Brad Kugler is called “The Come-Back Kid of Omnichannel Marketing” on The Florida Business Forum Podcast with host Sam Yates! It’s not your grandfather’s direct mail.
Brad recently sat down with veteran broadcast journalist and The Florida Business Forum Podcast host Sam Yates to reveal some of the backstory facts about DirectMail2.0 and some of the secrets yet to be offered through an amazing use of artificial intelligence.
With the nation’s political arena’s starting to heat up, the nation likely has its eyes on and wallets ready for what DirectMail2.0 has in store.
Transcript below:
0:06
and welcome to another informative
0:09
episode of the Florida business Forum
0:11
podcast let’s open the Florida business
0:14
Forum floodgates and let the information
0:16
begin to flow here’s your Florida
0:19
business Forum information Guru and
0:21
Anchorman Sam Yates
0:24
hello everyone and welcome to the
0:26
Florida business Forum podcast the
0:29
information floodgates are open and
0:30
today that information is Flowing Fast
0:34
and Furious and I’m going to tease a
0:36
little bit here at the very beginning
0:37
and say it is piling up that we are
0:41
going to have so much data that we won’t
0:43
know what to do with it but our guest
0:45
today has a solution that is absolutely
0:49
amazing Brad Kugler is the CEO
0:52
co-founder of direct mail 2.0 and Brad
0:57
you’re over on the west coast of Florida
0:59
I’m on the east coast of Florida we have
1:01
bridged the Gap welcome to the program
1:04
today thank you for having me Sam
1:06
pleasure to be here and uh I love
1:08
talking about marketing and data and
1:10
technology so have at it Well you
1:13
certainly have the background and I
1:16
always have our guests start with
1:18
telling us a little bit about themselves
1:20
tell us about yourself I know a bit
1:22
about your background but uh you have a
1:26
very interesting background with uh your
1:29
your colleges and then starting business
1:31
because you really just wanted to get
1:34
out
1:34
well to Short Circuit that my my father
1:37
had told me after two three years of
1:40
college he said you know what
1:41
I don’t need to pay for you to chase
1:44
girls and drink beer and do all this you
1:46
know if you want to do something with
1:48
your life uh you can you can do it now
1:51
or you can pay for your own school and
1:53
honestly I was like listen I he’s sort
1:55
of right in one sense
1:57
um I wanted to get out there and work I
1:59
was kind of tired after what 17 years of
2:02
formal schooling to continue and I was
2:05
one of those guys that dropped out of
2:06
college who was ready to hit the work a
2:08
day world and from there I actually went
2:11
to work for my dad in a company he had
2:15
purchased that was doing a lot of uh
2:18
opening of video stores in the day
2:20
remember Blockbusters were in every
2:22
corner so the the company was buying
2:26
inventories uh from one video store and
2:29
selling them to another and uh
2:32
proliferating this new technology of VHS
2:35
in the day so hence fast forward a few
2:38
years when business started to slow down
2:40
and the rise of the internet came I had
2:44
an idea along with many other people
2:46
what if I can sell these VHS and at that
2:49
point DVDs and CDs online and I started
2:53
selling them online in 1980 I’m sorry
2:57
1997 which was very early in the world
3:00
and I started selling on on Amazon on
3:04
eBay I got to to meet um Mr Jeff Bezos a
3:08
couple times being one of the top
3:09
sellers of DVD but to to kind of bring
3:12
us closer to present time that industry
3:15
evaporated as we all know into the world
3:18
of streaming and I made money attempts
3:21
to try to get into streaming but without
3:24
a pocketbook with at least eight maybe
3:27
nine figures it wasn’t a party I was
3:30
able to come and play at it just I I
3:32
realized that I can’t compete with the
3:35
likes of Disney and the big studio so uh
3:38
I resorted to selling more things online
3:41
I learned how to Market online and this
3:45
opportunity that I’m in now Direct Mail
3:47
2.0 was presented to me by a family
3:51
friend and said Hey listen you’re a
3:52
pretty tech savvy guy who knows how to
3:55
Market we have this fledgling technology
3:58
that assists people or printers doing
