Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, May 16, 2012 @ 12:12 PM
I wanted to share this article with our community because we talk a lot about how our work tells a story when delivering a message. Our high-impact dimensional print solutions are great at delivering marketing messages, but also in telling a story. In this article, the author talks about tapping into primal urges to deliver your message. In a slightly simplistic, but humorous way, he is talking about telling your marketing story in an easy to understand way.
Read the article
Check out other articles on telling a story with your marketing:
Four Designs that Offer a Great User Experience
How direct mail can tell a story
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, May 09, 2012 @ 12:37 PM
Many of the marketing solutions we develop for clients include some type of digital component, either an email or landing page. When we are designing a landing page or an email there is one inescapable truth that hangs over the design process like a black cloud. You can
spend days or even weeks perfecting the design and usability of a landing page or an email. But when it’s time to release it to the world you are faced with the reality that the recipient may only spend a split second with your fabulous design. You’re given one chance (and a short one at that) to make an impression and keep the recipient’s attention.
It is this shortcoming of landing pages and email where I believe direct mail truly stands out. Yes, we have all sorted through a pile of mail and quickly discarded things that were of no interest. But with direct mail the recipient has something tangible he or she can touch. If you make an impression with the recipient, your piece has the opportunity to stick around for longer than the time it takes to click delete.
Our clients know that direct mail can do more than deliver a message and be tossed in the trash. When you make an immediate impression with the recipient you have the opportunity to not only delivery your message, but also make a lasting impact. In marketing, impact usually equates to response; which is why our direct mail delivers average response rates of 8.51%.
This doesn’t mean that all direct mail is created equal. I can discard a postcard or letter nearly as fast as I can delete an email or click off a landing page. But when I receive a nice package that is engaging, I spend much more time with it, even if I’m not interested in the company that sent it.
Every week, without question, I will receive two or three letters from insurance and financial companies. Ever since our first child was born we have had a target on our mailbox and many companies are convinced we need more insurance or savings. They’re right, but that’s not the point. The point is that 90% of these solicitations are delivered as plain white envelopes with a long letter. There is no attempt on the marketer’s part to engage me or give me much of a reason to pay attention.
Take a look at some of the direct mail that does create impact and engagement with the recipient. You won’t see any envelopes or postcards.
MORE:
Direct Mail Response Rate Fact Sheet (pdf)
Case Studies
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, May 02, 2012 @ 01:13 PM
Stemming from the overwhelming success of AMC’s Mad Men, a spinoff has been born. Premiering last month, AMC has opened the doors to the chaotic, unpredictable and sometimes cutthroat world of ad agencies. The narrative centers around two agencies that are chosen to pitch new campaign ideas to a major brand. The show doesn’t feel overproduced, like most “reality” TV, but is heavily edited to squeeze in a week of agency work, and a big pitch all in one nice hour-long package. You don’t have to be in advertising to enjoy the show. My wife and I watched the first two episodes of the series last night and I found two interesting takeaways.
Funny doesn’t always translate.
McKinney, an agency in Durham, was pitching two ideas to the executives at Subway. One of their ideas was very well received and they ultimately won the business. However, the other idea just didn’t translate from the creative sanctuary of the McKinney offices. As they were explaining the idea to the executives, there were uncomfortable blank stares of boredom and confusion. In fact, you didn’t really get the sense that the pitchman was into it either. Though you were only given a few minutes of what was likely many hours of discussion between the creatives at the agency, the viewer was led to believe the idea was ill-conceived and perhaps a bit forced. The idea that was funny, creative and edgy to the team at McKinney just didn’t translate to the executives at Subway.
It’s easy to get an idea or concept stuck in your head that you just believe is brilliant. And it may be, but you may be the only one that thinks so. In fact, there’s a bit of science behind it. Studies have shown that people with specific political persuasions tend to process news very differently. News stories that support a point of view are often given far more credence than stories that oppose one’s views. The truth should just be reality, but it rarely is. This phenomenon isn’t surprising to anyone who watches cable news in today’s divisive political climate.
