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Marketing News TM

September 1, 2004

Low-tech DM pieces still draw customers in Info Age; 'Wireless' has a different meaning in interactive marketing

By PAULA ANDRUSS; Paula Andruss is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati.

Mention interactive marketing today and thoughts immediately turn to Web pages, viral e-mails and online exchanges. But marketing was interactive long before the Internet became a consumer toy. Sure, technology has created a wealth of new ways for marketers to reach and interact with their target audiences, but marketers should never underestimate the power of good old-fashioned direct marketing that intrigues and engages its recipients without electronic help.

Recent figures from New York-based Direct Marketing Association show that direct marketing represents 56% of all U.S. advertising expenditures. As do-not-call laws restrict telemarketers, and spammers make consumers more protective of their e-mail addresses, some marketers consider more conventional tactics, such as traditional direct mail, more important than ever.

But a simple brochure may not always do the job. According to the U.S. Postal Service, Americans receive more than 65 million pieces of direct mail each year. To cut through that clutter, the most effective mailers get recipients involved with the message itself. Reader response cards, games, puzzles and other interactive mailings help interest recipients enough to read the piece and increase chances that they will pay attention to its message. In other words, some of the best examples of interactive marketing are nowhere near a hard drive.

Build a strong message

"If you can cause someone to interact with your piece, you have more chances of them doing the action you want them to do, or putting your company top-of-mind," says Karen Dobbs, vice president and executive creative director in the Dallas office of Wakefield, Mass.-based relationship marketing firm Epsilon. It's that thinking that prompted the agency to create an attention-getting direct mail piece to promote its own services.

"We wanted to get people engaged and make them smile and project the energy and vitality of our company," she says. "And we know that people are always engaged in toys of some manner. We think they create such a good feeling that people will be more receptive to hearing what we have to say." Selecting Lego blocks as the involvement device, the company created its Idea Kit campaign, which was mailed in three phases.

The first mailer was a bright-yellow box that included a pamphlet describing Epsilon's marketing services, along with a Lego base board that would serve as the foundation for the pieces to follow. Three compartments, labeled "Think," "Plan" and "Do," were built into the box to hold those pieces. There was also a message that more information would be coming. The two subsequent mailings featured actual Lego blocks, Lego people and other pieces that fit the theme of the kit, all emphasizing Epsilon's ability to help clients build new customers and ideas.

"It was a simple, easy-to-understand message, as well as a lot of fun," Dobbs says. "It's definitely not something you look at and put aside."

It is, however, something you remember. Of the kits that have been mailed out in their entirety, 49% of recipient companies have welcomed an Epsilon sales call. (Epsilon is still mailing between 30 and 50 of the kits every month to reach all of the Fortune 1000 companies it is targeting.) "People take calls from our sales force because they remember the piece," Dobbs says. "They say 'Oh yeah, you sent us that fun kit.' It has opened a lot of doors for us."

Get some face time

Also playing on the fun factor was a recent mailing in the United Kingdom for Sony PlayStation, created by London's Claydon Heeley Jones Mason. Targeting computer gamers who had registered their consoles with Sony and already had a strong relationship with the company through various other marketing activities, Sony in January 2004 mailed 300,000 U.K. gamers a pack of eight peculiar cardboard masks -- that could be removed from the package and used -- to promote eight various PlayStation 2 game titles.

The mailer carried the message "Eight Reasons to Smile from PlayStation" and included the masks, which were made from photos of human mouths and depicted a character from one of the games, such as a rabid dog, a toothless crook and a destructive robot. The back of each mask had a description of the game and pictures of scenes from the game. A ninth reason to smile was also included: a chance to win a PlayStation 2, wide-screen Sony television and all the games featured in the mailing, via e-mail entry.

The mailer was an ironic twist on the high-tech world of computer gaming, but equally interactive. "Hiding behind a mask is one of the most basic human fantasies," says Josh Haines, a copywriter for the piece. "With this mailpack we hope to have combined fantasy with fun."

The campaign earned a 19.5% response rate -- recipients sending in their e-mail entries -- surpassing its target of 12%. As well, it garnered entries from 11% of recipients who had previously declined to provide their e-mail addresses, more than double its targeted 5%.

The voice of the people

Election year or not, many exemplary marketing campaigns occur in the political arena. William Berry, principal of William Berry Campaigns in Sacramento, Calif., says whether you're trying to get a vote, a sale or a new customer, reader response mailers are a valuable tool for building strong relationships with your target market.

"One-on-one contact in politics is the best way to get somebody's vote. But with huge districts you can't talk to everyone, so you have to devise ways to let them know that their personal opinion matters. It's the same as marketing anything else -- the only thing different is the product," he says.

Berry recently created a mailer for a client running for a Los Angeles school board who wanted to interact with voters. The front of the mailer was a large, four-color photograph of a jackrabbit with huge ears that said "I'm all ears." Inside was a note from the candidate, who said he wanted to know how recipients thought their schools could be improved, and a perforated card they could fill out and return.

Berry says the mailer received a "terrific" response rate of roughly 6%, and that the concept was simple, but highly effective. "People don't think government listens to them," he says. "They think decisions are made without their input. So when someone who's in office or running for office contacts voters with a postcard they can fill out to share their opinions, I think it's a critical part of any campaign."

The smell of success

Looking to entice prospective guests with a sweet offer, Chicago-based Hyatt Corp. last winter discovered that the way to a client's heart may just be through his or her nose. With the help of Edel Partners Inc. in Chicago, the hotel chain created a scented direct mail piece using scented varnish inks that caused recipients to get involved both physically and emotionally.

The mailer, which promoted special seasonal rates and a free country breakfast, was sent to roughly 50,000 select members of the American Automobile Association (AAA) who had recently stayed at a Hyatt hotel. The die-cut piece opened up to reveal a photo of a gooey-looking cinnamon bun that popped off the top of the page. Scented inks were used on the photo of the bun, giving recipients the ability to rub the mailer and be rewarded with a rich, warm, cinnamon and vanilla scent.

"Upscale travelers are inundated with direct mail offers, so we needed to do something to really set us apart," says Amer Hasan, vice president of production at Edel. "Scent happens to be one of the strongest triggers of memory, and we felt that incorporating the alluring smell of fresh cinnamon buns into Hyatt's ad message would bring an added emotional dimension that an unscented printed mailer could not."

Although he declined to discuss specific results, Hasan says Hyatt was so happy with the response to the piece that its executives are adamant that the next AAA mailing be an interactive piece as well. "People loved it," he says. "Using the scented inks really called attention to the message and reinforced it. We've done scratch-and-sniff stickers before, but to be able to print directly on the piece made it much more high-end."