In mid-September, Imaginative direct mail pieces were sent to 2,200 leading UK brand owners and media decision makers as part of a European initiative to demonstrate the high degree of response which can be obtained with creative, sensory, direct mail.

The Print Power mailing comprises an attractive envelope, which is in fact a folded-up poster that holds a personalised letter, a chalked blackboard card, a reply card, and a reply envelope.

The blackboard card contains a hidden message which becomes visible once the chalk is wiped away. Leaving a print of their chalk-covered hand on the reply card allows the recipient of the mailing to obtain a personalised Moleskine notebook. The handprint is then scanned and printed on the cover of the notebook. The sense of touch is exploited to its extreme as even the hand print is printed in relief.

The Moleskine notebook is in fact, the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.

So far the mailing has been sent out in the UK, Spain, France, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Italy with remarkable results.

The UK has received just over a 10% return rate with replies still coming in. Portugal, Finland and Norway report a 13% return rate and Belgium and Italy score 15%. France has reported a 10% return rate on the mailing and Spain an astonishing 25% return rate. The normal return rate for this kind of mailing is between 0.5% and 1.0%. Over the coming months the mailing will be sent out to a further five countries across Europe

The DM piece continues to receive impressive response rates which reveal just how effective sensory qualities and imaginative mail campaigns can be. The final prize, a personalised Moleskin Notebook, belongs to the family of Moleskine objects which are partners for the creative and imaginative professions of our time. Many details of the Moleskine notebook, that customers tend to value most highly, require manual workmanship. 

Martyn Eustace, Country Manager for Print Power UK, says, “In a world where online and social media channels are very much the focus of media buyer attention, print is staging a comeback. Its special sensory qualities, particularly touch, just can’t be emulated on-line and, linked with a well-targeted and imaginative mail campaign, will deliver impressive results and, importantly, high ROI”