Is there a lesson here? I suppose it’s that taking risks and thinking differently is good, and you should defend your ideas vigorously. But, know when to wave the white flag.
Trampling a project to death.
Back at WDCW, an agency just down the road from our west coast office in Culver City, the creatives had an idea percolating. They wanted to sell Subway’s breakfast to a tough demographic, 18-24 year olds. They were working on a concept “zAMbies” that likened the young breakfast seekers to zombies who needed a fresh new breakfast routine.
The concept was new and creative, but risky. It didn’t look like anything Subway had ever
done. While the agency was working on the idea, overseeing the project was the agency founder, Tracy Wong. He made a great point about the creative process. While pointing out how hard the entire team was working on the project, he reminded viewers that it’s easy for ideas to get stepped on, suggesting that too many people were involved.
I would venture to bet that everyone in advertising has experienced this frustration. An idea starts getting kicked around a team, then another group weighs in, then senior management puts in their two cents, and eventually the concept is trampled to death, crushed by the overwhelming weight of too many opinions. Maybe that’s how the process is supposed to work. Or maybe it’s the result of a process that isn’t working. I really don’t know. I do know that advertising and design is largely subjective. By definition, something that is subjective cannot be right or wrong, true or false. But somehow, we let a pure idea get tossed around, torn apart, painted over, until it’s not recognizable by its originator. In my experience, fewer opinions are almost always better, but that could just be the bias in me, discussed in the third paragraph of this posting.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Apr 25, 2012 @ 12:03 PM
There is a great article on Target Marketing's website, posted by Brian Wagner on April 23rd. Brian discusses the struggles that direct mail went through during the economic downturn of recent years. Interestingly, he also discusses how well direct mail fits in with your digital strategy. In a time when direct mail takes a bit of heat for not being the new kids on the block, smart marketers understand that they need to use direct mail allong with their online efforts to create truly effective integrated campaigns.
It's a quick read, well worth a few minutes of your time.
"Direct mail is very much alive today and continues to be the workhorse for many brand marketing efforts. It has been, and continues to be, at the very heart and soul of direct response marketing." read more...
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Apr 18, 2012 @ 01:43 PM
The technology world was taken aback last week when Facebook agreed to purchase Instagram for one billion dollars. The valuation seemed to be a bit random and perhaps without merit. In this deal, Facebook made the offer with 30% cash and 70% stock, which assumes an IPO of $30 per share when the company goes public. Instagram is taking a bit of a gamble, but one that worked out well for the folks at Zappos in 2009. According to the New York Times, Amazon acquired Zappos in exchange for 10 million shares and some cash. The market value of those 10 million shares today is $1.9 Billion.
Instagram, a photo-sharing startup, had about 30 million users at the time the purchase was
announced. Within a week they had an addition 10 million users, due to the overwhelming publicity. Even so, Facebook probably didn’t make the purchase because they wanted to court 30 million additional Facebook users to add to their current 800+ million members. It’s likely that the vast majority of Instagram users were already Facebook members anyway. I think the more likely explanation for Mark Zuckerberg’s move was to keep it away from the emerging social network, Google Plus.
In an interview, Zuckerberg explained that Instagram had developed a really great mobile experience for sharing beautiful photographs, and that he wanted to bring that to Facebook. What he surly must realize is that he could have easily developed that functionality on his own mobile platform.
The ability to add cool filters and effects to photos is nothing new or proprietary, so I am not sure I totally buy that claim, but it really doesn’t matter. What really matters is that two large social-sharing sites, Facebook and Google Plus are competing for your attention (and user data). They each want to own their user’s life, in the sense that they know where you shop and hang out (geo-tagging), who your friends are and what you “like”.
I don’t know who originally said it, but it’s absolutely brilliant, true and creepy all at the same time; “if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product.” The Instagram app is free.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 @ 12:33 PM
It was announced last month that Proctor & Gamble is shifting much of its TV dollars to magazine advertising. P&G is the largest national advertiser and largest TV advertiser; however in 2011 their marketing budget showed a 5.4% decrease in TV advertising, in favor of magazine. Marketing experts agree that the move is to focus on more targeted mediums. Magazine allows you to target very specific markets and demographics.