4:02
direct mail to get a higher response
4:05
rate using digital marketing I said
4:07
let’s talk we made a deal I spun this
4:11
company out into its own sort of going
4:14
concern from a printing company
4:16
uh that that young lady who is my
4:20
partner in this business she afforded me
4:23
the opportunity to take this technology
4:25
and run in and basically in a in a
4:28
nutshell before I turn it back over to
4:30
you is that
4:32
the value proposition here is
4:35
if I could get you a 50 lift in the
4:38
response rate on your direct mail for
4:41
about five to ten cents per piece does
4:44
that sound like a viable option and and
4:46
the answer is almost a no-brainer it’s
4:48
yes so we’ve we’ve put technology
4:51
together that lifts Direct Mail we’ve
4:53
gone well beyond that so let me give it
4:55
back to you to ask a few questions here
4:58
I you know I wanted to know also a
4:59
little bit about your involvement there
5:01
in the community which fascinated me
5:03
because being a Florida native I know
5:05
about the various film festivals and
5:07
your name came up uh when I was talking
5:10
to folks and it’s like oh yeah he’s with
5:11
the film festival there in in Sarasota
5:14
so uh how did you become involved in
5:16
that
5:16
so I I took a deep interest in
5:18
photography for many years and I was
5:21
sort of establishing my uh
5:24
Acumen as being a semi-professional
5:26
photographer I had gone to Haiti when
5:31
that large earthquake was in 2010 uh the
5:34
Katrina earthquake so I had done some
5:36
documentarian stuff and one of the local
5:38
Film Festival guys had asked if I’d like
5:41
to get involved they’d seen my work and
5:44
and they’d seen that I’d gone all over
5:46
the world and they asked me to be the
5:48
the one of the media directors of the
5:50
film festival which I I participated in
5:53
for about seven or eight years in
5:55
addition to that I’m involved with the
5:57
Pinellas Education Foundation and uh I
6:01
was asked to sort of lend some of my
6:03
entrepreneurial skills and experience to
6:06
helping the local public schools develop
6:09
certification and
6:12
um career technology training programs
6:15
within the high schools so those are two
6:17
things I’ve been involved with for well
6:18
over a dozen years and you know my
6:22
personal thing is to it’s not what you
6:25
can take but it’s what you can give back
6:27
from your experiences you know and again
6:30
I haven’t become any billionaire where I
6:32
can sit around and just Dole out money I
6:34
I give back through my time and my
6:36
expertise you know I also judge the next
6:39
Generation on entrepreneur system for
6:41
Pinellas County Schools and and again in
6:45
the end I like to help others with the
6:47
experience I’ve I’ve garnered over the
6:48
decades now
6:50
good for you you know I on a personal
6:52
level as a business owner I think that
6:56
if we can guide our businesses to some
6:58
level of success so that we can do just
7:01
what you are doing we do make the world
7:03
a better place and you know that um
7:06
that’s awesome I really you know want to
7:08
say thank you for doing that and uh the
7:11
Next Generation you know that is always
7:13
the biggest challenge for any of us I I
7:16
look at my own business ventures and how
7:19
I have a lot of Pride when I look at
7:22
some of my employees that were like
7:24
little ducklings they were there they
7:27
achieved and they went on and I’m
7:28
looking at them now going wow you know I
7:31
I really hopefully made a difference and
7:33
once in a while you’ll hear back from
7:35
one of them it’s like Sam thank you very
7:38
much I became a leader because of at
7:41
least one little thing that you imparted
7:43
upon me so good for you I appreciate
7:45
that thank you thank you when it comes
7:49
to direct mail everybody has that one uh
7:53
Vision in their head of opening the
7:55
mailbox and it’s a lot of junk mail that
7:58
is not what Direct Mail is all about
8:01
today but it’s Incorporated it’s I
8:04
certainly believe that uh direct mail
8:07
that which we pick up and can feel and
8:11
read is important and I for a number of
8:14
years I saw a direct mail uh go from
8:16
volumes in the mailbox to not a lot and
8:20
it’s beginning to come back now and when
