NPF 2025 Recap: A New Era with Smarter Mail

The 2025 National Postal Forum (NPF) in Nashville marked a milestone moment for the mailing and shipping industry. For BlueCrest, it was one of our most impactful show experiences to date.

Attribution and Transformation

With the largest turnout since 2008, NPF drew 5,700 attendees, including 900 USPS employees. It was the highest postal employee participation in over a decade. A sold-out exhibit hall featured 187 companies, including 70 first-time exhibitors, reflecting a reinvigorated commitment to innovation and modernization within the United States Postal Service ecosystem.

So, what drove the buzz?

The US Postal Industry Is Poised for Its Biggest Transformation in 250 Years

This year’s forum centered around an industry-wide inflection point. For many attendees and mail advertisers, NPF wasn’t just about showcasing new products or networking. It was about understanding how to participate in a historic transformation of the USPS. From reclassification discussions to digital integrations, the opportunities for innovation feel bigger than anything we’ve seen since 1997.

Attribution Takes Center Stage

The most recurring theme we heard across sessions, booths, and panel discussions? Attribution.

Direct mail is no longer flying blind. With 1/3 of American households now enrolled in Informed Delivery®, and strategic use of tools like Intelligent Mail barcodes, mail is becoming measurable, trackable, and integrated. Mailpieces are scanned up to seven times on their journey. That's seven opportunities to "prime the mailbox" with digital follow-ups like email or SMS messages.

This is omnichannel marketing in action—and it’s driving response rates up to 12%, outperforming standalone digital campaigns.

Promotions Are Fueling Smarter Mail

With USPS 2025 postal promotions and pricing changes occurring twice a year, direct marketers are shifting away from outdated "spray and pray" strategies. Instead, they’re cleaning up data, targeting more effectively, and qualifying their pieces for postage discounts—some as high as 10-12.5% under the 2025 Catalog Promotion incentive programs launching this fall.

At BlueCrest, we're helping mail service providers not only adopt these smarter mailing promotions but also integrate Informed Delivery campaigns into their workflows—often in under 30 minutes. We're even exploring support services to help clients easily register and launch these campaigns at scale with our integrated technology.

We’re Not Just Sherpas—We’re Guides

A key question echoed across the floor:
“What’s your value-add strategy for 2026 and beyond?”

At BlueCrest, we’re proud to be more than just a technology provider. We’re working with clients across mail production, marketing, and logistics to embed value into every step of the process—from intelligent inserting systems to address quality software to full-service support for campaign management.

And as the industry continues to modernize under USPS leadership—potentially with David Steiner as the next Postmaster General—service providers have a unique opportunity to lead the way in making mail more relevant, more measurable, and more powerful.

In Summary:

NPF 2025 was more than a trade show—it was a call to action.
We’re entering an era where data drives delivery, barcodes unlock engagement, and transformation is no longer optional.

BlueCrest is proud to be part of that movement—and ready to help our partners lead it.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend or want to continue the conversation, we’d love to connect. How can we help you accelerate attribution, adoption, and growth in this exciting new age of mail? Let's talk strategy.