Doodad

What Doodad does

Doodad is a privately held, trade-only commercial printing company founded in 1969, headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a second production plant opened in 1986. The company specializes in highly versioned, time-sensitive printed advertising products — primarily advertising inserts, shared mail wraps, business reply cards, detached address labels, postcards, flyers/brochures, and booklets/catalogs — produced via commercial offset and digital printing. Its core competency is fast-turnaround (3-5 day production) versioned insert production for the shared mail advertising market, a postal-integrated niche that bundles multiple advertisers into single home-delivered mailings via USPS.

Doodad serves four B2B customer verticals: shared mail companies (its core market), print brokers (resellers), newspapers and shoppers publications, and retailers/agencies. The company explicitly does not sell direct to end advertisers, protecting its broker and shared mail customers from channel conflict. Named long-tenure customers include LanDan Printing & Consulting (20+ years), GBailey Direct (nearly 30 years), and ValuDirect (almost 20 years); visible end-client logos include Dollar Tree, 7-Eleven, and Jet's Pizza, typically reached through broker intermediaries.

The business model is sales-led, quote-based B2B printing with one-time transaction revenue per print job. Pricing is custom-quoted based on product type, quantity, flat size, binding, paper stock, and finishing, with no publicly disclosed rate card. The company is privately held with no disclosed external investors, funding rounds, or M&A activity. Distribution is domestic US only, and the firm markets itself as a relationship-driven, small-town operation with dedicated sales reps, distinguishing against faceless online print portals.

Name

Doodad

Legal name

doodad

Website

https://doodad.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1969

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Doodad is a privately held, trade-only US commercial printer founded in 1969, specializing in fast-turnaround, highly versioned advertising inserts, shared mail wraps, and direct mail products for print brokers, shared mail companies, newspapers, and retailers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Commercial Printing Services

NAICS

Commercial Printing (except Screen and Books) (323111), Direct Mail Advertising (54186)

SIC

Services-Direct Mail Advertising Services (7331)

akta.pro primary industry

Mailing, Inserting & Distribution Services (Addressing, Direct Mail, Kitting) (MPAJALAH)

Keywords

• Commercial printing services
• Advertising inserts
• Shared mail printing
• Direct mail production
• Trade only printing

Headquarters

HQ city

Austell

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Commercial Printing Services: One-time print job transactions for advertising inserts, booklets, brochures, postcards, flyers, and direct mail pieces. Pricing is quote-based with no publicly disclosed rates. The company also offers environmental sustainability features in their printing process.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Doodad is a trade-only commercial printing company that produces time-sensitive, highly versioned full-color advertising inserts and shared mail products. It serves print brokers, shared mail marketers, newspapers, and retailers via dedicated sales reps, with a portfolio spanning booklets, flyers, brochures, postcards, detached address labels, EDDM/direct mail, one-page inserts, and shared mail wraps. Pricing is quote-based with 3-5 day production turnaround and 1-5 day shipping.

Product overview

Doodad is a trade-only commercial print provider serving print brokers, shared mail marketers, newspapers, shoppers, retailers, and advertising agencies. Founded in 1969, the company offers a portfolio of seven core full-color print products: Booklets/Catalogs (with glued, stitched, or nested binding), Detached Address Labels, EDDM/Direct Mail, Flyers/Brochures, One Page Inserts, Postcards, and Shared Mail Wraps. All products are designed for fast turnaround (3-5 days) and address the advertising insert market with support for highly versioned inserts and business process integration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Booklets/Catalogs Booklet and catalog printing with binding options including glued, stitched, or nested formats, available in sizes such as 6" x 9" and 9" x 12". Targeted at shared mail marketers, newspapers, retailers, and agencies that need multi-page print products for advertising and direct mail use.
• Detached Address Labels (D.A.L.) A postcard-format label that prints delivery addresses for mail pieces (e.g., magazines, catalogs) but is not attached to the publication, allowing clean design with address on the attached label. Designed for shared mail publishers and catalog/magazine producers.
• EDDM/Direct Mail Full EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) print plus postal delivery service, handling design, targeting, and route selection for local marketing campaigns. Targets retailers, agencies, and local businesses running local-market print marketing.
• Flyers/Brochures High-quality flyer and brochure printing services, including business flyers, brochures, and restaurant menus, available in tri-fold format. Available to print brokers, retailers, agencies, and other B2B customers.
• One Page Inserts Full-color single-page advertising inserts printed on lightweight stock to save on postage while maintaining advertiser quality, in common sizes such as 5.5" x 8.5" and 10" x 11.5". Built around shared mail and advertising insert use cases.
• Postcards Postcard printing for direct mail campaigns, available in sizes including 4" x 6", 5" x 8", and 5.5" x 11" with 7pt or 9pt stock and perforation options including horizontal, vertical, and coupon. Targeted at B2B direct mail campaigns.
• Shared Mail Wraps Cost-effective 4- or 8-page mailing wraps that provide extra marketing space and hold all inserts for shared mailing, in common sizes including 8.5" x 11", 11" x 17", and 17" x 22" with options for half-fold, scratch-off, and addressing. Built for shared mail publishers and US home delivery.

Quantifiable outcome

• Fast production turnaround of 3-5 days including delivery
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Quad/Graphics: Large publicly-traded commercial printer producing advertising inserts, direct mail, catalogs, and FSI products for national brands and retailers. Overlaps with Doodad in insert/FSI production but operates at significantly larger scale with a national footprint.
• Vericast: Formerly Valassis, one of the largest producers of free-standing inserts (FSI), shared mail, and direct mail advertising in the US. Directly comparable customer overlap in shared mail publishers and national retail advertisers, though at much larger scale than Doodad.
• LSC Communications: Large commercial printer with significant exposure to magazines, catalogs, books, and direct mail. Adjacent in direct mail printing capability but typically serves larger publishers and retailers than Doodad's trade broker / shared mail focus.
• RR Donnelley: Global commercial printing and communication services company with major direct mail, statement, and marketing print operations. Overlaps with Doodad in commercial print and direct mail execution but serves enterprise accounts and operates at significantly larger scale.
• Gannett Co. Largest US newspaper publisher, which prints and distributes its own advertising inserts and FSIs. Overlaps with Doodad in newspaper-adjacent insert printing but operates as a publisher first, printer second.

Direct peers

• News America Marketing: Subsidiary of News Corp that produces free-standing inserts, shared mail, in-store advertising, and direct mail programs. Most directly comparable peer in the shared mail / FSI insert market Doodad serves.
• Valpak: Iconic shared mail / direct mail advertising company producing the blue envelope coupon mailers and related direct mail products for local advertisers. Comparable customer base (small businesses, agencies) and shared mail production economics to Doodad.
• Harte-Hanks: Direct marketing services company providing direct mail, print, and database-driven customer communications. Comparable in serving advertisers with printed direct response materials, though Harte-Hanks has a heavier data/CRM services overlay.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/people/doodad/100082885344797
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/doodad

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Doodad