While it may seem that all the world is communicating online, the fact remains that there are exceptions. Much like Postful, which we covered last year, a new Facebook application provides a way for those online to communicate seamlessly—and for free—with the offline world.
Facebook users can already send real flowers and candy to their virtual friends, and now Peggy Mail allows them to send real postcards through snail mail. The application was inspired by a real-life but offline grandmother who found it increasingly difficult to stay in the loop with the younger and wired members of her family, the site explains. To use the service, Facebook users need only download the Peggy Mail application and enter their message and the recipient's address from within the social networking site. Peggy Mail then prints and delivers the postcard along with a pre-addressed, pre-stamped postcard for reply. The service is available only within the UK and Ireland, and is free during its beta period. As indicated by its tagline—"Send real nice messages even Gran can get"—the concept aims to connect generations that use different modes of communication. (Yes, we know that many grandparents are far more web-savvy than their offspring's offspring, but a sizeable segment never made it online.)
As the digital and concrete worlds continue to overlap, the opportunities are many for feeder businesses to support the OFF=ON (and ON=OFF) phenomenon. Make it easy for consumers to bridge these two worlds, and you could end up on top of the world yourself! ;-)
Website: www.sendwithpeggy.com
Contact: peggy@participle.net
Spotted by: Jenny Lau
"The service is available only within the UK and Ireland, and is free during its beta period",
Where are the revenues ?
Do they aim to switch once the service has picked up ?
There is also another site called www.onepennypost.com They do something very similar but have print stations in the US, UK and OZ. There is a reasonable price per card.
Nice service.
A very similar service has been conceived about a year ago during the CIID/INDEX design summer camp in Denmark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX-ZDY0aMgk
There is another one called hippopost.com. Similar idea with a Facebook application. Each postcard includes an ad from a sponsor. Solid revenue stream.