The Day a New Era Dawned in Direct Marketing

Transcription

1

2 The Day a New Era Dawned in Direct Marketing August 10, 2003 was the day the Post Office created a new class of mail it named Customized Market Mail (CMM). Most people know it as ShipShapes, probably because ShipShapes, Inc. originated the concept, championed its approval by the Post Office and produces about 90% of all CMM. ShipShapes are light years advanced in design and delivered at warp speed. ShipShapes are durable, dimensional custom-shaped mail that the Post Office delivers faster than First Class. ShipShapes opens new vistas of opportunities for direct marketers longing to replace junk mail that get trashed with keepsakes that get displayed on desks, walls and refrigerators and, best of all, they get unbelievable response rates. We have collected here some of the best early examples of ShipShapes, which you can review to find out what ShipShapes can do for you. Then, you can talk to the foremost vexperts on ShipShapes. Call us at page 1

3 The Very First ShipShapes Advertiser The first company to test the market with CMM was Great Circle Family Foods, a Krispy Kreme franchiser in Los Angeles. Great Circle targeted 10,000 Orange County residents, living within three miles of three store locations, with a high-gloss, non rectangular mail piece employing an image of an open box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The piece dropped Aug. 11, just one day after the CMM classification took effect, with a simple, but effective offer: Buy a dozen doughnuts and get another dozen for a dime. Each mail piece included a code that was collected by the cashier and enabled the company to track the promotion. The piece also listed the addresses and phone numbers of the Orange County, California stores where the coupon was valid. The promotion expired Sept. 30. When we send a typical direct mail piece to an unsolicited party, we generally get a response rate of 2 to 3 percent, said Lisa Ducore, vice president of marketing for Great Circle Family Foods. The ShipShapes campaign fetched an 11 percent response rate from consumers. For a mailing to prospective Krispy Kreme customers, this was an extremely successful campaign. The unique look and shape of this mailing definitely caught the attention of prospective customers. Additionally, the premium look of ShipShapes represented our brand very nicely. page 2

4 page 3

5 page 4

6 Our Best Customer: The U.S. Post Office After a one-year review process, the Postal Rate Commission finally approved the launch of CMM in August Prior to this new classification, the USPS would permit mailing of an actual product, but prohibited direct mail in anything other than the standard flat, rectangular shape. Once it approved CMM, the Post Office was faced with the task of promoting its use by advertisers. What better way to get their attention than to send out its own ShipShapes? One of the first pieces we did for the Post Office was a picture, suitable for framing, of the Capitol Building on the front and the story of CMM on the back under the headline, Customized Market Mail: The Shape of Things To Come. The same message was printed on the back of several other ShipShapes that we produced for the USPS. Some of these were a ship in a bottle, the USPSsponsored NASCAR and an ice cream cone. In each case, the Post Office was demonstrating to the marketplace that a message will have far greater impact if it is delivered on an attractive, eye-catching, unusual piece of mail. It doesn t matter as much that the image is related to the message as it does that the image is appealing to the recipient. As a result of its promotional efforts, the Postal Service reports that it has been getting a lot of interest from the mailing community about CMM. The customers are pulling us into conversations, asking salespeople to come by and give them a briefing on what this new thing is and how can they do it, said George Hurst, manager, product management-flats, USPS. page 5

7 page 6

8 Customized MarketMail : The Shape of Things To Come Customized MarketMail (CMM) a Standard Mail option by the U.S. Postal Service is the shape of what is to come in Direct Mail. CMM offers advertisers and direct marketers a vehicle through which a highly targeted, uniquely shaped mail piece can be delivered to prospects and existing customers without the need for an envelope. Customized MarketMail Benefits: Achieve business objectives Launch new products, announce events, generate brand awareness or drive business to your store. Make an impact Dazzle your customers with Direct Mail creativity and establish a strong brand identity. Think outside the envelope Showcase your dimensional mail piece without an envelope. Overcome the clutter Push your creative limits to attract customer attention and encourage a response. Shape it up Experiment with unique shapes...anything goes! Cut it out Use die-cuts and interesting shapes in your mail pieces; mail them without an envelope. Showcase your business Shape your mail piece to demonstrate your product or service. Make it a premium Design an informative mail piece that s also a premium for your customers. Customized MarketMail Features: Weight Pieces may weigh no more than 3.3 ounces. Size Pieces may be from 3 ½ to 12 inches high and from 5 to 15 inches long. Shape Pieces can be rectangular, nonrectangular, or irregularly shaped. Pieces cannot have any sharp or pointed edges. Thickness Pieces need not be uniform in thickness, but must be no less than.007 inch at the thinnest point and no more than ¾ inch at the thickest point, including attachments. Coupons, Premium Offers and Attached Items These items may be included within CMM pieces, subject to current Postal Service requirements. These items may be attached to the outside of CMM pieces as long as the attachments are no more than ¼ inch in thickness. Here s What Some CMM Customers Are Saying: This is our best direct mail campaign ever. Erik Dorsey, Rosenfield Raymon Pielech The CMM direct mail piece was very successful for us, yielding an impressive 4-to-1 response rate. Carlos Lopez, Supra Telecom USPS 475 L Enfant Plaza SW Room 5432 Washington, DC We wanted to present an offer that stood out in consumers mailboxes. The Zamboni piece was a way for us to reach out to our target audience of hockey fans and to create the consideration we needed. Lisa Meiers, Marketing Manager, First Tennessee Bank For more information on Customized MarketMail, visit John Q. Sample 123 Main Street Anytown, USA SKU# 07ADMSSP247 United States Postal Service. Eagle symbol is a registered trademark of the United States Postal Service. page 7