8:22
I look at it what I’m seeing is very
8:25
effective in my mind because it has
8:28
other components to it and I’m wondering
8:31
now how many of those components are
8:34
directly linked to you whether it be the
8:36
QR code or whether it be go here to see
8:39
this online and I know that you know my
8:42
information when I go online even
8:43
anonymously is not Anonymous and I’m
8:46
going to bounce back of some sort is
8:48
that part of what you’re doing
8:50
absolutely in fact almost every one of
8:53
the little features that have come to
8:55
direct mail over the years I’m not
8:57
saying they’ve been invented by us but
8:59
we’ve kind of collected up anything that
9:01
will enhance or improve the
9:03
receptiveness or Roi of the direct mail
9:05
into a marketing automation platform but
9:09
but you know let’s discuss I mean you
9:11
and I have a little gray behind the ears
9:13
and we’ve been around for a while we
9:15
remember the days of filled mailboxes
9:17
with junk mail and it was like ah you
9:20
know almost straight to the trash you’d
9:21
have to sift through to find the bills
9:23
but the advertisements you’d really
9:25
throw away
9:27
then the Advent of email and digital
9:30
technology people sweat to they they
9:33
flocked to that because it was cheaper
9:35
all right but with the noise level when
9:39
I say noise level it is a it’s been
9:41
studied that the average person is being
9:44
shown 10 000 digital ads a day whether
9:49
it’s on TV whether you’re scrolling your
9:51
email or it’s in electronic Billboards
9:54
10 000 a day now the average person now
9:58
today only gets about four pieces of
10:01
mail in their mailbox so just from a
10:04
purely statistical point if you put
10:07
something in someone’s mailbox you have
10:09
a much higher chance they’re going to
10:11
see it than if you put it on a screen
10:13
somewhere and that’s not to degrade the
10:15
digital marketing but you gotta do both
10:18
and what we do is we combine the digital
10:20
worlds with the offline or printed
10:23
worlds to get the best possible result
10:25
that that’s what we do you know one of
10:27
the problems that I had when I was doing
10:30
Direct Mail well there are many problems
10:33
it was direct mail was a nightmare to
10:35
begin with but it was really tough to
10:38
find a
10:40
good Direct Mail supplier someone that
10:43
that knew I hate mailing lists but they
10:46
would have a mailing list and guess what
10:48
they were usually outdated but they
10:50
would have a mailing list they would
10:52
have a fulfillment portion
10:54
but they all didn’t talk the same
10:57
language when it was a mailing list
10:58
fulfillment uh even at times when we
11:03
would use USPS every Every Door Direct
11:06
you know give them credit uh what I
11:09
ultimately ended up doing was using some
11:12
of their statistics to better Target
11:14
where some of our digital ads were going
11:16
because I could look at the carrier’s
11:18
root and see down into the demographics
11:20
oh wait this is a neighborhood of X
11:23
number of thousand households with X
11:25
number of people per household that’s
11:27
where I want to go I don’t necessarily
11:28
want to do uh Every Door Direct or even
11:31
use the post office but it gave me a
11:34
little bit of inside information when
11:36
you bring all of those channels together
11:39
you’re you’re doing more than just one
11:41
thing how many different platforms are
11:43
are you touching on right now that’s a
11:46
great question so we have 14 different
11:50
features available to us when someone is
11:53
doing a direct mail so and and just to
11:56
clarify we don’t print anything or we
11:57
don’t mail anything we provide the
11:59
technology to enable traditional
12:01
printers or or agencies concentrating
12:05
direct mail to do all of these features
12:07
simultaneously as you mentioned the QR
12:09
code you know call or text this number
12:12
we have uh little Snippets of code we
12:15
put on the website of the people doing
12:17
the advertising so that we can re-target
12:20
them digitally we can do geofenced ads
12:24
specifically to the people receiving the
12:25
mail and then we can tell if they go
12:28
into the property or the institution
12:30
that is being advertised to and actually
