This month, direct marketing company Valpak is teaming up with Hallmark Channel to offer inventive sweepstakes to millions of households that receive its familiar blue envelope. The “From Mailbox to Movie Set” Sweepstakes gives participants a chance to appear in a walk-on role in an upcoming Hallmark Channel original movie.

The promotion, which runs from June 28 through August 7, is part of a larger push by Valpak to engage its core audience with strategic partnerships while growing interest more broadly at mailboxes and online.

• Valpak envelopes, which contain coupons and promotional offers, are delivered monthly to over 41 million households.
• 94% of recipients open these envelopes, per the company.

Movie magic in mailboxes

Valpak promotes the Hallmark Channel sweepstakes through its envelope design and online, where participants can enter the contest. It's part of a Hallmark Channel campaign for the new streaming series, “Paris Is Always a Good Idea.”

The Hallmark Channel partnership fits well with two of Valpak’s core audiences: women, ages 28 to 39, who are heads of households, and adults 55 and older, according to Valpak CEO John Amato.

“As a mission-based organization, our main goal is to help people save, and for businesses to grow,” said Amato. “And we connect the dots through the Valpak envelope.”

Since launching on June 28, the “From Mailbox to Movie Set” Sweepstakes has surpassed 100,000 entries, according to Valpak.

“In the past, I’d say we haven’t really focused on getting the envelope to be something we draw attention to, and make fun and interactive,” said Amato. “We’ve relied on putting a really good package of savings together, sending it to the home, and having people find it there, because saving is smart.”

Branching out while delivering savings

A major part of this “concerted effort” to make Valpak offers fun and interactive was to hire Valpak’s first ever consumer-side CMO, Annica Conrad, earlier this year, Amato said. Although Valpak has partnered with Hallmark in the past, the current sweepstakes is an example of how Valpak intends to grow interest and attention.

“Yes, this one is led by Hallmark, but inside the envelope there’s all sorts of pizza places, sushi spots, chiropractors, and roofers, and contractors for paving your driveway or remodeling your bathroom," said Amato.

With current economic challenges, savings on everyday items, home improvement, and other services have never been more important to Valpak’s audience, according to Amato.

“Matriarchs sort of own the mailbox experience in most homes in the US,” Amato said, adding that Valpak’s “real bread and butter” is women who are the head of the house and have children at home.

“The savings on everyday things are really meaningful, particularly in today’s environment,” he said.

Family-focused social media

To further engage families beyond the mailbox, Valpak is also building an influencer strategy.

Social media reinforces the brand among people who already receive Valpak, while opening a new channel for both new and existing followers to discover the company.

• US mother social media users (women over 18 with children under 18) is expected to reach 31.4 million this year, or 94.7% of the demographic, according to EMARKETER’s forecast.

A recent influencer campaign with Legoland used two family-focused microinfluencers: Adina Kayton, @kidsguidenyc (108,000 followers), and Brooke Mydlo @brooke_mydlo (30,200 followers), according to Valpak.

The campaign drove more than 86,000 views and 1,200 new followers to Valpak. Two Instagram Reels earned a large majority of organic views, with 98.9% coming from nonfollowers, leading to new audience growth for Valpak on social media, per the company.

Valpak’s growing presence on social media gives the brand a chance not only to promote deals, but to share tips on how to save. Another Legoland-partnered influencer push is slated for later this year.

“When we think about our channels of distribution for the [Hallmark] promotion, our entrants are also coming from social media,” said Amato. “We think about it not so much as a direct analogy from our envelope to social media. We think of our social media channels as savings influence. We’re a savings influencer.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.