Print/Direct Mail

A couple of months ago the Direct Mail blog focused on utilizing PURLs as a response method on direct mail pieces. To recap, PURLs are simply personalized URLs (www.briansumner.com, for example). The thinking is that people will be more inclined to check out a website with their name as part of the URL, thus turning into a lead. We asked the readers what they thought of this idea and their response was … nothing. Not one single person had an opinion (or not single person read it). This month, I’m putting the challenge out there. I’m looking for 10 people to respond to the topic below. If that magical number is hit, our very own Michael Mackie will dress up and wear a chicken outfit for an entire day (he doesn’t know about this yet, so let’s keep this on the down-low). Topic: Do you think a direct mail campaign is more successful if the person receiving the piece has their personal information pre-populated on the business reply slip/card? By personal information, I mean mainly name and address. I’ve been looking for data that supports this argument one way or the other and have come up empty handed. The Direct Mail team is pushing to test this (currently we pre-populate everything we send out), but until we have some rock-solid data, we want your opinion. Remember, we need 10 people to respond in order for Mr. Mackie to dawn the chicken outfit. You have the topic, now discuss.

There are many reasons as to why a direct mail campaign can fail. Time of year, message being presented and type of list are just a few things to keep in mind when preparing your campaign. We take advantage of our Business Intelligence team to provide us even more information on the front end, so we have every possible edge in making a campaign successful. The Business Intelligence team uses the client’s start data to create a market potential report of each campus. These reports use Claritas software that combines updated Census data, MRI lifestyle, behavior surveys and the full mailing addresses of starts to generate an overall student profile. Once this profile is created, the Claritas software analyzes the markets on a ZIP code level to find those areas with the most households that match that student profile. This detailed-level analysis allows us to geo-demographically target direct mail lists and produce more quality leads for our clients, focusing only on those communities (zips) with the greatest potential for student recruitment. For example, if School ABC did a drop for a 30 mile radius, they may hit all of the areas that get leads/starts, but they may end up spending a lot of money mailing to areas that only get very few leads/starts. Using the Claritas information, we are more likely to hit areas that are more likely to respond. The map illustrates the power of Claritas and the information it provides. The colored areas represent the Claritas software’s opinion of where the best areas for the drop would be based on the student profiles. The dots are the actual starts received from the school. This will allow us to weed out the start-poor areas and focus our dollars on the start-rich areas, leading us to a more successful direct mail campaign.

QuikTrip, a local gas station, has an awesome promotion for their premium gas. Posters on the pumps (point-of-pump advertising?) show large gas nozzles with the following text: Like fine wine, except it tastes nasty. There’s a couple of interesting things going on in that ad. The humor is obvious (I thought it was hilarious and I laugh every time I think of it, although it got a groan from one guy in my room). What’s more subtle is the fine wine reference. The phrase ‘fine wine’ isn’t about wine, and you don’t even have to like wine for the ad to be effective. Fine wine signifies something like the idea of the upper class, but not quite as tangible or clear-cut. It signifies a state that people aspire to. We are wired to want to improve. That’s why the American Dream is so powerful, why the standard of living tends to increase from generation to generation, why the Jeffersons aren’t the only ones “movin’ on up.” We all want to move up, and whenever possible we make choices that will help us improve our lives. Effective ads make good use of important observations about human psychology, and about society as a whole. In the ads we produce here at PlattForm, we know that illustrating outcomes and achievements – addressing those strong yet hard-to-codify aspirations – produces results. Being a paralegal, for example, has a certain status, a certain amount of cultural capital. And it’s our job as designers to convey that capital in our type, photo and layout choices to get readers to pick up the phone or log on to a website. If we don’t, we and our message stay locked out. But when we do, we address the meanings and aspirations that the reader already possesses. Like a key turning a lock, the message clicks.

The good ol’ folks in the direct mail world have been living and breathing PURLs over the past few months. They’re supposed to be the “next best thing” when it comes to direct mail. Not sure what PURL stands for? You’re not alone, but we’re trying to change that. A PURL is simply a personalized URL (www.briansumner.com, for example). The belief is that prospective students who receive a direct mail piece will be more inclined to check out a web site that has their name included, therefore turning into leads. The results have been interesting. We tested PURLs on a couple of campaigns in the past two months and to our surprise, the non-PURL control pieces have outperformed the PURL pieces. And when I say outperformed, I mean the non-PURL pieces have more than doubled the response of the PURL pieces. Any ideas on why the non-PURL pieces are flourishing and the PURL pieces aren’t? That’s a good question and we have our theories, but we’re going to continue to test PURLs in different methods to see if they truly are the “next best thing” in direct mail. In the meantime, we’re curious what you think. What is your opinion on seeing your own personal website on a direct mail piece? Will seeing this make you interested enough to check it out?

The Creative Services team had a retreat at Lake Doniphan last week. It was exhilarating to see 33 of us sitting in a big circle in a lodge basement; it gave me a heightened sense of community. We did lots of team-building stuff, including the “stand in a circle and cross hands and attempt to untangle yourselves without letting go of any hands” exercise. OK, at first I thought it was goofy. And then our team never got untangled, and the skeptic in me had a field day. One team got untangled twice and put on a display for the group, unfolding effortlessly and untangling wordlessly in about 45 seconds. It was truly breathtaking; a modern dance piece. We did another group exercise that had me skeptical at first: writing a five-minute musical (with the help of Lovewell Institute). There’s no way; you’ve got to be kidding, I thought. Again, we broke into groups, and someone had a great idea for a theme – a badly-dubbed kung-fu movie musical. Hilarity, including the Asian garage sale music, ensued (You can see all four groups’ musicals and the lodge basement on YouTube – search for “lovewell plattform”). Both exercises were a blast to experience. They had common communication and problem-solving themes, which we all discussed afterward. But one of the most compelling illustrations for me that day was watching what happens when an idea inspires a group. The group of eight that performed their untangling for the group were of a single mind. They had an idea, and that idea created a focused motivation and outcome that was thrilling to watch. The kung-fu musical idea sparked so many embellishments and additions from our team that we did at least as much laughing as we did planning and rehearsing. But again, the idea led to the focus, which spawned the plot twists and jokes that made it funny – and rewarding, and memorable, and powerful.