Direct Marketing is about reaching out to your audience via a range of mediums so that you build relationships and hopefully long term customers or clients. Loyal customers are more profitable to an organisation so marketing wants to keep their customers.
Companies are starting to personalise their direct marketing more and more. With the use of internet and databases, it has allowed companies to start the conversation with their customers easier than in the past. This engagement enables customers to move up to loyal fans to ambassadors. People are not trusting advertising as much as previous years, the use of ambassadors who would recommend companies and brands on social media and blogs, is certainly a way for a company’s brand messages to be heard by audiences.
Source: Jacobs and Stone ( ) Successful Direct Marketing Methods
Technology advancements have also enabled companies to create exciting ways to cut through the clutter and for the audience to pay attention to the marketing message. Some of the best campaigns I’ve seen are:
Back to Vinyl – The Office Turntable
One of my favourites is the Back to Vinyl campaign that used latest technology to grab the attention of their audience so that they would open the mail and actually listen to the CD. It’s a novel way and it showed that they knew their target.
Earth Hour ‘Candle Box’ – Philippines in 2009
- Yellow candles, in a specially-designed box (one side as the facade of a building) sent to CEOs and Business leaders in Philippines.
- Pulling out the candle would ‘switch off’ the building lights.
- Results: corporate support increased by 260% from previous year, making Philippines top participant of Earth Hour in 2009.
Ikea Flat Pack
‘Letter’ resembled an Ikea box and when opened, it pops up to a bedroom demonstrating 2 things:
- Ikea flat pack furniture designs are super easy to assemble
- they look great.
All items used in the bedroom can be found at Ikea – from the furniture to the bed sheets to the comfy slippers. This one was really a labor of love. It involved hours and hours in Photoshop amongst hundreds of layers, a number of visits to Ikea and lots of photography and retouching. Not to mention the hours down at the press.
Vedior ‘Test Box’
Vedior – a temporary labour services company – wanted to communicate to HR Managers – “Whatever the disease that strikes, Vedior always reacts quickly to your needs”.
Vedior sent a “Test Box”, offering HR Managers the opportunity to test the Vedior service.
It contained 5 labo tubes, each filled with bacteria. Message: “Just test us. Infect your employees. And see how fast Vedior sends the perfect replacement”.
- Results – HR Managers ADORED the idea. 43% of them – all working in companies of +100 employees, Vedior’s most important target group – made an appointment. The idea had an important impact on the brand image
of Vedior. It proved the confidence of the company: “Just test us. You will see: we send you the right temporary worker. Whatever the disease, whenever it happens”. - AWARDS:
- Eurobest 2007 (BRONZE)
- John Caples 2007 (Finalist)
- Cannes lions 2008 (Finalist Direct & Finalist Promo)
Immortal Fans – Sport Club Recife – Brazil
Although organ donation is a sensitive issue, the football club of Recife created a campaign about creating ‘Immortal Fans’ – fans of the sporting club, were sent donor cards and asked to legally sign up, saying you can be a fan forever.
- 51,000 people requested cards.
- Increased donors by 54%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wnjwjZH2PA
So if you want to cut through the clutter and really get the attention of your audience:
- know your client,
- personalise the message as much as possible (use databases more effeciently)
- and use technology that will grab their attention and make them want to learn more and buy your products and services.
The aim of all marketing in today’s society is about engagement.