9 page 8

10 page 9

11 page 10

12 page 11 United States Postal Service. Eagle symbol is a registered trademark of the United States Postal Service.

13 page 12

14 Customized MarketMail : The Shape of Things To Come Customized MarketMail (CMM) a new option in Standard Mail by the U.S. Postal Service is the shape of what is to come in Direct Mail. CMM offers advertisers and direct marketers a vehicle through which a highly targeted, uniquely shaped mail piece can be delivered to prospects and existing customers without the need for an envelope. Please visit us at for more information. Customized MarketMail Benefits: Here s What Some CMM Customers Are Saying: Erik Dorsey, Rosenfield Raymon Pielech Carlos Lopez, Supra Telecom Lisa Meiers, Marketing Manager, First Tennessee Bank United States Postal Service. Eagle symbol is a registered trademark of the United States Postal Service. Customized MarketMail Features: to the outside of CMM pieces as long as the attachments are no more than ¼ inch in thickness. Manufactured by ShipShapes Patent Pending page 13

15 page 14

16 Customized MarketMail : The Shape of Things To Come Customized MarketMail (CMM) a new option in Standard Mail by the U.S. Postal Service is the shape of what is to come in Direct Mail. CMM offers advertisers and direct marketers a vehicle through which a highly targeted, uniquely shaped mail piece can be delivered to prospects and existing customers without the need for an envelope. Please visit us at for more information. Customized MarketMail Benefits: Here s What Some CMM Customers Are Saying: Erik Dorsey, Rosenfield Raymon Pielech Carlos Lopez, Supra Telecom Lisa Meiers, Marketing Manager, First Tennessee Bank Customized MarketMail Features: cannot have any sharp or pointed edges..007 inch at the thinnest point and no more than ¾ inch at the thickest point, including attachments. may be attached to the outside of CMM pieces as long as the attachments are no more than ¼ inch in thickness. United States Postal Service. Eagle symbol is a registered trademark of the United States Postal Service. page 15

17 Walt Disney World & Funjet Vacations One of the most attention-getting pieces we produced was a die-cut image of Disney s Magic Kingdom above a banner proclaiming Happiest Celebration on Earth. Walt Disney World used it to offer Midwest residents savings of $150 per reservation of three days or more at Walt Disney Resort booked through Funjet Vacations. The offer was time-limited to encourage prompt response. To track the responses from the various mailing lists used in this promotion, the phone number under the headline Call Me Today! was variably-printed at the time the pieces were addressed. page 16

18 page 17

19 page 18

20 Sports Teams Ticket Promotions Professional sports teams are a natural fit for ShipShapes because they are selling a time-limited commodity tickets to a specific event and ShipShapes are perfect for displaying their superstars in action. That s just what the Houston Rockets did with their first ShipShape. They put an action shot of Tracy McGrady on our ClearCard, which mails at a more economical rate than CMM. We scored the outline of McGrady s image, however, so the 50,000 recipients could easily tear out the picture and keep it. On the back of the card was an offer for season tickets or for half-season plans as well as 6 and 14-game plans. The fans were invited to Reserve your plan today and to Call today and receive a limited edition Houston Rockets 40th anniversary T-shirt. Well, the response was overwhelming to say the least. Such offers typically draw a response rate of 2%, 3% or even 5%. But the Tracy McGrady card netted almost 25,000 phone calls officially, we were told the response rate was 49%. So the Rockets followed up with a mailing of 75,000 ClearCards with a scored photo of Yao Ming to sell playoff tickets. Alas, they haven t shared the results with us. Word apparently spread quickly through the ranks of professional sports team marketers, because we ve done ClearCards for a number of basketball, football and hockey teams, and have included here examples from the Indiana Pacers and Oakland Raiders. page 19

