Nathalie Malmsten

THE ADVERTISING GEEK

In an increasingly digital and stressful world, Nathalie Malmsten believes in the mailbox. Personally, she destresses by dancing.

“WHAT? Do people still use direct marketing?” W This is the type of question Nathalie Malmsten hears a lot. She’s in charge of all advertising mail distributed by PostNord in Sweden. A fair number of people consider direct marketing to be “stone age media”, when in fact it still plays an important role.

“I can’t reveal the exact figures, but direct mail is extremely profitable,” says Nathalie.

Even though the advertising operation as a whole has shrunk in recent years – largely due to digital options – it still accounts for a substantial part of PostNord’s revenue from the letter business in Sweden.

“Direct mail had an exceptionally good year in 2021. We always compare with figures from the previous year, and this is the best result I’ve seen since I took over the responsibility for the service.”

Nathalie has been with PostNord since 2012, but has been working with direct mail in one form or another since 1996.

“I’m a firm believer in the mailbox as a communication channel. Digitalization has amped up everyone’s stress levels, but this type of advertising is one that doesn’t add to our stress. You can look at it when you have the time and energy.

Nathalie Malmsten

Position at PostNord:

Product Manager, Market Communication in Stockholm, Sweden. Closest colleagues: “My ‘right-hand man’, Product Specialist, Olov Lundin and Project Manager, Karin Gattmalm; we work closely and often have lunch together.”

This gives you a better chance of cutting through all the noise and I’m convinced that it still has a place in the media landscape.”

Nathalie playfully refers to herself as an “advertising geek”. When watching tv together with her family they compete who’s the first to spot the correct brand during advert breaks.

“I hope that I can keep working with some kind of advertising for the rest of my professional life.”

Another goal is to carry on dancing for the rest of her life – or at least until she turns 100.

Nathalie used to be a gymnast, and she has been dancing for as long as she can remember. Up until recently she’s mainly been attending dance classes at her gym. Today she is dancing an actual dance studio too. Every semester, they put on quite a large show.

“I had a bit of a cancer scare in 2016.

It had me thinking a lot about whether or not there was anything in life that I wanted to change. I didn’t want a different job, a divorce or a new home. I just realized I really wanted to start dancing a whole lot more!”