12:33
show True attribution for that mail
12:35
piece before if someone got a piece of
12:37
mail and they went to the place or
12:40
called up there was no way to really
12:41
know if it was from the mail unless the
12:44
receptionist or or the front door person
12:46
asked well now we don’t need to ask we
12:49
can prove that electronically and show
12:51
attribution and one of the biggest beefs
12:53
with direct mail is it’s expensive it
12:56
could cost upwards or more than a dollar
12:58
per piece when you send emails they’re a
13:01
penny each so people need to know
13:04
they’re getting Roi and we can now prove
13:07
that with this technology platform
13:10
you know I I just have to take a big
13:13
sigh of relief because you are the first
13:15
person I think I’ve talked to this
13:17
entire quarter that would even mention
13:20
much less understand
13:23
geofencing trying to explain that to
13:25
someone that is not familiar with it
13:27
you’re going to do what you’re going to
13:29
select what demographics and we’re going
13:31
to see what uh you know it’s across all
13:34
of those uh different platforms uh that
13:38
we we get the multi-spectrum of it but
13:41
if I were to select a word that I saw
13:44
you use on your website it was Omni
13:48
Channel not multi-channel Omni Channel
13:51
explain that a little bit so so that’s a
13:53
great point and a lot of people confuse
13:55
the two but they’re different so
13:58
multi-channel is pushing out a message
14:01
and it could be a different message the
14:03
key is what the message is on multiple
14:06
channels at once and what are those
14:07
channels mail maybe newspaper ads radio
14:10
ads digital ads email and an
14:13
organization could tend to say different
14:16
things on different channels that’s what
14:18
is considered multi whereas omnichannel
14:20
is you take that same message
14:22
and you put it out on each of the
14:24
channels at a specific time to increase
14:28
the likelihood of Engagement you know so
14:31
and I’ll give you an example how we use
14:33
it so if a piece of mail is going to
14:35
land in someone’s mailbox in four days
14:37
we know that’s going to land in four
14:39
days because of technology so what we do
14:42
is we soften them up for the days before
14:44
by targeting digital ads into their
14:47
devices specifically because we know
14:49
their devices that will they may not
14:52
consciously know that this piece of mail
14:55
is coming but when they see it for a
14:57
couple days and then it comes in the
14:58
mailbox there’s a familiarity and then
15:00
the next 30 days we retarget them if
15:03
they go to the website or they call and
15:04
we send other ads to other devices so
15:07
you’re building up this repetitive
15:09
message that is the same message
15:12
which again enhances or improves the
15:15
likelihood of Engagement that’s all
15:17
we’re doing here you have to tell them
15:19
what you’re going to send them tease
15:21
them that they’re going to get it and
15:22
then follow up after they get I mean
15:24
it’s it’s marketing 101 but with a new
15:27
twist to it and that’s that’s just
15:30
absolutely wonderful I love that and as
15:33
simple as it sounds most companies don’t
15:36
have the resources unless your
15:37
McDonald’s or Nike or Coca-Cola to
15:40
perform those steps in a Time sequence
15:42
to the same people but you know that’s
15:45
where we come in we add value because we
15:47
automate that whole process and we do it
15:50
for the advertiser
15:52
now I’m going to get into AI in a moment
15:55
because one of the problems that I have
15:58
seen in trying to do some of this myself
16:00
is getting that real-time feedback but
16:03
uh so I’ll get into into AI in a moment
16:06
because I I hope I’m not uh spoiling the
16:09
surprise here but I know you’re getting
16:10
into that no I love talking about it
16:13
politics you know we are what uh 14
16:16
months away from uh a national
16:19
presidential election it’s going to be
16:22
hello I’m male I’m a politician so but
16:26
you have a very interesting product for
16:30
politics whether it be candidates or
16:33
issues tell us about that so we’ve kind
16:37
of packaged a political power up package
16:39
as we call it and what it does is it
16:41
