Direct marketing moves beyond just sending out reply-paid envelopes

MEDIA MARKETING:THE TERM direct marketing is believed to have been first used in 1961 in a speech by the New York-born advertising executive Lester Wunderman, who pioneered direct marketing techniques with brands such as American Express and Columbia Records.

Direct marketers use a variety of media to get their message across. The aim is always the same - to get the consumer to take a specific action such as calling a number, visiting a website, placing an order, etc.

Most direct marketing in Ireland takes the form of direct mail. But these days that means a lot more than just sending a coupon with a reply-paid envelope, at least judging by the diverse range of entries to the 2008 An Post Direct Marketing Awards in Dublin's Mansion House last week. While economic commentators speak of doom and gloom, there were no glum faces at these awards, apart from the losers. And with 100 more entries than last year, and more than 30 firms shelling out €2,000 each for a table, the sector would appear to be in rude health.

Biggest winner of the evening was the agency RMG Target which won eight "gold" awards as well as agency of the year for the third year in a row. Also shortlisted for agency of the year was Strategem. While Strategem was pipped for the top prize by RMG Target, its video presentation, which saw its managing director Keith Lee play the role of Jerry Maguire opposite Renee Zellweger, was the star turn of the evening.

Of the eight "gold" awards picked up by RMG Target, two were for its work for the launch of Permanent TSB's personalised bank cards in October 2007. The campaigns objective was to get consumers to create their own cards. All the communications carried a strong call to action.

RMG Target account director Eadoin McHugh explains: "The challenge for Permanent TSB was to consolidate its position as the number one challenger bank in Ireland. Card personalisation was set out as the next differentiator to achieve this as they were the only bank to offer this.

"A campaign was developed using direct-response TV,radio, [and] print, in-branch merchandising and digital. Research had shown that consumers were most likely to use pictures of their pets, their kids and key lifestage moments. The . . . adverts used scenarios that reflected this and showed how consumers could create their own card."

To monitor the responses, RMG used different tracking mechanisms for each advertising medium. TV viewershad to text the word "card" to a number on the advertisement, while for radio and print, the response was tracked using phone and internet.

With tracking results available every couple of days, RMG and the advertising agency Mindshare were able to tweak the media spend as the campaign progressed to maximise return. According to RMG Target, the first four weeks of this campaign delivered an unprecedented increase in new current accounts.

But what drove consumers to respond? Says Eadoin McHugh: "We got response because the message was very simple and it was backed by a strong soundtrack, Picture of You by Blondie. The lyrics were a perfect match: "All I want is a picture in my wallet" and had universal appeal. The soundtrack played a key part in driving affinity and brand credentials."

An Post says that 12 per cent of all Irish mail has promotional material as its main content. Of this, 37 per cent comes from home shopping providers, 24 per cent from firms providing leisure and entertainment and 10 per cent from utilities.

But how much of this goes straight in the bin? Research by An Post shows that 85 per cent of recipients of direct mail in Ireland examine the items and that one-third keep promotional literature as a reference point that they may or may not act on.

The industry standard for positive response to a direct mail campaign is 4 to 5 per cent. No surprise then that the 22 per cent response rate generated by Direct Brand for its campaign for Microsoft secured it a "gold" in the IT category. To get such a high response, Direct Brand devised a personalised direct mail campaign with each recipient receiving a personalised letter.

In addition, each recipient was given their own Microsoft weblink to find further information about the Microsoft product offer.

Taking "gold" in the best charity/not-for-profit category was An Post and its campaign to promote the awareness of adult literacy issues. Created by Javelin Direct, the campaign increased calls to the National Adult Literacy Association from 60 a week to 1,000 in the first week of the campaign. Subsequent average weekly calls were 930, with 87 per cent of them coming from people who had seen the television advertisement.

Says Barney Whelan of An Post: "This campaign has now been extended to in-house training, return to learning, the An Post Education Awards and major regeneration projects including Ballyfermot and Limerick."

siobhan@businessplus.ie