are positive and put the Postal Service in a good light. Nobody controversial hopefully. We try and stay away from political stances or causes just given the nature of who we are. It's really about the brand. It's really about putting out our brand in new and different ways and surprising people.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So do you have any example of anything recently that really stands out to you as something that might be a little bit unexpected, but turned out to be a good fit for us?

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely. I'll start with the 2019 collaboration we did with Forever 21. That was something, as I said, that caught everybody completely off guard.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I remember that! I was shocked in a great way. It was so, like I said, unexpected, but it felt really fresh that you have this young hip brand working with the Postal Service.

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely. I'm not gonna lie... It is a hard sell to sell a brand like this if you're not, you know, a character licensor. Character and entertainment pretty much drives the licensing industry right now. So at that time when we were talking to Forever 21 and we decided to go ahead with that collaboration, we felt it was a tremendous opportunity to do something completely different - show people that you can do fun and clever and creative things with us, and that were open to that. And then it was just completely unexpected. And when it launched, it was absolutely amazing.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Did you see a lot of success from that particular collaboration?

Amity Kirby:

It was tremendously successful.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I can imagine that it takes a long time to go from just starting with an idea of a brand you wanna collaborate with to having a final product available for sale. Can you give us a sense of what that timeline looks like?

Amity Kirby:

Yes. From the time that you meet and start having discussions and then hopefully sign an agreement and then get to market can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Wow, that's quite a long time. So you're working on things now that we'll see next year.

Amity Kirby:

Yes. And things that come out this year were probably started a year ago. And you're talking, it's not just one thing, like as you're doing a Forever 21 collaboration, you're also doing these other projects. So it's a lot of moving parts.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Can you tell us about some of the most exciting campaigns that are happening now or coming up?

Amity Kirby:

Well, we just launched Vans, the Vans-USPS collection, which is still currently going on very successful. A lot of social media buzz, a lot of media buzz. The high top sneaker sold out within hours on the first day.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Dale, you missed your chance, I think!

Amity Kirby:

They've been replenishing. We were very lucky to get that collection out due to supply chain issues. But you know, obviously Forever 21 kind of kicked everything off for the program for the modern program. And we've kind of just been building on that. Vans obviously was another good apparel collection that we're doing. We do have some fun things coming up on the horizon for 2022. We have another collaboration that we can't talk about now, but is coming. And we'll let everybody know when we're allowed to talk about that, but we have some other areas that we're getting into for the program, for the Postal Service. Toys and games. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Things for kids. Yeah. That really younger audience, as you mentioned.

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely. Those are, that's the audience you kind of wanna get. Now you wanna get them when they're young and hopefully they stay with you through their life. One of the exciting, most exciting things we we've done recently is the Kid Trax ride on, which is a mini mail truck that kids can get in and ride. So it looks, you look like you're driving your mail truck down the street. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

That is so cute. What about the uniform? Do you have little mini children uniform? 

Amity Kirby:

We do. We have a kids Halloween costume that they can wear year round. And we also have a dog costume.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

My friend has the dog costume and it's adorable because it looks like the dog is carrying a little package, a little priority mail package. It’s great. 

Dale Parsan:

So as stamps are released, they get grabbed up by collectors and get displayed really nicely. And what caught me off guard was starting to see this for stamps for pieces of art in the NFT space. I feel like we recently launched into this. I was hoping you could tell us a little bit more about that collaboration.

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely. The NFT market has really exploded and is very, very popular. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Can you explain what an NFT is, Amity?

Amity Kirby:

Yep. It is a non fungible token. It took me about six months to figure it out cause I'm old. It's basically a way of collecting in the digital world. It's not a physical collecting, you know, stamps have always been a physical collecting item, you know, buy the stamp, you display it, as you said, and you put it in your collection. This is a way for people to collect digital stamp art. It's not a stamp, it's the art. And it's put into this NFT platform format and, you know, we were just like, let's go for it. Worst case scenario, we put it out and nobody buys it. And it's just terrible. And everybody's like, what the heck are you doing? But we put it out. And our first stamp were the four digital images of day of the dead. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Those are pretty stamps.

