Direct Mail Case Study - Mar08

A DM that tastes even better than it looks

SingPost's DM specialist division DMrocket needed to make DMs palatable to more marketers so decided the best way was through their stomachs.

In April last year, the Singapore postal market was deregulated and SingPost, used to being a monopoly for years, was thrown into a competitive market over night. When SingPost contacted The Tomorrow Group, the brief was to produce a campaign that would pave the way for a stronger brand and business position in light of the emerging competition. As with all briefs, there was a more crass and down-to-earth side to it as well - to sell more DM campaigns.

Saving Private Ryan

SingPost has many loyal customers who are convinced of the benefits of DM. However, they are not necessarily going to use more DM than they already do. The objective then must be to reach marketers who don't use enough DM (from DMrocket's point of view) and to convince them that DM is the best medium for them.

Now, that was a big problem, of course. Every marketer knows what DM is. If they still do not subscribe to it, they have (rather they think they have) good reasons, not to use DMs.

In short, we are out to save a soldier who doesn't want to be saved. 

Two magic tricks

There were two tricks involved in this DM. The first was to create news value. Based on the client's brief we had to develop a DM that would announce the launch of SingPost's new DM specialist division, which is its one-stop DM-shop under its own brand, DMrocket.

The second was to create content value, so that even the most DM-reluctant marketer could prove to himself that DM works - if it works on him, it works on everybody.

Singapore = Food

The second matter we solved by asking: "What is an irresistible DM offer to a Singaporean marketer who doesn't believe in DM?"

We came up with a few choices, but one was obvious - good food. So, first we created the piece, then we contacted six restaurants to give us a good offer that we could actually use for the DM.

The restaurant Yen Dining and its sister bar, Oosh came up with such an offer - ‘Buy one lunch, get one' at Yen, and ‘buy one drink, get one' at Oosh.

And the rest was a piece of cake.

The results

The DM went out to 2,000 marketers and advertising agency people in Singapore in late July last year. During August, Yen increased their lunch visits by 40%. DMrocket got over 300 sign-ups on the new website.

For confidentiality's sake, I can't disclose how many new customers or how much business DMrocket got. The qualitative goal, however, to improve the SingPost brand value, was clearly reached in December when SingPost soared to 6th place (from 16th) in the DM agency category of Marketing's Agency of the Year Award in 2007.

A taste of success, if you ask me.

[Box out]

Objective: To prove the effectiveness of DM to people who don't (yet) use DM in their marketing mix.

Approach: To first ask: "what do people like", and then create an offer and a piece that would deliver to that.

Results: Yen Dining increased their lunches by 40%. DMrocket got over 300 sign-ups on the website, a well over 15% response rate.

Stefan Ronnquist

Creative Director and Group Managing Director

The Tomorrow Group