This week on Mailin' It, we’ll discuss how the Postal Service is gearing up for the holiday season. Join us as we'll dive into this year's holiday message, share tips for ensuring your mail arrives in time for the festivities, and explore all the exciting elements of the holiday campaign. Let's unwrap the season together!
Each year, we eagerly await the unveiling of the holiday stamps, posters, and heartwarming commercials, all designed to capture the spirit of the season. Here to give an exclusive look at how the Postal Service is gearing up for this year’s campaign is returning guest Sheila Holman, VP of Marketing. We'll dive into this year's holiday message, share tips for ensuring your mail arrives in time for the festivities, and explore all the exciting elements of the holiday campaign. The holiday season is just around the corner, and it's that magical time of year when the Postal Service takes center stage in connecting people and spreading holiday cheer.
Karla Kirby
Hello and welcome to Mailn’ It, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby.
Jonathan Castillo
And I'm Jonathan Castillo. Well, it's nearly that time of year again, the winter holidays, when so many people turn to the Postal Service to send and receive the cards and packages that help them connect and celebrate. That makes the holidays a special time of year for the Postal Service.
Karla Kirby
I know what you mean, Jonathan. One of the things I look forward to every year is the Postal Service's holiday marketing campaign. The stamps, the posters, the commercials. Every year we pick a different theme, and I think this year is pretty cool. Sheila Holman is here to tell us about how the Postal Service is gearing up for the holiday season.
We'll talk about this year's message and give you some tips for making sure your mail gets to where it's going in time for the holidays. Sheila is the Postal Service's VP of Marketing. And a returning guest of Mailin’ It. Welcome back, Sheila.
Sheila Holman
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Jonathan Castillo
Sheila, you and your team oversee, amongst other things, branding, USPS.com and marketing strategy for us. Let's get right into it. What does the Postal Service have on tap for this year's holiday campaign?
Sheila Holman
Yeah. So this year our campaign is called Built for the Holidays. And we've done something that's a little different to get our message across. We're using animation to tell our holiday story this year. You know, animation is something that lots of people associate with the holiday season. And that time of year, you think about animated movies and specials.
And for some of us, it also brings back good memories of some of those animated specials. We might remember when we were kids. But what makes our animation special is that we've actually created a world made entirely from Postal Service products.
Jonathan Castillo
Oh.
Karla Kirby
So that seems like a big challenge to break through and represent the Postal Service brand in a way that gets noticed. I like the idea of tapping into nostalgia for the campaign. But what do you mean? You created a world out of USPS products?
Sheila Holman
We have literally used USPS products in packaging such as Priority Mail, USPS Connect, and our newest product, USPS Ground Advantage to create a miniature world. And the video is completely handmade. There is no CGI. It's not just the structure of the buildings, but the figurines, and that are the people and the employees that are featured, the USPS employees.
We even have a small little postmaster general in there as well. And the analogy here is the craft and care that the people from the United States Postal Service take with your packages and mail, not just during the holidays, but every day of the year. It reflects the efforts of the men and women at the Postal Service who are building out the Delivering for America program.
Jonathan Castillo
That is so cool. Sheila. I remember, you know, last year's theme was Holiday Ready and I think the year before that was The Helpers. Why does the Postal Service do a special holiday marketing campaign every year?
Sheila Holman
So it's a reminder to everyone that the Postal Service is there for your shipping needs during the holiday season. Shipping is just something that's more top of mind. And let's face it, the Postal Service is also in a very competitive environment. Most people don't know this, but we don't take taxpayer dollars. We are self-sustaining, which is always challenging considering that we service 165 million addresses.
Karla Kirby
So, Sheila, where will people be able to see this new campaign?
Sheila Holman
It'll be shown on TV, streaming services and online. You'll see it on things like morning news, cable news, cable networks, and also some of the lifestyle cable nets. It's definitely a multichannel effort and it's the kind of campaign that we think we'll be able to build upon for next year's holiday season. So that was really the intention. And part of our goal was to develop an iconic approach that we can repeat every year at the holiday season.
And having this hand-crafted world is something that we hope that everyone starts to look forward to year after year from the Postal Service.
Karla Kirby
Are there any things that our viewers should be looking for when they see those commercials?
Sheila Holman
Yes, there are actually a few little Easter eggs in there. So as our vehicles are moving through the world, I would ask that people take a look at some of the billboards that they pass by and you might see some things there that you'll want to check out. I would also mention that when you're at one of the facilities, that's where you really want to slow down and you might get a glimpse of our postmaster general.
Karla Kirby
Sounds like we may have to watch the commercial. A couple of time.
Jonathan Castillo
I'm going to be pausing a lot.
Sheila Holman
Yes.
Jonathan Castillo
Sounds really good.
Sheila Holman
Definitely watch it several times. Yes.
Jonathan Castillo
You mentioned the delivery vehicles. Will they be a sighting of our new delivery vehicles?
