Four Screens Media

We’re big fans of combining online and offline marketing tools to truly engage consumers.  So Hippost got our attention with the idea of putting ads on real post cards you send to friends.  It’s a great idea for delivering marketing messages to an engaged consumer but with several core challenges.

Will people use an online service to send postcards to their friends?

If the marketing is done right, they will.  While I don’t have stats, anecdotally, I do find that people still prefer paper when it comes to receiving personal cards (nothing against Blue Mountaineers – I’m one of them).   Hippopost has gotten off to a good start with a Facebook app to make it easy to send to friends. (http://app.facebook.com/hippopost).

How will the ads appear on the postcard?  I can’t yet judge that as I have not received one.  I’ll update this post when I do.

There’s a great opportunity for people looking to deliver messages directly to consumers.  I love the idea of putting messages on a piece of paper where I know the chance is high the consumer will see it.  However, what will I know about that consumer? 

The bottom line is that it’s a very interesting concept that combines social networks (where people send cards to each other) with the benefits of offline marketing (people read their mail) and an engage audience (people read postcards closely).  There may be some challenges but we’ve written to get both a sample card and an ad kit and will update this review as we get more information.