Amity Kirby:

They're very pretty. And they sold out in 0.3 of a second.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Yeah, Dale, you tried to get them didn’t you?

Dale Parsan:

Selfishly I did. And I failed. 

Amity Kirby:

I did as well. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

You gotta have that fast internet connection.

Dale Parsan:

Oh my gosh. And I, I believe we have a second series that came out as well. 

Amity Kirby:

We did, we launched A Visit from St. Nick on Christmas Eve. 

Dale Parsan:

So as we're talking about these different groups that we can collaborate with and the challenges that it Postal Service has in trying to get attention on our intellectual property as compared to characters, there's a character that comes to mind: Mr. Zip, a beloved character for the Postal Service. Do we have any plans for old Mr. Zip?

Amity Kirby:

Yes. We love Mr. Zip. Mr. Zip has a special place in many people's hearts. He was a character that was introduced, I believe in 1963 to introduce the American public, to the zip code that the Postal Service had just implemented. And it was a way to educate the public on what it was, how to use it in a fun manner. So he will turn 60 years old in 2023. And we have decided to give Mr. Zip a little bit of a facelift to kind of refresh him and make him a little more youthful and more fun because our goal for him is going to be education, STEM, all kinds of things for kids. So it can be anything from talking about sustainability to geography, how to write a letter, how to move it, you know, traditional postal type programs, but also encompassing other areas… Our stamp program, for instance, is a huge educational piece that we can leverage with Mr. Zip, that he can go out and teach kids about the different subjects that we have done on stamps and why we did them and why they're important to American history. So we're just getting rolling and we have very lofty plans for the new Mr. Zip. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

That's great because you mentioned earlier so much of branding is character driven with a lot of other companies. So I think it's great that we're bringing back one of our more iconic characters as some of our listeners may remember from one of our earlier episodes where we talked about Mr. Zip, Mrs. Zip and his introduction to the American public. So it'll be great to see him again.

Amity Kirby:

Yes, we're, we're really excited for him and we're excited to introduce him to younger audiences. And we also gave him a sidekick - it's Sonic the Eagle. He's a cute little Eagle that will help him in his adventures.

Dale Parsan:

I have a very big smile on my face right now. 

Amity Kirby: 

I know you do. I can see it. Your eyes are huge.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So speaking of vintage imagery from the Postal Service, I've noticed that most of the collaborations that I see it's using our older logo, it's not our current blue and white logo with the Eagle. Can you talk a little bit about why that is?

Amity Kirby:

Much of licensing over the last 20 years has been very rooted in, in vintage. Vintage brands are very popular. It's a trend that has stayed around for a while. So that previous logo, the Loewy, which is the standing Eagle, says US Mail with the stars around it. That is a very, a popular logo. And we have a lot more leeway with that logo because it's not our official logo anymore, so we can distress him. We can, we can do different elements of design with him. And people love that logo. They love the vintage. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

And does it have to do with, I think you mentioned earlier about protecting our trademarks? So is it the case where we just have to kind of use it to show that we still use it?

Amity Kirby:

Absolutely. So we, we carry it on our, some of our envelopes and packaging to show use. It's not our official logo anymore, but if we were to completely stop using it and it went dormant there are copyright and trademark issues where somebody else could come in and take up that, that mark, because they think it's dormant. It hasn't been used. So licensing is a good driver for this organization and for the legal department to protect these old logos and these old marks because we're using them in new and different ways, but we're showing use, therefore they're protected.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

That's interesting. I never would've thought about that. Have you seen any companies use the Postal Service intellectual property without permission?

Amity Kirby:

Oh, yes. Yes.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

And what happens in those cases?

