Direct mail is one of the most powerful and trusted tools an advertiser can use to connect with the American public. But every year, thousands of marketing students graduate without ever learning how to use one of the most effective channels available to them. The irony is striking. Direct mail consistently delivers higher response rates than digital channels for many campaigns. Yet in most marketing programs, it barely appears in the curriculum. Students learn about social media analytics, email segmentation and conversion funnels — all valuable skills — but many graduate without understanding how to build an integrated campaign that combines physical mail with digital touchpoints. Direct Effect teaches students the fundamentals of direct mail, how to use it to influence consumer behaviors. Students learn about driving traffic to a retail location or a website as well as more complicated uses of mail in integrated marketing campaigns.

As part of its ongoing mission to ensure consumers are given a clear choice in how they receive essential information — on paper or digitally — and that they are not charged extra for paper bills and statements, Keep Me Posted (KMP) North America is investigating how large corporations are addressing consumer needs and expectations. Most recently, KMP looked at the billing practices of the top 10 Fortune 500 telecommunications companies to see how they align with KMP’s best practices for essential communications, which include: *No charges or other penalties for choosing paper bills *Prior consumer consent required before ceasing to send paper documents *No change in paper bill frequency without prior agreement *No difficulty to revert back to paper correspondence *Continued access to online options. The good news is that eight of America’s top 10 telecommunications conglomerates put their customers’ communication preferences first, do so without fees and make information on their practices easily accessible.

Canva's Executive Creative Director reflects on Day 4 at Cannes Lions, making the case that in a world where the tools keep changing, the brands that endure are the ones with the courage to be distinctive and the consistency to earn genuine trust over time. Four days on the Croisette, and one question I keep coming back to isn't about budgets, AI, or the next big thing. It’s a simple, yet surprisingly hard one: what makes people care now? I’ve had an unscientific but genuinely useful test for this, and it comes back to my mum. When our first Canva ad aired, I was at home in New Zealand watching it with her. Thirty seconds later, she turned to me and said, "that was so nice, dear - what was it about?" I'd failed the mum test. Canva is all about empowering everyone to design, so if my mum didn't walk away feeling like she could pick up the tools and create something herself, we hadn’t quite done our job. It's something I come back to often: the best ideas aren't judged by how clever they are, but by whether they resonate with the people they're made for. And in today's world, where attention is harder to earn than ever, that kind of genuine connection matters even more.