For an industry that has long been considered on the decline, does this signal a shift to more traditional and reliable marketing mediums? Sound off in our comments section below.
Read original story from the Business Courier
See examples of great Magazine Advertising
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Apr 04, 2012 @ 12:35 PM
There are countless resources online for marketers, some good, some bad. But regardless of
what kind of marketing you do, or what type of industry you’re in, there are some websites that get it right consistently. These are the ones you want to pay attention to. Of course, everyone has their own favorites, so please use the comments section below to tell us about yours!
1. MarketingSherpa is a marketing research firm that conducts their own studies and publishes their research. They are not an agency or consultants, they just focus on marketing research. They have premium memberships that grant access to countless studies and guides. However, there is a lot of information available for free on the website. You can download guides on landing page design, or email marketing, or segmentation strategies. The website is well organized and easy to navigate, though the general design leaves a bit to be desired, but that really doesn’t matter considering the quality of the content. The pro memberships will run you $379 a year, but it’s well worth the investment.
2. MarketingProfs is very similar to MarketingSherpa but offers a different variety of reports, studies, guides and even webinars. Most of the webinars, studies and reports require a pro membership, as the free content tends to be “sponsored.” There’s great content and user forums that you can access for free, but to get the most out of it, you’ll need to shell out $279 per year.
3. Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, blogger, best-selling author, speaker and all around smart guy. In his popular blog he takes a common sense approach to every day marketing, business and branding issues. All of his website content is free, and subscribing to his blog updates is simple, but if you want one of his 13 books you’ll need to go to Amazon.
4. Avinash Kaushik is widely recognized as the leader in web analytics and data-driven strategy. He is an author of two books on web analytics, consultant, blogger and “The Digital Marketing Evangelist” for Google. On his blog he offers up a light-hearted mix of commentary and in-depth strategies for web analytics. His website also has links to presentations he has made and articles he has written for magazines like Inc Magazine, Search Marketing Standards and IT World. You can’t beat the price; all content is provided at no charge.
5. WebDesignLedger.com is a great blog that’s written primarily by web professionals and graphic designers. Though a lot of the content is centered around web design, you don’t need to know what a pixel is to enjoy the content. They have a terrific “Inspiration” section that provides a wonderful collection of beautiful websites, font treatments and logo designs. For designers, you’ll find great tips, tutorials and free downloads.
Please, tell us about your favorites!
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Mar 28, 2012 @ 11:17 AM
Social media is certainly an important component in most B-to-C campaigns these days. This article confirms the ROI value of social media but also makes compelling points about the value of direct mail.
Direct mail surprisingly transcends the age demographic, with younger consumers (the 18- to 34-year-old demographic) preferring to learn about marketing offers via postal mail rather than online sources, according to national survey research from ICOM,” said Lisa Formica, president of FMI, a direct mail marketing and advertising firm.
Read the full article
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 @ 12:41 PM
Avinash Kaushik is a data analytics professional and blogger that brings new insights to the world of web stats. Sure, you may have Google Analytics installed on your website, but are you truly using those metrics to change the way you do things? Avinash talks about ways to turn seemingly useless web statistics into actionable business intelligence.
Read the article.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Mar 14, 2012 @ 12:43 PM
An interesting article appeared this week in Luke Wroblewski's blog. Luke is an expert at user experience and design, primarily with mobile. He writes a popular blog you can see here.
The article highlights some interesting facts about email and concludes that there is an "eroding influence". Though we recommend email as part of our integrating marketing programs, they are rarely the main component of a campaign. Combined with direct mail, a well-designed landing page and a great follow-up plan, email can be highly effective. As you can see by the statistics in the article, on its own, email is losing effectiveness and influence.
Read the full article here.
Browse our articles on effective integrated campaigns.