Direct mail case study: History Asia

History Asia’s first original reality competition series, Photo Face-Off, took on a different approach as part of its marketing efforts. In a bid to capture the essence of the series and to introduce it to the media, clients and affi liates in Asia, A+E Networks demonstrated how a picture truly speaks a thousand words.

The series, which premiered on 23 September 2014 at 10.30pm, featured five amateur photographers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam competing for the assignment of a lifetime – an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to photograph some of the world’s biggest stars as well as a trip to the Canon Photo Clinic in.

In each episode, the amateur photographers and professional photographer, Justin Mott, battled through three challenges – speed, theme and extreme, in their home countries. In the finale, the amateur photographers met in Taiwan and competed against each other for the final prize, with Mott as one of the judges. Leading up to the premiere, postcards of photographs by Mott and the amateur photographers were delivered to the media, clients and affiliates.

The photo postcards were delivered twice a week from the week of 11 August to the week of 1 September to introduce the series and the photographers with their photographs. Each photo postcard consisted of a description of the series or the photographers and a call-to-action to tune in to the premiere of Photo Face-Off on History Channel. A hashtag #PhotoFaceOff was also created and included in the photo postcards to encourage social media mentions.

There were many positive comments from the media, clients and affi liates, with some even requesting for high-res versions of the photos to use as computer screen savers, to reprint or to republish. The total regional PR value garnered for Photo Face-Off to date is more than US$1.2 million.

Objective:
To garner attention for its reality show.

Idea:
Postcards with photography by amateur photographers.

Results:
PR value of more than US$1.2 million achieved.

The writer is Hazel Yap, director of marketing communications, A+E Networks Asia.

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