uses District voting blocks to Target
16:44
digital ads just as specifically as you
16:47
could Target male so uh you know it was
16:51
a smart thought of Google and Facebook
16:53
and all of these companies they’re able
16:55
to Target the digital ads to the exact
16:58
perimeters around those precincts as you
17:01
call them so we’ve packaged that with
17:04
our mail product to specifically Target
17:06
the precincts they want to Target and we
17:09
add extra features we add some YouTube
17:11
videos we add some Discovery ads from
17:14
Google so we’ve done things to actually
17:17
further Target those people with more
17:20
ads at a concentrated period because as
17:22
we know political campaigns change by
17:25
the latest sound bite or headline so
17:28
they want this message out and all
17:31
possible channels literally 72 hours
17:33
later so we’ve developed a product to
17:36
help political advertisers and campaigns
17:38
do that
17:40
do you have in that process something
17:43
built in that helps to
17:47
judge or in some ways raise a red flag
17:50
that wait this is not necessarily true
17:53
information fake news or whatever we
17:56
want to call it I hate that term but
17:59
disinformation uh disinformation in any
18:02
type of Outreach is is deadly do you
18:07
have a way of keeping check on that or
18:10
not yet
18:11
there’s not us but you know the the
18:15
advertisers themselves I.E Google
18:17
Facebook and they’ve taken a lot of heat
18:19
for it is you know are they stopping
18:23
Free Speech or are they preventing the
18:26
flow of bad information I that’s not
18:30
something we’re able to do here we do
18:32
not have the infrastructure but um it’s
18:35
a that’s a political issue just in
18:36
itself yes you know but uh unfortunately
18:40
I don’t have an answer for that
18:42
um we are we are an independent
18:44
organization so we don’t favor uh one
18:47
political party or the other
18:48
unfortunately uh
18:50
certain campaigns will only work with
18:54
advertising agencies or platforms that
18:57
have declared themselves one party or
18:59
the other so that even gets difficult uh
19:02
it’s a very
19:04
closed community that does not accept
19:09
Independence very easily you’re better
19:12
off declaring for one side or the other
19:13
and getting in a club that way I’ll be
19:16
honest with you switch well before I
19:18
switch for anyone that is interested
19:21
right now in exploring or becoming a
19:25
partner with what you’re doing that is
19:27
an opportunity correct absolutely our
19:30
partners are mainly as I said agencies
19:33
that that concentrate on direct mail or
19:35
commercial printers that do a lot of
19:37
direct mail business we enable them with
19:39
this technology we we sell through our
19:43
third party Partners so if if anybody
19:45
hears us and they’re interested in this
19:47
technology they should ask their local
19:48
printer for it or their local agency
19:51
they’re more than welcome to contact us
19:53
directly and we’ll probably refer them
19:55
to one of these local resellers that we
19:58
deal with let’s but before I forget how
20:00
can someone get in touch with you
20:02
honestly the best way is to go to
20:06
dm20.com or direct mail2.com uh contacts
20:11
to everybody in the organization are
20:12
there uh we’re pretty easy to find on
20:15
Google direct mail2.com all right AI we
20:19
started to touch on it just a few
20:21
minutes ago it right now I think is
20:24
boggling everyone’s mind on what is the
20:27
future of AI but you have a use for it
20:32
yes in fact you know I’m so eager to
20:36
talk about it because hey I’m not
20:38
worried about anyone taking this idea
20:39
because AI is dependent on the data set
20:43
that you have to work with we have
20:45
obviously been Gathering data on Direct
20:48
Mail campaigns for the better part of
20:50
six years we have all of the creative we
20:53
have where it was targeted and who it
20:55
was targeted to the verticals the time
20:57
of year everything so the idea is you
21:01
can put all this data together with all
21:03
the results that that that were gotten
21:05
from these campaigns
21:07
and enable people to improve their
21:10
direct mail targeting their creative
21:12
their timing to get better results
21:17
