{"id":235,"date":"2013-04-23T23:42:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T23:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/ephemera\/?p=235"},"modified":"2020-11-11T14:46:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T03:46:25","slug":"the-special-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/the-special-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"The special offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Direct<\/a><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s be perfectly clear here: if you\u2019re going to write \u2018Something special for you\u2019 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 \u2013 Sealed with a kiss, NORWICH \u2013 if you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

If not, there will be consequences. Dire consequences. Your credibility will be shredded and I\u2019ll never believe anything you tell me ever again. Moreover, I\u2019ll tell all my friends (yes, I have some<\/i>) that you can\u2019t be trusted and that anything you say should be totally dissed and treated like the naked, evil, conniving LIE that it is.<\/p>\n

So whatever is inside that envelope had better not be the \u2018opportunity\u2019 to save 10% when I spend lots of money with you by signing up for something I don\u2019t really want. That\u2019s not special. That\u2019s really very ordinary indeed. It had better not be an invitation to attend a \u2018seminar\u2019 with the chance to win something I probably won\u2019t win and certainly don\u2019t want. That\u2019s not special either. And please don\u2019t make it a \u2018Special Introductory Offer\u2019. I\u2019ve had those before and they never work out.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 SPORTSCRAFT (for that is who it is), what \u2018special\u2019 thing have you got for me inside that envelope?<\/p>\n

[drum roll]<\/p>\n

And you know, it\u2019s not bad at all. It\u2019s a $20 gift card and birthday wishes. That\u2019s nice. That\u2019s more than I get from some family members (you know who you are).<\/p>\n

So\u2026 well done SPORTSCRAFT, that was a pleasant experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to see a direct mail piece that works because, when it does, it\u2019s a reminder of just how powerful DM can be as a marketing medium. It\u2019s got great cut-through. Equally, when it\u2019s bad, it can be a totally pointless exercise, like sending smoke signals in a cyclone.<\/p>\n

A lot of work has gone into this little envelope \u2013 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\u2019s probably been road tested to the nth degree but, like all good DM campaigns, you can see where the money has been spent.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a print item that came into existence because of the internet. It\u2019s a different sort of print \u2013 variable data, plastic card \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

The experts call this \u2018cross-media\u2019 communication or marketing. I\u2019ve 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\u2019s an living, breathing example of it in the wild. Special indeed.<\/p>\n

\"shredded<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So let\u2019s be perfectly clear here: if you\u2019re going to write \u2018Something special for you\u2019 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 \u2013 Sealed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-direct_mail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}