St. Louis, MO. – The employees at NOVA Marketing Services in St. Louis are so familiar with the old post office credo they can recite it, especially during the crush of the holiday season.  Budget cuts notwithstanding, neither rain nor snow nor sleet or dark of night will stop a mail carrier from making their rounds to deliver the mail.  Even scorching heat in the middle of summer couldn't stop NOVA from once delivering a project that contained thousands of pieces of chocolate.

With that kind of record, it didn't matter that NOVA was given only 10 business days to deliver 750,000 custom packages to customers of a large credit card company.  For good measure, NOVA needed to source and receive delivery of the premium at a time when an overseas health situation complicated matters with travel restrictions.  In the end, the effort was so impressive the program was honored with the company's CEO design award for creative execution.

The news isn't surprising to those who are familiar with NOVA.  Their expertise in kitting and assembly, POS assembly and distribution, in-store marketing and project management has made them a single source solution provider for many Fortune 100 companies.  Rocky Abbett, the company's Vice President, says tight deadlines and almost impossible situations are never the preferred method of doing business.  However, it doesn't prevent NOVA's experienced team of professionals from getting the job done.

"This client wanted to package party horns with yellow bird feathers in celebration of their new membership campaign.  The only problem we encountered was an outbreak of the Asian bird flu that put a dent into some of our original transportation plans to get the horns to St. Louis so we could assemble them.  But we did find a source and we received the horns with time to spare," recalled Abbett.

While the travel roadblock was being worked out, Abbett said his team got creative and saved the client additional money by designing a box that was cost effective and met the client's marketing objectives.

"We had our sister company, Packaging Graphics in Rhode Island, design a pop-up box that could be quickly assembled.  It was custom built to contain the party horn plus some other inserts, including a personalized postcard.  We shaved some of the cost by eliminating the address labels.  Instead, we die-cut a window in the box and used the postcard as the address vehicle."

As it turned out, NOVA delivered three-quarters of a million packages on time and under budget.

"We've been doing this for so long, nothing surprises us but there are times when situations arise that leave you scratching your head," laughed Abbett, a 30-year industry veteran.  "We like it when our clients challenge us because that's what separates you from the competition.  What's good for our clients is good for us, even if we have to scale walls and jump hurdles.  The true measure of any good company is what you're capable of delivering when your back is against the wall.  Clients come to us because they know we can hit the home run for them."  

NOVA Marketing Services provides on-line order fulfillment, real-time inventory management, kitting and assembly, and direct mail services.  In 2005, the St. Louis company became a subsidiary of The MATLET Group, a certified Minority Business Enterprise and Corporate Plus member of NMSDC.  Find out how you can celebrate a successful fulfillment program by visiting www.novamktg.com.