Sheila Holman
Yes. Yes, there is. So all of our delivery vehicles, we have we have a few different vehicles that are featured, including our new NGDV, which is the next generation delivery vehicle, which will be rolling out later this year.
Jonathan Castillo
Very nice. I cannot wait to see this campaign. Now, another fun part of the holidays are the special stamps we create every year. I saw that this year's holiday stamps feature either woodland creatures or snow globes. Seems appropriate. What else can you tell us about them?
Sheila Holman
Yes, we actually as you said, we have two versions of our holiday stamps this year. And I was actually the USPS dedicating official for the snow globe stamp, which was very exciting. And we revealed the stamp in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado. And the Snow Globe stamp is a series of four artistic renderings of snow globes. They feature a snowman, Santa, a reindeer and a snow covered tree with ornaments.
And this artwork has a very much a warm holiday feeling. We also have a series of stamps called the Winter Woodland Animals. And this features four different animals that live in the woods of North America, including a deer, fox, rabbit and owl. And this artwork is a little bit different. It's a little bit more modern and abstract. And the animals are shown in their winter habitats.
So you'll see snow covered trees and holly branches with berries.
Karla Kirby
So beyond the animation and the new stamps, this year's holiday is important for the Postal Service because it gives us a chance to really test out a lot of the improvements we've made over the past year as part of our Delivering for America plan. Just to give an idea of the scale of our holiday traffic, in 2022 the Postal Service processed more than 11.7 billion mail pieces and packages during the holiday season.
You mentioned Delivering for America earlier. How does the DFA play into this year's holiday season?
Sheila Holman
So everything since the launch of DFA has been geared towards showing people that the Postal Service is undergoing big changes. We've made a lot of investments through DFA that are ultimately improving service things like investing in our plants and other facilities to build a more modern infrastructure and ensure reliable service. This year alone we've added hundreds of new package sorting machines and we've expanded our daily package processing capacity to about 70 million.
That's about 10 million more than last year's capacity. Another focus of the Delivering for America plan has been about stabilizing our workforce. We've converted more than 150,000 pre career workers into career positions, which basically means we're making them more full time USPS employees. As a result, we expect that we'll need to hire only an additional 10,000 seasonal employees.
So we're feeling really good about the Postal Service's direction. So our advertising touts the benefits of the improvements happening at the Postal Service, and we wanted a campaign that reflected these big changes. So we're looking at more creative ways of telling our story. And that's how we came up with Built for the Holidays.
Jonathan Castillo
Now that we've talked a little bit about what this holiday season means for the Postal Service, what do all these improvements look like for our customer?
Sheila Holman
So our goal is to make the Postal Service the most affordable way to mail and ship this holiday season. We've announced that we won't have a peak or demand surcharge this holiday season. We always provide simple upfront pricing and we don't charge extra for Saturday delivery or residential area delivery. People listening should also know that we've made available our 2023 holiday shipping and mailing deadlines for domestic, international and military shipping destinations to ensure that we allow for a timely delivery of cards, letters and packages by December 25th.
And all of this information can be found on USPS.com/holidaydeadlines.
Karla Kirby
So we've mentioned Ground Advantage a couple of times so far, and we've actually had some folks from the Ground Advantage team on with us previously. So it's good to hear about that again. It's still a pretty new service. Can you tell people what it is and what else we offer to help make shipping affordable and convenient this holiday season?
Sheila Holman
Yeah, this is the first holiday season for USPS Ground Advantage, which is a service that we introduced this summer. USPS Ground Advantage provides a simple, reliable and affordable way to ship packages. We expect within a 2 to 5 day business arrival window based on distance. Of course, we also offer our online platform, Click and Ship, which lets customers buy their shipping labels, order priority, mail, packaging and schedule free carrier pickup.
Customers using Click and Ship will also have access to commercial shipping rates that apply to all domestic package labels. And to take advantage of these rates, though, you'll just need to opt in and register to get that better pricing.
Jonathan Castillo
Sheila, before we let you go, we should mention Operation Santa, which will be in full swing again this year. Now, the Postal Service launched Operation Santa in 1912 to help children in need during the holidays. Kids can write a letter to Santa's requesting gifts and volunteers can go to USPS Operation Santa.com to choose one or more letters to respond to anything new to report about Operation Santa this year.
Sheila Holman
Yeah, we are already accepting letters also. All letters need to be postmarked by December 11th, so to participate, a child writes a letter to Santa's official workshop. The address being Santa Claus. 123 Elf Road North Pole. Eight, eight, eight, eight, eight. All of this information about the Operation Santa program is available, and USPS Operation Santa. Dot com.
Jonathan Castillo
There is also a one stop shop, the USPS holiday newsroom that has all this information kind of bundled together.
Sheila Holman
That is correct. Yes. You can go there and get all the information that you need.
Jonathan Castillo
Love it.
Sheila Holman
Sure. And I just also, since we're talking about websites, I want to give one other plug. So for all of your holiday gift giving needs, be sure to visit the postal store and you can go there at USPS.com/ Shop.
