Time warp back to that young child we all picture in fading colour images, waiting anxiously for the neighbourhood mailman to drop his deliveries into our mailbox. Be it the x-ray specs we ordered from a comic book or an unsolicited flyer from the local pizzeria, there was a tangible connection to the outside world that only mail could bring. We couldn’t hold the images on television. We couldn’t embrace a voice on the phone. But that treasured piece of mail…that we could take anywhere and keep until it faded and yellowed.

Fast forward to the computer or mobile device on which you’re now reading this. You spend your day at your desk reading and answering that communications marvel known as email, the nemesis of your smiling postman. But as wonderful as email is, you still can’t hold it. You can’t embrace it. It stares at you lifelessly, an artificial collection of words and images comprised of cold, uncaring bytes.

But then a sound reaches your ears, bringing a nostalgic sense of anticipation and excitement. It’s the squeaking wheel of the mail cart. Our letterbox suddenly becomes an empty Christmas stocking hoping to be filled with colourful surprises. And our disappointment at not receiving a letter parallels that of that same empty stocking. But if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to tear open a fresh piece of mail to excitedly study the contents awaiting us inside.

But is our love of mail just pure nostalgia for a simpler time?  Or is direct mail still a viable marketing media? According to Canada Post, direct mail is far from dead and they have the statistics to support it. They conducted a survey that reported Addressed Direct Mail as the most attention-grabbing type of advertising by Canadians, beating out television and online ads and telephone solicitation.

This fact is especially important for fundraisers. Cornerstone’s Global File Audit shows that only 15% of 2007 donation revenue was generated by means other than Direct Mail.

Even in this digitized age Canadians still take the initiative to check their mailboxes daily but block out some of the more impersonal and intrusive types of marketing.

There’s a unique covenant that exists between us and Canada Post: no one but the bearer’s name can view the contents. Someone else in your household may open an email providing they can access the account. No one’s name is on it, after all. But the mail that bears our name is our own, and creates an invisible barrier that few snoops dare breach. Fewer things are more personal in this digital, all-access world. And they provide an important link to a lost but cherished time in our lives: a time when x-ray specs were as technologically advanced as we could imagine.

Direct mail will only die if we stop imagining.

Richard Todd, Account Supervisor – List Management