So let’s be perfectly clear here: if you’re going to write ‘Something special for you’ on your direct mail and have it visible in the address window with the appearance of having been hand-written by you especially for me, like a friend, like a special friend might write a message on the envelope – Sealed with a kiss, NORWICH – if you’re going to do that, actually pretend to be a friend with something special to offer an especially special person, then whatever is inside the envelope had better be PRETTY BLOODY SPECIAL.
If not, there will be consequences. Dire consequences. Your credibility will be shredded and I’ll never believe anything you tell me ever again. Moreover, I’ll tell all my friends (yes, I have some) that you can’t be trusted and that anything you say should be totally dissed and treated like the naked, evil, conniving LIE that it is.
So whatever is inside that envelope had better not be the ‘opportunity’ to save 10% when I spend lots of money with you by signing up for something I don’t really want. That’s not special. That’s really very ordinary indeed. It had better not be an invitation to attend a ‘seminar’ with the chance to win something I probably won’t win and certainly don’t want. That’s not special either. And please don’t make it a ‘Special Introductory Offer’. I’ve had those before and they never work out.
So… SPORTSCRAFT (for that is who it is), what ‘special’ thing have you got for me inside that envelope?
[drum roll]
And you know, it’s not bad at all. It’s a $20 gift card and birthday wishes. That’s nice. That’s more than I get from some family members (you know who you are).
So… well done SPORTSCRAFT, that was a pleasant experience.
It’s good to see a direct mail piece that works because, when it does, it’s a reminder of just how powerful DM can be as a marketing medium. It’s got great cut-through. Equally, when it’s bad, it can be a totally pointless exercise, like sending smoke signals in a cyclone.
A lot of work has gone into this little envelope – the creative, the data management, the production of the plastic gift card, getting all the variable data to print in the right place, marrying up all the different elements. Because it works, I imagine it’s probably been road tested to the nth degree but, like all good DM campaigns, you can see where the money has been spent.
The other thing I like about this print item is that the trigger for it was an online purchase. We hear a lot about how the internet is killing print but here’s a print item that came into existence because of the internet. It’s a different sort of print – variable data, plastic card – but it highlights how the different media can work together, reinforcing the customer contact, prolonging the retail experience. In all likelihood, the print item will generate another online transaction and so on.
The experts call this ‘cross-media’ communication or marketing. I’ve sat through quite a few seminars about it over the years and usually I have no idea what the people who espouse it are going on about but, by way of confirmation that it does actually exist, here’s an living, breathing example of it in the wild. Special indeed.