Jonathan Castillo
Love it.
Karla Kirby
Thank you for that, Sheila.
Jonathan Castillo
Thank you for that information. Sheila on Operation Santa. I did have a really quick question for you. Why the zip code? Eight, eight, eight, eight, eight?
Sheila Holman
Yes, this is a fun little Easter egg. So if you think about the shape of the number eight, it actually looks like a snowman. So when the children are addressing their letters, you can see it looks like five little snowmen all lined up together.
Jonathan Castillo
I did not know that. That is so interesting.
Karla Kirby
So, Sheila, are there any special tips that you think that our listeners should know when it comes to mailing outside of early and often?
Sheila Holman
I think early and often is probably the best tip. I mean, this is a time of year when it's there's so much going on, everyone is so busy. But the more you can do early and often when it comes to shipping, you just want to do that to ensure that everything gets to where it needs to go in at the right time.
Karla Kirby
So I think with everything that you've shared with us today, Sheila, we are clearly built for the holidays. Jonathan, what would you say?
Jonathan Castillo
Oh, 100%. All the advancements, all of the improvements that we've made. I mean, Sheila, how do you feel about how we're built for the holidays this year?
Sheila Holman
Yeah, I think we are built very well for the holidays with all of the increased capacity that we've added to our system. We are ready and we will be delivering on time, as always.
Karla Kirby
Well, thank you, Sheila, for stopping back in. We always think it's good to have you, especially around the holiday season.
Jonathan Castillo
So excited to hear about all these, you know, great initiatives and all the exciting campaign that's going to be coming live very soon. So thank you so much for joining us in studio, Sheila. It has been a pleasure speaking with you.
Sheila Holman
Great. Thank you for having me. I always look forward to this.
Karla Kirby
Now, as always, it's time for our Did You Know segment where we discuss some little known facts about the Postal Service. Jonathan, you want to get us started?
Jonathan Castillo
Sure thing. Karla, did you know that a post office in New Hampshire has operated in the same building since 1816?
Karla Kirby
Wow. I did not know that. I bet the place has seen a lot of history. Where exactly is it located?
Jonathan Castillo
In Hinsdale, New Hampshire. A town of around 4000 people currently. Originally, the post office shared a space with the general store and eventually with a barbershop and a telephone operator. At some point, it took over the entire ground floor and is now the only business in the building. When the neighboring town hall burned down in the early 20th century, the fire, thankfully didn't spread to the post office, leaving it as one of the few remaining original structures in Hinsdale.
I hear the building still has some of its old fashioned charm too, including hundreds of combination like mailboxes from the early 1900s lining the walls.
Karla Kirby
Definitely sounds like a blast from the past. Okay, well, it's my turn. Did you know that the Postal Service played an important role in raising the country's literacy rate in the 1800s?
Jonathan Castillo
Really? How so?
Karla Kirby
Under the Post Office Act of 1792, which we've discussed before, newspapers were allowed to be mailed at very low rates. Our democracy was still fairly young, and at that point newspapers were considered critical for educating voters. Subscribers would pay one penny for delivery if they lived within 100 miles of the newspaper. And a penny and a half if they live further.
Karla Kirby
In contrast, postage for letters cost between six and $0.25, depending on the distance. President George Washington, who advocated for newspapers to travel for free, urged Congress to reduce the one and a half cent rate. As a result, Congress lowered the rate for instant newspapers to $0.01 in 1794.
Jonathan Castillo
So I assume with cheaper rates came higher readership.
Karla Kirby
So yes, for what it's worth, in 1840, 91% of white American adults reported being able to read. According to the census that year. It's thought that the widespread availability of newspapers was a big part of that literacy push.
Jonathan Castillo
That's really interesting. Thanks for digging that one up. And that concludes this episode of Did You Know.
Karla Kirby
Well, Jonathan, of course, another great episode. We are built for the holidays and ready to just take on the packages, the season and mailings. One of the things that I think stood out for me is there's no surcharge on our mailing like some of our other competitors may have no surcharge for holiday mailing. You can go right into a retail store.
You can even order supplies and shipping things that you need for shipping on USPS.com. We can't make it more convenient than that.
Jonathan Castillo
I absolutely agree, Karla. For me, it was learning about the key investments ahead of the holidays that the Postal Service has made and also the holiday campaign this year using, you know, building on all of our successes as the basis for our, you know, campaign and you know what's going on with that. I am so excited for the holiday season this year.
Karla Kirby
Exactly where I have to get out and get some of those stamps to.
Jonathan Castillo
Winter woodland animals and…
Karla Kirby
Snow globes.
Jonathan Castillo
Love it.
Karla Kirby
Thank you for joining us. That wraps up this episode of Mailin’ It. Don't forget to subscribe to mailing it wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss any episodes and follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, X - formerly known as Twitter, @USPS and on Facebook