Wrapping stories
DM What's driving direct marketing? The latest answer from Cannes: Storytelling through package mailings is resonating with the audience.
DM What moves direct marketing? The latest answer from Cannes: storytelling with parcel mailings is going down well with the public. A trend was already apparent after a first look around: The disciplines are increasingly moving in one and the same direction. Today, in order to take consumers out of their world of thought and introduce them to a topic, they need to be told a story that encourages them or makes them sit up and take notice. Only those who manage to redirect consumers to their message will achieve anything. We are not only talking about attracting more attention and improving attitudes, but also about the change of action that is the goal of all direct marketing measures. package mailings with space for a story were also a trend at the Cannes Lions 2005.
DM also demands new stimuliLong gone are the days when a "new" or "free" incentive was enough to win consumers over to the message. In the environment of countless pieces of information that everyone has to absorb every day, such keywords are no longer enough. Even the brand and the brand promise alone are no longer a guarantee that something will be read. As a result, direct marketing today faces exactly the same challenge as traditional advertising: how do I get the customer's attention and persuade them to engage further with the offer?
In Cannes at the advertising festival, it was the parcel mailings that stood out in a particularly creative way. Some managed to create suspense and at the same time convey the relevant message in a clever way. The following example of an advertising measure for long-term parking spaces sums it up: when the box is opened, a toy car appears, properly parked in the parking lot. Movie in your head: What's with the full parking lot? Now the recipient has to open the box again. And lo and behold: when the same box is opened a second time, the car has disappeared and shows a free parking space.
Opera in a boxAnother striking parcel shipment was from the Frankfurt Opera. Its métier is the portrayal of human stories involving love, jealousy, greed and hatred. The package advertising the opera contains elements that reinforce precisely these associations: a bullet, a boa feather and gold glitter. The message: if great emotions are to continue to have meaning in opera, sponsors are needed.
And who hasn't racked their brains over an upcoming car purchase? Audi quickly sent out pillows with the suggestion to simply sleep on it again. A mailing like this creates sympathy and perhaps even leads to sweet dreams - of the Audi A4, of course, if the makers have their way.
Gifts and other gadgets are often best suited to playing a movie in the recipient's head and awakening associations that help to convey a message in a sympathetic or humorous way. With the much-cited change in advertising - away from traditional means of communication and towards cross-media dialog concepts - parcel mailings are likely to increasingly take on a new function in the mix of advertising media.
Swiss Post helps door openersSwiss Post has also responded to the growing market demand and developed a new offer that makes sending parcels for advertising purposes more attractive again in terms of price. From a weight of 100 grams and a quantity of 500 units, parcels of the same weight and content can be posted as PostPac Promo. As a result, it is now once again possible to use parcel mailing as a door opener in the minds of consumers at a reasonable cost.
And something else was revealed in Cannes: In other countries too, for example in Spain, the parcel is used to get past the secretary. After all, she is the one who sorts the mail and therefore has a say in what is allowed to reach the decision-makers - and what is not. A parcel addressed to the boss, like the one for the Audi A4, clearly has a better chance of overcoming the tough selection hurdles in the secretary's office. Ralf Doller
Ralf Doller from Alex Schmid Direct, Zollikon, was a member of the jury at the
Cannes Lions 2005.
Messages in the box: Audi awakens dreams of the A4 with a pillow message (above), an opera company symbolically bottles great emotions to woo potential sponsors (left).
Want a permanent parking space? A magic box makes it clear how easy it is to make your car disappear.
DM also demands new stimuliLong gone are the days when a "new" or "free" incentive was enough to win consumers over to the message. In the environment of countless pieces of information that everyone has to absorb every day, such keywords are no longer enough. Even the brand and the brand promise alone are no longer a guarantee that something will be read. As a result, direct marketing today faces exactly the same challenge as traditional advertising: how do I get the customer's attention and persuade them to engage further with the offer?
In Cannes at the advertising festival, it was the parcel mailings that stood out in a particularly creative way. Some managed to create suspense and at the same time convey the relevant message in a clever way. The following example of an advertising measure for long-term parking spaces sums it up: when the box is opened, a toy car appears, properly parked in the parking lot. Movie in your head: What's with the full parking lot? Now the recipient has to open the box again. And lo and behold: when the same box is opened a second time, the car has disappeared and shows a free parking space.
Opera in a boxAnother striking parcel shipment was from the Frankfurt Opera. Its métier is the portrayal of human stories involving love, jealousy, greed and hatred. The package advertising the opera contains elements that reinforce precisely these associations: a bullet, a boa feather and gold glitter. The message: if great emotions are to continue to have meaning in opera, sponsors are needed.
And who hasn't racked their brains over an upcoming car purchase? Audi quickly sent out pillows with the suggestion to simply sleep on it again. A mailing like this creates sympathy and perhaps even leads to sweet dreams - of the Audi A4, of course, if the makers have their way.
Gifts and other gadgets are often best suited to playing a movie in the recipient's head and awakening associations that help to convey a message in a sympathetic or humorous way. With the much-cited change in advertising - away from traditional means of communication and towards cross-media dialog concepts - parcel mailings are likely to increasingly take on a new function in the mix of advertising media.
Swiss Post helps door openersSwiss Post has also responded to the growing market demand and developed a new offer that makes sending parcels for advertising purposes more attractive again in terms of price. From a weight of 100 grams and a quantity of 500 units, parcels of the same weight and content can be posted as PostPac Promo. As a result, it is now once again possible to use parcel mailing as a door opener in the minds of consumers at a reasonable cost.
And something else was revealed in Cannes: In other countries too, for example in Spain, the parcel is used to get past the secretary. After all, she is the one who sorts the mail and therefore has a say in what is allowed to reach the decision-makers - and what is not. A parcel addressed to the boss, like the one for the Audi A4, clearly has a better chance of overcoming the tough selection hurdles in the secretary's office. Ralf Doller
Ralf Doller from Alex Schmid Direct, Zollikon, was a member of the jury at the
Cannes Lions 2005.
Messages in the box: Audi awakens dreams of the A4 with a pillow message (above), an opera company symbolically bottles great emotions to woo potential sponsors (left).
Want a permanent parking space? A magic box makes it clear how easy it is to make your car disappear.
