Impact Plus Infinity Direct: 'Intelligent Marketing Services'

Marketing Services ... Redefined

Marketing services are being redefined — and print service providers are reinventing themselves to stay at the center of their clients’ communication strategies.  Once offering customers customization and personalization was enough. Today, success depends on helping clients connect every touch point across print, digital, and automated channels.

The most progressive PSPs are evolving from print vendors into marketing partners — orchestrating integrated, data-driven campaigns that deliver measurable results. They are helping clients reach the right audience, at the right time, through the right mix of channels. The challenge for others is clear: how to become that indispensable marketing services partner of choice.

As part of this exploration, Alliance Insights spoke with four companies that have reimagined their business models to drive growth and client value. Each offers a distinct perspective on the challenges, opportunities, and innovations transforming the marketplace, yet there are several themes that unite their success stories:

• Acquiring agency capabilities to accelerate web enablement as well as the marketing technology stack for digital services.
• Offering comprehensive kitting and fulfillment operations for both print and promotional specialty items.
• Leveraging large-format printing to drive revenue growth.
• Diversifying customers and services to balance cyclical demand and pursue new markets.
• Shifting focus from transactional print jobs to clients with ongoing, programmatic spending.
• Using data and tracking tools to demonstrate ROI across every campaign element — from direct mail to digital impressions.

From rising customer expectations to the growing influence of data and automation, these organizations show how PSPs can redefine value and relevance in an omnichannel world.

The companies interviewed include:

• Think Patented
• Impact (and its Agency Infinity Direct)
• 1Vision
• OneTouchPoint

Together they offer a roadmap for how to transform and thrive in an industry built on innovation and reinvention.

This is Impact's Story.

IMPACT PLUS INFINITY DIRECT: 'INTELLIGENT MARKETING SERVICES'

Impact has long served as a marketing execution partner specializing in high-volume digital print, mailing services, integrated direct marketing campaigns, order fulfillment services, and critical document services. Founded in 1983 and family-owned until February 2025, the company transitioned to a100% employee-owned model through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Today, Impact employs more than 240 people in Minneapolis.

An early adopter of production inkjet, Impact invested in high-speed Canon inkjet technology. This move sparked innovation in how to gain direct client engagements. A group of employees recognized the opportunity to use the inkjet presses to elevate customer communications and response through printing data-driven marketing pieces. The company’s success with data-driven insights and print solutions led to the acquisition of Infinity Direct — a direct-marketing agency focused on customer growth that helps clients with multichannel direct marketing, including campaign strategy, creative, data intelligence, and digital and email marketing. The agency provides true “marketing intelligence” to the business offering.

While the two companies operate independently, their partnership is also exceptionally complementary:

• Infinity Direct delivers the “why and how” — strategy, data insights, channel mix.
• Impact Connects executes the “what and where” — production, fulfillment, distribution.

Together, they offer clients a one-stop direct marketing solution.

Today Infinity is led by its seven-member executive team, but all the employees are empowered and challenged to lead the agencies innovation and advancement. The company employs 50+ full-time employees organized into four core groups:

1. Account Teams – Develop and manage client strategy.
2. Digital Studio – Handle digital assets and campaign execution.
3. Creative Studio – Design for both digital and print communications.
4. Data & Insight Group – Perform predictive modeling to optimize results.

Infinity serves multiple industries. According to Jake Bruhnding (Infinity CEO), “We start with data. We work with our clients to identify the best target audience for their product or service. Through data modeling, we systematically qualify potential customers. Then we match the right creative with the right communication channel to deliver the best response for the lowest cost. We treat our client’s budget like it is our own.”

Bruhnding emphasized that Infinity only partners with clients committed to data sharing and analytics. Their team integrates with client CRM systems or processes batch data to ensure full transparency on campaign results.

When asked how this has changed business for Impact, Derick LaPointe (Infinity COO) explained, “While the businesses are run separately, our data-driven personalized communications combined with Impact’s production and mailing expertise is a perfect fit. Even though we use other production partners, the value we deliver to Impact is that our campaigns are programmatic, which means they run all year. Impact’s business had historically been somewhat cyclical. The acquisition of Infinity Direct has smoothed out production; print volumes have grown in combination with much more predictable print volume levels month to month.”

The true advantage lies in the combined offering. Clients of either company gain access to a broader toolkit:

• Advanced data analytics
• Multichannel direct marketing (digital + physical)
• Campaign strategy and creative
• Fulfillment and distribution

This integration strengthens both Impact and Infinity Direct, delivering intelligent marketing solutions that help clients achieve measurable growth across channels.

In Summary

Firms like Think Patented, Impact and its Agency Infinity Direct,1Vision and OneTouchPoint have embraced the market transformation. They have made strategic investments in marketing automation, analytics, and partnerships. They have emerged not just as print providers, but as essential marketing partners supporting client success. These print industry market leaders understand that providing intelligent marketing services isn’t about replacing print. They have expanded their services to drive engagement and provide demonstrable ROI. The result is elevating print as part of an “intelligent marketing” ecosystem.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.