Direct Mail That "Makes You Look"

Remember when you were a kid and a friend would say to you "oh no, there's a spider on your arm!" Most of us would jump, do a thorough inspection, and make sure the coast is clear. Your friend would smile and say "made you look." That's the problem with direct mail pieces today, most can't persuade people to look. When I get a fancy envelope marked "important information inside" with a a picture of a slick car on one corner and a bulk mail stamp on the other, it goes into the circular file.

Today I got a direct mail piece (see photo above) that was very simple, yet very powerful. I received a little yellow envelope with a first class stamp and, what appeared to be, the address handwritten on the front. There was no return address, but it looked personal enough to make me open it and thoroughly inspect the contents.


Inside was a full page newspaper ad that had a Post-it Note that says "Kevin, Check this out, J." The newspaper ad was about "great savings" at a car sales event taking place locally(www.vipsalesevent.com/ghw, this is not an endorsement at all, but I had to give them a plug for creativity). A closer look found a direct match between the way my name was written on the envelope and the Post-it Note. A closer look still shows it was printed and not hand written at all. But these discoveries came long after I checked out the ad. This nifty trick "made me look."


In a world of bulk mail both online and reality, this was most refreshing. Yes, it was direct mail, but it didn't come across that way, which is really refreshing. If I knew who "J" was, I would love to shake his or her hand.