Dataline, a leading provider of quality marketing information, today announced the publication of a new Advertising Week column by CEO Paul Sobel, titled “Back to the Future: Direct Mail Data Is the Outcomes Era’s Missing Link.” The column discusses how, despite an old-school reputation, the data powering direct mail remains powerful. So powerful, in fact, that bringing it online for use in digital campaigns could unlock the insights advertisers need to succeed in an outcomes-oriented paradigm.

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“The funny thing is, this much ballyhooed ‘outcomes era’ is hardly new. In fact, what digital marketers are striving for is already achievable – and has been for decades – in direct mail,” writes Sobel. “Eyes may be rolling into the back of heads right now, but bear with me. While direct mail is regarded as an old school format, the pillars of direct mail marketing are still relevant. The marketing data that powers direct mail campaigns is transactional data, which links it to a consumer outcome.”

Sobel also points to an under-discussed issue in digital advertising: the ongoing pursuit of cheap scale. Activating direct-mail data online can help advertisers drive defined scale, by building models that include only those consumers who have made a purchase.

Dataline builds custom models for many of the world’s Fortune 500 companies to reach consumers through direct marketing. The company’s Wodwo self-serve platform is built on Dataline’s database of 230 million unique profiles, using 2,000 attributes ranging from actual point of sale information to a complement of demographic and psychographic data. This data, when combined with a brands’ first-party customer data and Wodwo’s proprietary AI modeling, builds highly-relevant customized audience segments that brands can use across channels.