the overall picture of AI and I and I’m
21:20
not asking how you are using it does it
21:24
give you pause for worry about AI in
21:27
itself
21:29
absolutely you know it’s you know we’ve
21:32
all seen the movies you know we’ve all
21:34
read the horror stories of what could be
21:37
and what can be but this technology is
21:40
here and it’s like trying to put the
21:42
toothpaste back in the proverbial bottle
21:44
I don’t know that that’s going to happen
21:47
and in the end it comes down to personal
21:50
responsibility whether it’s the
21:52
engineers whether it’s the people
21:54
selling it or the lawmakers and the
21:57
people in government that are trying who
21:59
are entrusted to protect us uh you know
22:03
so I I do my part I know that any way
22:06
that we’re going to use AI is is only
22:08
going to help people save money and get
22:10
better results from marketing so I I
22:12
don’t have a concern about what I’m
22:14
doing but sure I have concerns about
22:16
what other people are doing
22:17
you are a responsible person not too
22:20
many people I run across these days take
22:22
on that responsibility and say hey this
22:24
is what I’m doing
22:26
rather short interview today I have to
22:28
say and I have a uh a couple of
22:32
additional questions the most important
22:34
one is can you come back for another
22:35
episode in the future
22:37
anytime I love talking about business
22:40
technology marketing it’s you know it’s
22:44
kind of a passion for me so I’d love to
22:46
come back Sam anytime it shows and it is
22:49
inspiring and I I would venture to say
22:51
uh any of the students that are getting
22:53
any entrepreneurial guidance from you
22:56
will go on and do things that you can
22:58
one day look at and go aha you know
23:01
maybe I played a role in that for
23:04
today’s program is there anything that
23:06
we did not touch upon that you want to
23:08
make sure that we take away as a golden
23:10
nugget of knowledge
23:12
gosh I wouldn’t know where to start I I
23:15
like to talk so I’ll I’ll leave it at
23:17
that rather than drag this on for
23:19
another 10 minutes
23:21
oh Lord we would be in trouble because I
23:23
also love to talk and you get me started
23:25
and you know it’s it’s like opening one
23:28
of the proverbial cans of worms except
23:30
each of those worms is a little tidbit
23:32
of knowledge that gets stored away and
23:34
you’re going oh but what about this but
23:35
what about this and then before you know
23:37
it uh a couple of hours have gone by so
23:40
I definitely want to thank you for being
23:42
here with us today and I look forward to
23:44
keeping in touch with you and uh
23:46
certainly you know as much as I can
23:48
refer and we can use this platform to
23:51
say here’s a great product I think a lot
23:54
of our general public and our business
23:58
owners need to take a look at new tools
24:01
and new technology and this is a new
24:05
beginning and I I want to commend you
24:07
for starting what you have and let’s see
24:09
where it goes absolutely I’d say always
24:12
be learning even as we get into our
24:14
later stages and it’s more difficult for
24:17
us as I’ve already found out
24:19
you just got to keep plugging along and
24:20
keep learning new things well you know
24:23
uh the gray that creeps out if we don’t
24:25
keep learning uh it just gets bushier
24:28
and bushier what can I say so yep it
24:31
does Brad thank you for being here and I
24:33
want to again extend the invitation to
24:36
have you back in the future but it has
24:38
been my pleasure on behalf of the
24:40
Florida business Forum to have you as my
24:43
special guest today my thanks to Florida
24:45
business form and yourself Sam thank you
24:47
again
24:48
and that’s going to wrap up this edition
24:50
of the Florida business Forum podcast
24:52
stay tuned everybody we’re going to have
24:55
more business news
24:57
we’re going to have a lot of it stay
24:59
tuned the Florida business forum is
25:02
dedicated to showcasing Florida
25:03
businesses and CEOs of All Sorts to
25:07
promote their business or not for profit
25:09
in the only business Forum of its type
25:11
in Florida thanks for tuning in and
25:14
remember have a great day everyone and
25:17
stay tuned for more business
25:19
