The Personal TouchWhy Direct Mail needs to get back to basics

to stay fresh in a digital world.

Nick Mercer, Managing Director – MercerBell @nickmercerSimon Bloomfield, National Creative Director – Hyro @dekkard42

(Or why there’s nothing personal about a poke.)

1. What’s in our letterboxes?

2. With mail budgets shifting online, what are the mistakes we are making?

3. The Personal Touch in action – case studies from the past and present.

4. Keeping the mail channel fresh.

Stand up, please.

“The problem is that consumers’s shift towards digital media has been

equalled, if not surpassed by a shift in volume of online advertising. Add to

this the now well-documented phenomenon of consumers creating and sharing their own content online

and the outcome is a digital landscape that has become even more saturated

with brand communications.”

Mobashara Nazir, MRM Worldwide in Campaign Magazine’s ‘Digital Essays’

So, what’s in our mailboxes?

Approximately 1/3 (or around 25) of the Cannes Direct Lion winners in

2006 either were mailpacks or included a significant element of

Direct Mail.

1 Gold; 1 Silver; 2 Bronze(3 for charities; 1 for a postal service)

In 2010, there were 4.

So with mail budgets shifting online, what are the mistakes we are making?

1. There’s an over reliance on data in absence of a real consumer insight.

2. We’re forgetting that technology is just a tool, not an idea.

3. We’re too focused on personalisation, and forgetting about humanisation.

4. We’re losing the art of persuasion.

The Personal Touch in action – Direct Mail case studies

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL LETTERBBDO, Martin Conroy

“It’s the ‘Hamlet,’ the ‘Iliad,’ the ‘Divine Comedy’ of direct-mail letters. It’s had a

longer life, to my knowledge, than any other direct mail in history.”

James R. Rosenfield, describing Conroy’s letter in the copywriter’s obituary published in the New York Times.

QUITE FRANKLY, AMERICAN EXPRESSOGILVY & MATHER DIRECT, New York

FALLING LETTERSKOLLE REBBE, Hamburg

CHILD SOLDIERSJUNG von MATT, Hamburg

INVASIONMRM WORLDWIDE Sao Paulo

MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CARDSCRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY Europe

How to keep your direct mail fresh.

1. Use consumer insights to decideon your channel choices.

2. Play to the strengths of mail.

3. Measure the value return rather than simply the cost.

4. Brevity is not the soul of wit – it’s a sign of laziness.

5. Make your direct mail more personal.

6. Test and learn. Every time.

A final word(Or a final few)

“Mail is unique. It’s the only medium that can be personal and exploit all the virtues of 3D-ness. A direct mail pack

can be a sensory feast. A delight to hold and unfold, read and see, even hear and

smell. Even in the Facebook age, a letter is still one of the most warmly

welcomed of communications."

Simon Kershaw, Executive Creative Director, TDA (UK)