Let’s Get Physical: Digital Fatigue Reboots Interest in Physical Marketing Materials

Digital marketing is everywhere, and it can be easy for brands to get lost in the blur of messages. As consumers navigate a steady stream of ads, emails and notifications, many marketers are rediscovering the value of tactile media as a way to break through the noise. Physical materials offer a welcome change of pace. They help restore focus, strengthen brand distinction and create more meaningful engagement alongside digital efforts.

In an oversaturated, hypercompetitive digital landscape, integrating physical assets like print, direct mail and catalogs can help brands stand out.

What the Fatigue! Why the ‘F’ Word Is So Bad¹

• 90% of digital marketers say ad fatigue impairs campaign performance.
• Click-through rates plummet by up to 50% due to ad fatigue.
• 60% of consumers become indifferent after repeated exposure to ads.
• 65% of consumers are annoyed or irritated by repetitive ads.

From Digital Glut to Physical Go-Tos

Given the industry’s amount of digital content competing for consumers’ attention, it’s become especially important for food and beverage brands to create memorable, sensory and localized physical experiences that differentiate them and strengthen customer relations.

“The return to physical marketing is not just a nostalgic throwback,” said Megan Keleshian, vice president of digital marketing at The Food Group. “It’s a strategic response to digital oversaturation — and digital marketers should welcome it as an effective way to rebalance and recharge their outreach.”

Marketers are maximizing a mix of physical assets to offset digital fatigue and set their advertising apart from the digital clutter.

Direct mail has proven to be a valuable marketing channel that enables brands to diversify their omnichannel campaigns. With open rates as high as 80-90% compared with email’s 20-30%, and the highest median ROI of 112% of any marketing medium, direct mail has reemerged as a go-to for customer acquisition.² Salesforce data indicates that direct mail drives a 4.4% response rate, compared with just 0.12% for email.³

Marketers increasingly see direct mail as part of an integrated marketing strategy, according to the 2025 Print Marketing Report from RRD.⁴ Tech advances have taken direct mail to a new level of personalization and infused it with data-driven precision. Predictive analytics, variable data printing and personalized URLs now make physical mail highly customized, with a tactile appeal email can’t provide. Seventy-two percent of survey participants stated they regularly read or look at ads in the mail.⁴

The Ideal Blend: Direct Mail and Digital

Blending direct mail with digital channels can help maximize impact. Using personalized direct mail to retarget website visitors or abandon cart users reinforces digital interactions to turn prospects into customers. Direct mail that features QR codes and unique URLs for personalized landing pages allows for campaign tracking and an integrated customer experience.

“By blending physical and digital marketing strategies, marketers can provide a comprehensive approach to engaging their target audience and ensure that every touchpoint works together to build stronger connections,” said Nicole Bland, digital strategist at The Food Group.

The old standard of the quarterly mass mailing is gone as today’s marketing teams shift to smaller, more frequent and highly targeted drops, especially for winback and remarketing efforts. Fifty-seven percent now mail to these segments monthly, up from just 38% in 2024.⁵

“This agility allows for more testing, iteration and personalization — similar to digital campaigns but with physical impact,” Bland said.

Food for Thought: The J. Crew Comeback

A case study in nostalgia and strategy, the return of the J. Crew catalog in 2024 after a seven-year pause is a prime example of the revitalization of traditional creative assets. Historically a core part of the brand identity, the catalog has reemerged in a more magazine-like format, with editorial content, celebrity interviews and QR codes linking to the app.

Photography is shot on film to evoke nostalgia, but the format is updated for today’s shopper and infotainment-oriented marketplace. To heighten its allure as an elite curated experience, the catalog is only published three times a year, with no mass mailing. The print edition is available in store or in your mailbox by request, with opt-in access to the digital version through the app.

The revived catalog satisfies a hunger for nostalgia among an audience fatigued by digital, while rebuilding the brand narrative with a meaningful, differentiated touchpoint. As much about brand storytelling as it is about selling, the catalog has morphed into more of a branding vehicle rather than a pure sales brochure.

As part of J.Crew’s post-bankruptcy upswing, the catalog’s return supported what CEO Libby Wadle described as record sales, with 2024 sales approaching $3 billion.⁶

A Plateful of Inspo: Feeding on Other Brands’ Success

The J. Crew catalog revitalization serves as an object lesson for food and beverage brands hungry for solutions to digital fatigue. Follow suit and share your brand journey, mission and values in a physical format like recipe books, brand zines and sustainability reports.

From table tents and tasting guides to recipe cards and brand story pamphlets, printed materials can provide memorable brand experiences. Major brands are digging into these and other forms of tactile marketing, resulting in an expanding range of brand-building, sales-triggering print materials:

• Kit Kat “Too Chunky to Fit” voucher: Nestlé used a personalized “apology for missed delivery” card as a voucher, playfully explaining the Kit Kat Chunky was too big for the mailbox and directing recipients to a nearby store to claim their free bar.
• Five Little Pigs custom mini-newspaper: The restaurant prints a seasonal, branded mini-newspaper featuring recipes, articles and tips. This tangible piece of content showcases the staff’s expertise and can be kept and reused.
• Burger King local coupons: Burger King mails coupons directly to households near their restaurants, providing information and special offers that encourage immediate, local visits without the need for online searches.
• Starbucks direct mail package: Starbucks sent a physical mailer that included a coupon for a hot chocolate, attached in a way that was easy to detach and use, along with rich photography and a soft-touch coating on the box to create a premium feel.

Brands can measure and scale direct mail with omnichannel attribution — for example, by tracking how many website visits, QR code scans and in-store redemptions a campaign generates. And by running A/B tests with different mail designs, messaging or segmentation, brands can test and iterate for optimal performance.

Snail Mail Picks Up Speed³

• 82% of marketers maintained or increased their direct mail budgets in 2025.
• The 2025 direct mail advertising market was projected to reach $69.37 billion.

From Recipe to Reality: How to Cook Up a Campaign

Start with a small pilot like a postcard or recipe card sent to a local audience. Enhance it with QR codes that drive to a reservation, special menu or limited-time offer. Use your CRM, POS or loyalty data to personalize each piece, from “top dishes” postcards for frequent diners to automated variable-data printing that scales customization. Measure results closely by tracking QR scans, redemptions and related web traffic, then compare performance against digital-only efforts to refine your approach.

If the pilot proves effective, expand into seasonal mailers like quarterly menu lookbooks or limited-edition recipe zines. Choose sustainable materials to minimize waste and keep the strategy aligned with your brand values.

In the end, physical marketing is much more than nostalgia; it’s a smart response to digital oversaturation. For food and beverage brands, tactile touchpoints can deepen emotional connection and inspire action in ways digital alone often can’t. The opportunity now is to test thoughtfully, measure what resonates and scale the strategies that prove the power of touch in a digital-first world.

1 Zipdo, “Ad Fatigue Statistics Statistics: ZipDo Education Reports 2025,” May 30, 2025

2 DRMG, “Top 5 Direct Mail Marketing Trends for 2025

3 Salesforce, “Direct Mail for Nonprofits,” 2025

4 RDD, The 2025 Print Marketing Report 

5 Paula Phipps, “Operational Shifts and Strategic Wins for Mailing Professionals in 2025,” Mailing Systems Technology, November 11, 2025

6 Cassidy, Cassandra, “A Touchstone of American Style Returns,” Morning Brew, September 4, 2024