Print Power’s ‘Touched by DM’ campaign proves print is creative, effective and produces results. Jessica McGreal reports
With the world’s ever increasing obsession with all things digital, it’s fair to say great DM campaigns are few and far between. However, Print Power, a company dedicated to promoting print media in modern integrated marketing programmes, understandably realises the vast benefits of DM.
In order to convince its audience Print Power has launched a campaign to issue a wakeup call to the creative industry about the power of DM. ‘Touched by DM’ also intends to demonstrate the high degree of response that can be obtained with creative mail. Print Power has sent out more than 2200 DMs to a selection of brand managers, budget holders and media buyers across Europe with budgets in excess of a quarter of a million.
Call-to-action
To ensure the campaign was genuinely different and appealing to its audience, Print Power chose to work with Ogilvy’s Red Works office because of its international experience.
The mail consists of four elements: the envelope (which is in fact a folded-up poster) personalised letter, chalked blackboard and reply envelope. However, what makes this DM different is its interactive nature. Recipients are invited to wipe away the chalk on the blackboard with their hand to reveal a hidden message. The prospect is then asked to leave a print of their chalk-covered hand on the reply card, which they can then post back to Print Power to be scanned and printed on the cover of a Moleskine notebook. The personalised notebook is then shipped back to the recipient.
This direct marketing campaign urges prospects to think more carefully about the power of print while encouraging a level of interactivity which is rare in DM.
To ensure the mailer landed in the right hands, the brand harnessed the power of big data. Good selection criteria and understanding of its target audience was instrumental to the campaign’s success. As a result, it focused on compiling a detailed database and also worked with Haymarket on this project.
Making DM work
Despite its affiliation with print, Print Power still understands the importance of integrated B2B campaigns, and realises this mailer would not be effective in isolation.
As part of the campaign Print Power also featured case studies and examples of sensory print on its website, a video showing the production of the ‘Touched by DM’ mailer, issued press releases and utilised social media to promote the campaign.
DM is not dead
In recent years some have hailed direct mail as ‘dead’. However, Martyn Eustace, country manager for Print Power UK disagrees: “I have not heard anybody pronounce DM is dead. In fact I think from my perspective, if you look at the world of print out of all the channels you see print DM is one that most people are enthusiastic about because it is very much a medium that can be targeted. [The campaign] is starting from the premise that DM is still recognised as a fantastic way of promoting brands and we just want to reinforce that.”
Powerful results
The brand has seen great results from DMs sent out across Europe, including Spain, Italy, France and the UK. In Spain a 25 per cent return rate on mailing has been reported, while Italy has seen a 14.7 per cent return rate, UK 10 per cent and France nine per cent. The significance of these results becomes clear when compared to the average return rate for this kind of mailing, which is between 0.5 and one per cent.
Looking ahead, over the coming months the mailing will be sent out to a further five countries across Europe.
However, in order to achieve such successful ROI do marketers need to splash their cash on fancy DMs like this one? Eustace believes creativity, rather than budget, should be at the heart of any print campaign: “There was an element of expense, but it’s the way you put the whole package together.”
So, with the right creative, data, call-to-action (and budget) DM remains a powerful force to be reckoned with. Technology does not mean the end of direct marketing, rather a start of a new era of DM.
