Imprint Indicia Advertising?

I can't believe how cold it has gotten over the past few days! Hope everyone is staying bundled up.

In the most recent MailPro magazine, there was an interesting article that caught everyone's attention at DMI, titled "Pilot makes perfect: USPS test indicia concept."

This article talked about a new initiative called Picture Perfect Imprint Indicia. This allows businesses to advertise on the imprint of the outer envelope as displayed in the sample picture below:

"Chrysler's test already has been used on an estimated 1 million mailpieces. Now USPS is interested in marketing this new enhancement to other current and potential permit holders as a way to add value to the mail and generate incremental revnue."





The USPS hopes this will appeal to businesses because it will "attract more attention and potentially improve the reading rate of their mailpieces."

I think this type of marketing has a lot of potential and can make direct mail much more personable.

What are your thoughts on this? Would a graphic on the indicia give you more of an incentive to open the mailpiece?

--L