A coalition has been formed by interested parties in the optical disc industry to help further the use of optical media for direct mail applications. DiscMail Direct will bring together a selection of relevant research and case studies to make the case that discs, including DVD, Blu-ray and CDs, can be a significant complement to traditional print direct mail by helping marketers integrate their digital properties with a physical piece of mail. The group is currently in the stage of signing up members, which it expects will come from all along the supply chain for home entertainment, including packagers, printers, box manufacturers, and replicators. DiscMail Direct, in cooperation with the DMA, is also launching the industry's first optical media direct mail research study. The formal launch of the group will be at the DMA Annual conference this fall in San Francisco which will coincide with a more coordinated outreach effort to ad agencies. “Ad agencies don’t understand that this isn’t a standalone disc,” says Guy Finley, who is the director of DiscMail Direct. However, optical discs can link with the Internet when inserted into a computer, which gives marketers a way to “keep recipients engaged and not out there with a competitor,” he continues. Finley points to the example of a parent who receives several Halloween costume catalogs. When it comes time to buy, however, the consumer simply goes online and types the name of the character costume desired by the child into a search engine and buys it from the list of results that come up. If one of the catalogers had included a disc with its catalog, however, the consumer could have reviewed the catalog online and clicked “buy” from there. “The goal is to be able to integrate a disc so that it keeps the end-user in the direct mail channel and doesn’t release them into the wild of the Internet,” says Finley. Another example is a disc with multiple sponsors on it, such as a specialty meat cataloger, a grill manufacturer, a cooking show and outdoor deck supplier. “The disc can direct consumers to an entire experience,” in this case about outdoor grilling, says Finley. The applications are very broad, he continues. Recent marketers who have used optical discs in direct mail campaigns include Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Disney, Finley reports. Another hurdle to gaining traction for optical discs that the coalition is trying to overcome is “the perception out there that this product has gotten stale,” says Finley. The marketing community still associates optical discs in the mailstream with AOL, which carpet bombed the nation a decade ago with software discs in an attempt to encourage people to sign up, he explains. However, the disc offers many of the same benefits that marketers are used to with digital advertising, such as analytics on par with SEM or e-mail analytics, the ability to take recipients to a personalized Web site and up-to-date offers. Combining a direct mail piece with an optical disc also makes sense from a cost-per-response basis, says Finley. “We’ve got a real edge in terms of digital,” he says, adding that “we think this is an option that extends the life of traditional direct mail.” Finley is also the director of membership services for the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance, which is a trade association for the service providers in the home entertainment industry and is managing the new coalition.