The Postal Service recently announced a “proposed” rate increase effective 1/2/11. These “proposed” rates will be under a Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) review process for 90 days. That period will end on October 4th. At that time “final” rates will be announced which may or may not differ from those proposed.

The Postal Service has decided to liberalize the "ride-along" rules that have prevented product samples and certain other advertising gimmicks from running in U.S. magazines, sources said today.

The U.S. Postal Service Tuesday proposed a number of changes to keep it operational over the next 10 years including a “modest” but unspecified exigent rate increase in 2011 and cutting out Saturday mail delivery.

If you mail booklets or flats, the U.S. Postal Service has a new requirement.

Meredith Corp. has acquired mobile hotshop the Hyperfactory after taking an initial stake in the agency responsible for the much-loved Kraft iFood Assistant app one year ago. Since the agency’s opening in 2001 by two brothers in New Zealand, Hyperfactory remains one of the most-distinguished mobile creative agencies to date, having worked with Coca-Cola, L’Oreal and, of course Kraft on its first iPad app . From those beginnings, it’s grown to an operation of more than 100 people with offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.

Custom USB keys are a great new marketing tool that allows companies to supply consumers with custom information they can plug right into their computers. Not only can the information on each individual key be customized towards a specific customer, it can also be trackable.

Still a new marketing phenomenon, QR codes are 2D barcodes that consumers can scan into their mobile devices. QR codes can be generated online, for anything from a corporate website, to an electronic business card that lets users automatically enter contact information into their address books.

People all over the world at the moment are saying SMS Text Message Advertising is a new kid on the block, however, a little unknown fact is that SMS Text Message Marketing first came on the scene ten years ago in the year 2000, when a free daily newspaper headline service in Finland sent by SMS text messaging and was sponsored by advertising.