21 TEAR HERE page 20

22 page 21

23 TEAR HERE page 22

24 page 23

25 TEAR HERE page 24

26 page 25

27 page 26

28 Carrier Leave If No Response GREAT SEATS. BETTER PRICES. 10-GAME PACKAGE. TAKE A BREAK AND ENJOY MANY GREAT NIGHTS OUT. THERE S NOTHING LIKE BEING HERE AS YOUR PACERS PURSUE ONE GOAL. PACKAGES ARE AVAILABLE FOR $100, $200 AND $300. CALL (317) TODAY TO SELECT YOUR SEAT. IF YOU CALL BEFORE OCTOBER 22 AND SAY ONE GOAL OR REGISTER ONLINE AT YOU WILL BE REGISTERED TO WIN 1 OF 10 AUTOGRAPHED PACERS JERSEYS! (1) Weekend Jamfest 11/06 CHICAGO 11/13 NEW YORK 11/20 ORLANDO 12/11 SACRAMENTO 12/25 DETROIT 01/22 WASHINGTON 01/29 DENVER 02/13 MEMPHIS 03/20 NEW JERSEY 04/10 NEW YORK (2) Fantastic Fridays 11/26 CHARLOTTE 12/17 TORONTO 01/14 PHOENIX 02/04 DALLAS 02/11 HOUSTON 02/25 CLEVELAND 03/11 GOLDEN STATE 03/18 L.A. LAKERS 04/08 WASHINGTON 04/15 PHILADELPHIA (3) Wild Weeknights 11/10 L.A. CLIPPERS 11/25 MINNESOTA 12/07 MILWAUKEE 12/27 NEW ORLEANS 02/02 TORONTO 02/16 PORTLAND 03/01 SEATTLE 03/23 SAN ANTONIO 03/31 MIAMI 04/13 NEW JERSEY (4) Weekday Slam Dunk 11/17 ATLANTA 11/23 BOSTON 12/22 PHILADELPHIA 01/04 MILWAUKEE 01/27 DETROIT 02/09 CHARLOTTE 02/23 MIAMI 03/16 UTAH 04/06 CLEVELAND 04/20 CHICAGO (317) PACERS.COM FOR COMPLETE CONTEST RULES, PLEASE VISIT: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY VOID WHERE PROHIBITED PROMOTION ENDS OCTOBER 22, 2004 MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT 18 YEARS OR OLDER Manufactured by ShipShapes Patent Pending page 27

29 Propel Water Bottle The attractive translucent blue Propel Water Bottle we produced was a ShipShapes CMM piece for the Quaker Oats Co. This piece was singled out at the 2006 National Postal Forum as an example of the unprecedented audience impact that could be achieved by printing on plastic and mailing without an envelope. More importantly, in an industry accustomed to response rates less than one percent, the Propel bottle produced an amazing 14% redemption rate for its snap-off coupon with variable-printed source code and barcode. Perhaps most astounding is that the 14% response rate has held up over repeated mailings that currently exceed 600,000 pieces. page 28

30 SNAP OFF COUPON TRY PROPEL FREE * page 29

31 Lightly flavored to make hydration more refreshing Vitamin-charged to nourish active bodies Low-calorie to fit your active lifestyle lemon berry black cherry tropical citrus kiwi-strawberry grape peach melon PROPELWATER.COM Carrier Leave If No Response. PRSRT STD CUST MKTMAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID PARK FOREST, IL PERMIT NO. 416 MANUFACTURER S COUPON EXPIRATION DATE 9/15/05 *FREE 700 ml bottle of Propel or $1.75 OFF any Propel multi-pack. (up to $1.75) CONSUMER: LIMIT ONE COUPON PER SPECIFIED ITEM(S) PURCHASED. This coupon good only on product sizes and varieties indicated. Consumer pays any sales tax. RETAILER: Quaker will reimburse you the face value of this coupon plus $.08 shipping and handling if submitted in compliance with our redemption policy. Copies available upon request. Cash value $.001. Void if transferred or copied and where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law. Offer good only in U.S.A., Puerto Rico, Guam APO s and FPO s addresses. Mail coupons to: The Quaker Oats Company, CMS Dept , 1 Fawcett Drive, Del Rio, TX S-VC, Inc. EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 15, page 30