Why Varga Media Solutions Went Postal

Oct. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- LAKE FOREST, California (October 14, 2010) – Varga Media Solutions, Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of door hanger advertising, announced the introduction of a new targeting method which will increase the effectiveness of targeted front-door marketing campaigns. Under this new method, campaigns executed by Varga are built utilizing United States Postal Service geographies, rather than the Census Bureau geographies currently being used throughout the door hanger industry.

The change came as a result of Varga adding Catherine Lovell to their team as head of the Targeting Department.  Lovell, a 21 year veteran of the direct mail business, was adamant she not be forced to use Census geographies.

“In order to ensure freshness and accuracy of targeting data, advertisers must be free to make use of data from many different sources. Using Census geographies severely limits your options and you lose precision in the process,” commented Lovell.  “The highest quality targeting data available today is designed for direct mailers. As a result, major compilers for the data have developed their output to conform to USPS formats for ease of use and most do not support or output to Census Bureau geographies.”

Casey Conlan, Director of Sales at Varga, surprised at what he had learned from Lovell began to investigate further.  After interviewing several front-door marketing industry executives he arrived at a realization. “We found that the reason they opted for Census Bureau geographies was because they felt that the data they were procuring was accurate enough - and more importantly the shapes of the Census boundaries were easier to navigate in the field by door-to-door walkers,” said Conlan. “They were right about one thing:  Census geographies are easy to navigate - what they didn’t realize is that the accuracy of the data is not very good at all.”

In 2010 the Census Bureau sent out surveys by mail to households in order to generate their base counts for the next decade. These counts rely upon each household accurately filling out a data questionnaire and mailing it back to be compiled. Over the next ten years the Census Bureau will use modeling techniques to “estimate” changes in household base counts based on these initial surveys. As a result, compilers who utilize Census data as primary sources for their information are at a disadvantage from the get go.

Conversely, the postal service updates their household counts six times a year based on information gathered by their carriers and the targeting information available from the major compilers who “verify” their information, update as often as every 4 weeks.

“Household counts determine the cost of a door hanger campaign and targeting precision greatly affects a clients’ return on investment,” said Conlan. “As such, we feel strongly that Census “estimates” should never play a part in that equation. They can artificially inflate or deflate the proposed number of households in an area and because we are fanatical about getting our counts as accurate as possible we found yet another reason to opt for the harder to deliver yet highly precise Postal geographies.”

About Varga
Varga Media Solutions, Inc. is a full-service turnkey provider of targeted front-door marketing campaigns, providing high quality print, state-of-the-art targeting, national distribution and post campaign analysis. Covering all aspects of the campaign from start to finish, Varga can offer the accountability required at a lower per piece price than outsourcing each component individually. Time to market for delivery of door hangers is as fast as 7-10 days after artwork approval and comes at a fraction of the price of competing media like direct mail. Varga’s professional high-end door hangers will demand the attention of a targeted consumer better than traditional press or television advertising. They are removed from the door and require the prospective customer to become actively involved with the message giving it higher probability of being assimilated. For more information, visit www.vargainc.com. To learn more about advertising opportunities with Varga Media Solutions, please call 949-768-1500.

Media Contact:
Kendall DeWitt
kdewitt@vargainc.com
(949) 768-1500

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Varga Media Solutions, Inc. is a full-service turnkey provider of targeted front-door marketing campaigns, providing high quality print, state-of-the-art targeting, national distribution and post campaign analysis.