Amity Kirby:

There's, there's different things that can happen. Most of the cases are not really public facing, you know, most people wouldn't know about it. We work with our legal department and we will send out cease and desist letters to let them know, Hey, you're using our, our intellectual property without permission. Maybe you didn't know that, you know, a lot of people think that because we're the federal government that they can just use our marks, but that's not true. We did this past fall have a very public issue of an somebody using our marks without our permission. Many in the public saw this happen. It was on a piece of apparel. And in that case, we reached out to the company directly to say, Hey, what's going on? Can we talk about this? You know, you didn't get our permission. And the Postal Service did a really good job putting out messaging. And as long as I've worked here, we haven't really addressed things of that nature. And we put out some really nice messaging on our website saying that we are serious about our brand. We protect our trademarks and we will do everything to protect that. And that was a nice support from the organization to show people that you can't use our marks without our permission. You have to come get permission from us. We do hold copyright. We do hold trademark and you need our permission to use our marks commercially. So in the end things worked out for both entities, but it was a really good example of what not to do in the licensing world. Because, you know, in that case, we could have done something bigger. We could have done a big program and it could have been very successful for both entities.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I can also imagine that something like that being just sort of announced on a piece of apparel could impact any other collaboration that you might have that are sort of in that same space.

Amity Kirby:

You're absolutely right. When entities do that, you know, nobody knows what we're doing behind the scenes. You know, some of these collaborations, as I said, they take 12 to 18 months. I mean, you're talking, you know, a year before the public even knows about it. And before we are allowed to publicly tell you, Hey, we just launched with Vans. Isn't that cool? We had to keep that quiet for a year and it was really hard. And you know, it, these decisions that companies make can have impacts on other projects. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

You talked a lot about the benefits to the Postal Service of doing these collaborations, but what are some of the risks?

Amity Kirby:

Probably one of the biggest ones is if you put the product out and it doesn't sell well, it kind of falls flat, and the public isn't really into it. That's probably the biggest one. We're very cognizant and careful about who we work with and making sure that the messaging is on brand so that we don't go in… We don't get into situations where we could be in trouble. You know, one of our, one of our standard issues is we're not gonna do anything that could put the Postal Service at risk in any capacity. So really we are looking for these kind of innocuous, fun collaborations that put the brand out in fun ways, and don't really put us at risk for anything.

Dale Parsan:

Makes complete sense.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So am I think throughout this conversation, we've really established that there is a value in our brand that people are interested in it. But we also do wanna put, protect our brand, as you mentioned. So if there's a company that wants to work with the Postal Service on a potential collaboration, how do they go about it?

Amity Kirby:

There's a couple different ways that they can reach out to the licensing team. We do have an agency Global Icons as our licensing agency and are kind of the front end. You know, these, these licensees or potential licensees and companies can reach out to Global Icons to start the conversation. We have a page on usps.com that talks about the licensing program and how you can reach out you know, kind of show cases, what we do, some of the collections we've done. And if you wanna work with us, you can reach out. Really it's about making contact. In this day and age, you know, you'll get emails from LinkedIn people wanting to connect asking like, Hey, I saw you post about this. We'd love to do something with you. Trade shows. Every year the licensing industry has a huge trade show in Vegas, the Licensing Expo. So we'll set up meetings with companies out there or companies will set up meetings with us. So a couple different avenues really. It's just about, you know, making those connections either through our licensing agency coming to the Postal Service website in checking on the licensing page and reaching out directly to us to get that conversation going.

Dale Parsan:

Amity, thank you so much for, for joining us today. It's been very enlightening to hear all of the exciting opportunities and collaborations that we have ahead of us.

Amity Kirby:

Yeah. Thank you for having me and giving me a chance to talk about the licensing program. It's really an exciting part of the Postal Service and we hope everybody is excited about it.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

What's the best way for our listeners to find out about new collaborations once they're announced?

Amity Kirby:

Social media, we have a really good partnership with the social media team. They've been very supportive of putting out new launches. Check out our retail. We carry a lot of license product on postal store. Just keep an eye out. Thank you.

Dale Parsan:

Okay. Everyone it's time for Did You Know. In this segment, Yasin and I each share a fun historical or cultural fact about the Postal Service.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

As you know, it's a chance for us to shed some light on parts of the Postal Service and its history that most people have probably never heard of. Dale, why don't you go first this time?

