Abusing envelopes for fun and profit
NOW AND THEN I luck into a client who understands direct response mail strategy, including the importance of not quitting once you have a winner, but of continuing to pit contenders against it. The Council for Secular Humanism recently challenged me to create and test a new direct mail package against the reigning champion for its quarterly Secular Humanist Bulletin. The timing couldn’t have been better. My letter carrier had recently brought me an envelope laden with footprints, spills, and tire tracks. After spending a good 15 minutes trying to divine that poor envelope’s travels, I wondered what might happen if I made an envelope look worse for wear on purpose. CSI agreed to try it. I wrote the copy, and designer extraordinaire Jeff Bacon created the art. That’s the resultant package there on the right. Click on any of the images to enlarge. Results? I defer to my client Tom Flynn: “We tested your ‘a truck drove over it’ piece against our control, 50/50—and you annihilated it. Control: 1.1%. Your piece: 2.4%.” Yep. Beat the control by more than 2-to-1. | Click on images to enlarge |
A bit of kudos to the client is in order here. Not every client would agree to sending such an unkempt looking thing in the mail, much less to a tongue-in-cheek sales letter in effect saying “Maybe I’m paranoid” and “Maybe I forgot to send you an invitation.”
—Steve Cuno Quantum Mechanical Manifesation Beneficiary |