Dale Parsan:

With pleasure. Yazmine, did you know the Postal Service pays a contractor to deliver mail to passing ships on the Detroit River? 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Well, I know that legally the Postal Service must deliver mail to all Americans

Dale Parsan:

That's right. And that includes Americans who spend months at a time aboard ships, traveling the Great Lakes. The Postal Service meets our delivery commitment on the Detroit River using the JW Westcott II, America's only floating post office. The 45 foot boat has been delivering mail to boats and ships near the ambassador bridge in Detroit since 1949. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Does that work?

Dale Parsan: 

The JW Westcott II pulls alongside larger vessel, which lowers down a bucket on a rope. The crew then attach a bag of letters and packages to that rope that can be pulled back up. It's a process known as “mail in the pail.” The Mail Boat kind of looks like a tugboat with thick tires, hung from its sides to protect it when it makes contact with larger ships. 

Yasmine DiGiulio:

That sounds dangerous.

Dale Parsan:

It can be. Unfortunately in 2001, the boat capsized, when it was caught in the wake of an oil tanker. Fortunately there haven't been any other accidents since that. And the company that owns the boat has a long history. Captain. John W. Westcott created the Westcott company in 1874 to ferry supplies and later mail to passing and waiting ships in the Detroit River using rowboats.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Please tell me they've upgraded since then.

Dale Parsan:

Of course. Today the company uses a diesel engine to power its boat. Anyone trying to reach a sailor traveling the Detroit River can do so by writing the name of the ship they're trying to reach, followed by Marine Post Office, Detroit, Michigan 48222. That particular zip code is dedicated specifically to the Mail Boat for the delivery of mail to passing ships.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

That was a really good one Dale. I'm actually gonna stick with our nautical theme today. So did you know houses on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin have their mail delivered by mail jumpers?

Dale Parsan:

Wait… Mail jumpers?

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Every summer from June 15th to September 15th, six jumpers are hired by the mail contractor. They're usually teens looking for a summer job. The mail jumping service apparently began in 1916, but the first female jumper wasn't hired until 1974. To do their job, jumpers literally leap off a slow moving boat onto a dock. They then sprint to the mailbox there where they deposit incoming mail and take out any outgoing mail. The last part of their job requires them to leap back onto the boat without missing a beat,

Dale Parsan:

I'm exhausted just thinking about it. How fast is the boat going?

Yasmine DiGiulio:

The double-decker boat, which is large enough to seat about 150 passengers travels at about five miles per hour. So the jumper's day begins at the post office at 7:00 AM. That's when they arrive to pick up the mail. From there, they sort it into slots on the boat's front cabin and prepare for launch. Delivery starts at 10:00 AM. The whole route takes about two and a half hours to complete. And each jumper makes up to 75 jumps a day. In between the jumps, the jumpers narrate the lake tour for passengers who are mostly tourists who pay to take the mail boat tour. 

Dale Parsan:

Hopefully the people on Lake Geneva don't get a lot of heavy deliveries.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Apparently the largest item ever delivered was a flat screen TV. Can you imagine jumping from a boat to a dock with that?

Dale Parsan:

Yeah, that sounds like a story for another time.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

So Dale, who do you think wins? Today's did you know? 

Dale Parsan:

I’ll be honest. Male jumpers sound pretty cool.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

I would love to see them in action. 

So, Dale, what did you think about our conversation with Amity?

Dale Parsan:

I thought it was incredibly informative. I'm really excited to hear more about our, our future collaborations and selfishly, I wanna hear more about Sonic the Eagle.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

Are you gonna get any apparel with Sonic the Eagle on it? If it comes out? 

Dale Parsan:

You know I will. 

Yasmine DiGiulio: 

I'm excited to see Mr. Zip make an appearance again. 

Dale Parsan: 

Maybe even Mrs. Zip? 

Yasmine Digiulio: 

He's an iconic character. As you remember from one of our earlier episodes. Overall, it was really great to hear Amity show us that behind the scenes look as to how these product collaborations come into play.

Dale Parsan:

Absolutely, it's a part of the Postal Service that I truly didn't have much insight into.

Yasmine DiGiulio:

With that. We'll wrap it up for today. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode, and follow along on Instagram @US Postal Service, Twitter @USPS, and on Facebook for updates on our upcoming collaborations.